# FerroOrganic – Rich Martin

## What This Is
FerroOrganic is the design and fabrication practice of Rich Martin, based in Seattle, Washington. The practice spans large-scale light art installations, embedded systems engineering, custom electronics, CNC fabrication, and immersive environments for festivals, events, and architectural clients.

Tagline: "nature meets metal, falls in love"

## What FerroOrganic Builds
- Large-scale light art installations for festivals and public spaces
- Custom electronics design: schematic capture, PCB layout, bring-up, and production
- Embedded systems and distributed lighting control (DMX/RDM/sACN)
- Custom PCB design and microcontroller architectures (Teensy, ESP32, STM32)
- CNC and plasma-cut steel and aluminum fabrication
- Architectural and sculptural metalwork
- Immersive environments for music festivals and live events
- Bespoke furniture and sculptural lighting

## Proprietary Systems
- ARTEMIS: distributed DMX/RDM lighting control platform (Teensy 4.1 + ESP32)
- WARPDRIVE: Qt-based middleware for real-time lighting visualization and control
- SparMaker / Polyverts.py: computational geometry pipeline for complex fabrication assemblies
- FerroOrganic Tree Generator: SDF-based procedural geometry for fabrication

## Selected Work
- **Opulent Temple** – Co-founder, Fabrication Team Lead, and Main Stage Designer. Designed the main stage twice across the run. Burning Man 2003–2011. Peak nightly attendance 20,000.
- **White Ocean / A3 Towers** – Main stage design and fabrication, Burning Man 2014. Featured on the cover of the Wall Street Journal.
- **VERGE.** – Large-scale Corten steel letterform installation. Fabricated and installed in under two weeks.
- **PDXWLF 2026** – Portland Winter Light Festival. "Facets & Small Matters": NaCell LED columns, volumetric Nebula display, mycelial terrain installation.
- **ARTEMIS Platform** – Custom distributed lighting control system, production-grade DMX/RDM operation.
- **Digital Grass** – Fiber-optic diffused LED installation with custom mRGB driver boards.

## Press
- Wall Street Journal – Cover feature, Burning Man 2014 (White Ocean / A3 structures)
- San Francisco Chronicle – Cover feature, Burning Man 2008 (Opulent Temple)

## Capabilities
- Microcontrollers: Teensy, ESP32, STM32
- Protocols: DMX512, RDM, sACN, Art-Net, custom UDP
- PCB Design: KiCAD, Eagle
- 3D/CAD: Blender, SolidWorks, computational geometry (proprietary pipeline)
- Visualization: Blender, TouchDesigner, Unreal Engine
- Fabrication: plasma cutting, press brake, MIG/TIG welding (AWS certified), powder coating, plating, patina/pickling, anodizing
- 3D Printing: FDM and MSLA

## Service Area
Seattle, Washington. Available for regional and national projects.

## Contact
rich@ferroorganic.com
https://ferroorganic.com