High Impact Angeleno: Douglas Campbell
Doug Campbell
Cofounder of Synn Labs, Mindshare, and Project Fresh
At the age of seven, ProjectFresh founder Douglas Campbell was uprooted from his familiar life in Washington DC by his eccentric Italian mother and relocated to the UK. The next decade was spent living between the solitude of the English countryside, historic central Rome and captive within the strict English boarding school system. His experience at Harrow, whose alumni include Churchill and Nehru, threatened to crush his spirit, while also having a profound impact on his future.
After being freed from the system in 1998, Campbell returned to the United States to attend the prestigious - and intensely progressive - Rhode Island School of Design. Like his childhood experience, the severity of this juxtaposition cemented a dynamism that he would bring into all of his future projects.
After graduating from RISD in 2002, with a BFA in Product Design combined with an unofficial minor in web design, Campbell continued to live in Providence, working as a freelance designer. After a couple of years, sparked by a deeply imprinted drive to explore, he left Providence and began a series of journeys throughout the US, Mexico and Asia, paid for by his web work. It was on these travels that he discovered his joy of writing - and unique style of documenting the odd characters and scenarios he found himself surrounded by.
Eventually in late 2005 he settled in Los Angeles, a city he’d come to love for its acceptance of bizarre, hard-to-define characters; a place of endless recreation. He had found a place to call home.
Over the course of the next few years Campbell has undertaken a series of acclaimed projects, centered around building community, sharing inspiring ideas, showcasing fascinating characters, raising awareness for global issues and celebrating what it means to be alive.
