Aric Mayer, MFA, MBA

Creative Enterprise | Strategic Finance | Marketing Leadership

Work

Founder, Physis + Agency

2019-Current

Building a world where everyone who has access to cannabis products has the education to know how cannabis works.

A chalkboard with the words 'PHYSICS + AGENCY' written on it and a black sign below reading 'HOW CANNABIS WORKS'.

Creative Ecosystems

2019-Current

A unified model that works at the individual, enterprise, and municipal scale to strategically evaluate, plan for, and achieve creative growth.

Circular diagram on a blackboard with sections labeled Enterprise Enablement, Social Trust, Community Connectedness, Resources, Density, and Classification, each containing related bullet points. Outer ring labeled Institutional Artworld, Sophistication Venues, Size, Segments Size, and Creative Retail.

Marketing the Arts

2012-Current

Tsutakawa: Generations—a Flow of Water, Form, and Light

A case study.

Triptych of art: left panel features vertical black ink brush strokes on white paper; middle panel shows modern outdoor metal sculpture with jagged edges and water feature; right panel displays circular hanging light fixture made of honeycomb-shaped panels, with the text "SJIMA San Juan Islands Museum of Art" at the bottom.

MBA Consulting Capstone, Western Washington University

2013-Current

Create and lead a six-month MBA capstone experience that starts with an integrative curriculum-wide framework review, then application in original teaching cases derived from consulting projects, and culminates in a strategy consulting project.

Blackboard with Venn diagram showing company, customers, and collaborators intersecting at OVP. To the right, there are mathematical formulas written in chalk, including ratios and percentage expressions.

Arts Enterprise and Cultural Innovation, Western Washington University

2015-Current

An undergraduate minor that functions as a two-year accelerator for emerging creative professionals.

Person with glasses adjusting DJ equipment in a dark room with pink lighting.

Founder, Cake Machine

2012-2023

Bringing the strategic core of an MBA—strategic finance and strategic marketing—to artists and creative businesses who want to learn and grow their enterprise at the same time.

A workspace with a MacBook laptop, a red notebook, a ruler, pens, a compass, a pink eraser, an open diagram on paper, a black pen, and a mechanical pencil on a wooden surface.

Co-Founder, Hopela

2011-2014

Time to apply that MBA. Built a payment processing system. Piloted a mobile based giving platform. Created a new category in the Apple Store.

Flyer with a smartphone displaying Hopela's mobile giving app, including buttons for 'Scan to Give', 'Play by Number', and 'Find'. The flyer describes how donors can give at events via mobile, with features like custom codes and web integration, and provides contact information for Hopela.

A Pivot and an MBA

2010-2012

Realized that systems of making and distribution are more powerful than images. Time to get an MBA and learn how to build companies.

Chalk drawing of a baseball field on a blackboard, showing bases and a dotted path representing a baseball game.

Home and Wildness

2007-2012

Excursions at the edge of suburbia.

A muddy, waterlogged footpath running through a wet, overgrown area with dead grass and sparse trees in the background.

The Studio Museum in Harlem

2006 & 2008

Commissioned work that follows up on Hurricane Katrina, seeking the intersections between place, time, and nature in Harlem.

Empty outdoor playground with a blue metal checkerboard table in the foreground, a circular brick garden bed with dried plants, there's a basketball hoop and slide in the background, and a large multi-story building and residential buildings surrounding the area.

Aesthetics of Catastrophe

2005-2011

Covered Hurricane Katrina with a Hasselblad Superwide. Solo exhibition. Lectures. Journal publication.

Flooded area with trees and overturned vehicle submerged in water, debris, and damaged structures in the background.

A Wilderness My Own

2002-2005

Photographic vision quests into America’s most extreme environments.

Colorful desert mountains at sunset with pink and purple sky

New York Underground

2004-2006

Every day millions of New Yorkers, in whatever condition they are in, enter dirty, broken, badly lit compartments and spend time together in what is probably the most unifying aspect of the city, the New York City subway.

Two women sitting on subway seats; one appears deep in thought holding a water bottle, the other looks attentively ahead with hands clasped.

Time Inc.

1997-2004

Imaging team leader at People Magazine, the most profitable print magazine in history.

A collection of People magazine covers from various years, featuring celebrities, royalty, and notable figures.

Paintings

1994-2001

The ground immediately in front is dimly lit. Something calls from beyond the horizon. Between here and there is uncertainty and darkness.

Close-up of a scratched and dirty metallic surface, with a bright circular reflection at the center.

Pratt Institute

1994-1997

MFA in Painting. Produced city-wide exhibitions. Built community. Gave commencement address.

A shirtless person standing with their back to the camera in a dark, narrow brick-walled space, with a ladder and some equipment visible.

A Descent into the Unconscious

1993-1994

Slide into a pool of dark water. Take a flashlight into the basement. Walk outside in the night. These paintings got me into the MFA in Painting program at Pratt Institute without an art degree.

Black and white painting of a skull with dripping paint on a dark background.

Select Clients/Collaborators

Acme Ice Cream

Amazon

Arte

Bomb Magazine

Camber

Columbia Journalism Review

Fashion Institute of Technology

Fight or Flight

Fortive

Hearst Magazines

The Jansen Art Center

McSweeney’s

MTV Networks

Northwestern University

Pratt Institute

Pocket Universe

San Juan Islands Museum of Art

Saturna Capital

Sony Entertainment

Studio Museum in Harlem

Theo Wanne

Time Inc

University of Heidelberg

Urban Impact

Western Washington University

WeWork

The Wall Street Journal