Jordan was born in the 80’s, but raised in the 50’s. His youth was remarkably low-tech, growing up under the tutelage of Grandpa Hassay, a draftsman and modelmaker. His childhood home was built on a failed “community of the future” on the Chesapeake Bay; the airstrip meant to service the personal airplanes that every modern family would be sure to possess was long overgrown, a lush forest of ruin and mystery.
While Jordan’s early mornings were spent swimming, fishing, and waiting for the hour-and-a-half bus ride to school, his long afternoons were for playing make-believe with his cousins and sister in every wooded copse and clearing they could reach. They built fortresses of branches, vines, and salvaged plywood. They played everything from sea-captains to space-revolutionaries on abandoned trucks and skipjacks, climbing trees and scraping knees. Without cable, computers, or even clear broadcast, he grew up inventing his own stories, and devouring books until he went cross-eyed.
Following the lead of his role models, he took to making things with his hands in the workshop. Following the lead of his heart, he also took to painting and drawing, to bring life and vision to the imaginary worlds he inhabited.
He moved to live with his father in Annapolis for high school. There, he fell in love with film and photography, and spent two years writing and shooting a feature with a his new best friends, ultimately becoming the local celebrities of their graduating class. They sold 400 tickets to their red-carpet premiere, which was the day before graduation.
After emerging from Towson University with a B.S. in Film and Electronic Media, he moved to Los Angeles, where he became a top-tier compositor for film and television for over a decade; he had found a way to engage both the technical and creative parts of his brain in a role he loved and excelled at. Though he’s worked on everything from polished Marvel features to quick-’n-dirty Sharknados, the credit he is most proud of is supervising the VFX remastering of all nine seasons of The X Files; from now on, whenever someone views this crucial and groundbreaking series, it will be his team’s work, a laborious balance of improvement and homage to the original.
With the excess of success in his career, he poured himself into creating extravagant experiences for his community, who had done so much to make him feel loved and appreciated in this vast city. There is The Fort, yes, but also the equally rich Wizard Anti-Christmas Party, his 12-top michelin-star inspired pizza nights (including a narrative pizza that tells the Hero’s Journey with each bite), and various one-offs that have brought delight and wonder in equal measure.
As an adult, he is an artist and a weirdo, a leader and a student, intensely whimsical, likes more things than he dislikes, and he’s quick to admit to mistakes. He values the pursuit of truth, internally and externally, both heard and expressed through myriad means. He values listening when the world tells you that it is time, yet again, to grow in a new direction.
With the changing landscape of the technical world, he has shifted his career to reinvest in the physical. It has always been his path to show people something new; returning to his roots in physical creation, he now seeks to do one better, and give people something new to live.
