My name is Pete Arden, and I’m a native New Yorker. Like my better-known namesake, Peter Parker, I grew up a bright kid in Queens and moved to Manhattan in my early 20s. Unlike him, however, I did not acquire super-powers, fight crime, or become a photographer for the _Daily Bugle_.

I was a marketer and product development manager in the music industry during the early and mid 1990s¹, but became terribly unimpressed by the whole thing after about six years. Heading back to school (older and wiser), I took a bachelors degree at New York University's Gallatin division, where my self-designed major focused on history, philosophy, and psychology. (I was trying to understand the cognitive basis of scientific discovery -- and in particular, the interplay between knowledge, experience, and intuition in that process.)

I seriously considered becoming a doctoral student, but decided to join the Gold Rush of the late '90s instead, first at Organic Media (a pioneering interactive marketing agency) in New York, and later at a series of startups in the Bay Area just as the wave was cresting. Good times.

In 2005, after a few more twists and turns², I concluded a nearly four-year engagement at PlanetOut Inc., where I was responsible for product planning, user experience design, and Web development, and set out to figure out what to do next. First on my list was to take a cool trip to Southeast Asia (Flickr album) from which I didn't really want to return. And in fact, I went back again a year later took even more pics (ibid.).

On returning, I began taking on a variety of freelance and contract gigs under the rubric of Hex15 Consulting. I've been fortunate to have some incredible clients over the past few years, including The Walt Disney Co., MMORPG publisher NCsoft, and MediaZone (for whom I produced the 2007 Rugby World Cup premium video site -- an immensely exciting project for this retired scrumhalf).

I enjoy hearing from anyone who finds something interesting on these pages, but comments have unfortunately been turned off because I just don't feel like spending an hour of my day pulling weeds. Just contact me via this page or at pete(at)petearden(dot)com.

¹ First at Island Records (pre-Def Jam), then Uptown Records (post-Puffy), then back to Island-distributed indie label Gee Street Records. ↩

² Namely, running the marketing department at comic-book retailer NextPlanetOver.com and leading product development for Hasbro’s Games.com. ↩