Writer · Editor · Digital media
Daniel
Johanson.
I build websites and newsletters, tell stories about art and the people making it, and write dark fantasy.
Words.
Websites.
Strange worlds.
Usually I’m asking how something works, who’s doing the work, and how to make it easier to understand. Sometimes there are monsters.
01 / Selected work
What I’ve
been working on.
I write the copy, build the site, and work out how to keep it useful after it goes live. Here are a few of those projects.
01 / Founder · Editor · Producer
Scapi Magazine
I founded Scapi to cover Chicago artists and the communities around them. I write, edit, run the website, and cohost Scapi Radio with Maureen Smith.
Explore Scapi02 / Web · Newsletters · Operations
Complete Claims Service
I work on the website and newsletters, including service and coverage pages. The job is to explain what the company does in language its readers can use.
Visit the site03 / Web · Brand · Editorial
Debjo’s Boutique
I built the WordPress site and brand guide and developed The Debjo Edit’s newsletter format. I also work on turning interviews into articles and emails that still sound like Debbie.
Explore Debjo04 / Web · Brand voice · Email
Trigrd
I work on the WordPress and WooCommerce site, product and carry pages, and newsletters. The copy needs to explain the products and reflect the people behind the business.
Explore TrigrdAlso behind the mic
Scapi Radio is where Maureen and I talk with artists about their work. Scapi Studio is where you can find more of our performance and video work.
02 / Writing
Art. Labor.
And dark fantasy.
My journalism asks who makes things and what it takes to keep making them. My fiction follows people trying to live inside systems that ask too much of them. The Tekdek Chronicles is where that gets strange.
Debut novella / Complete manuscript
Split Corpses
In New Willowbend, the dead glow with Velvet Rot power. A cleric investigating the deaths, an assassin searching for her missing twin, and a spatial mage caught in a family feud confront a world that treats bodies as resources.
Manuscript inquiriesNext manuscript / Completed draft
Hollow Lives
Two years after New Willowbend, a lead on a missing sister draws Mignon and Dew into another plane. Above Emberville, the cloud city of Strata offers a comfort built on what it keeps out of sight.
Manuscript inquiriesSelected published writing / Scapi Magazine
Interview / 2021
This App is Helping Twitch Streamers Pay Their Mods
Twitch moderators do real work, often for free. I talked with Pally’s founders about a tool meant to help streamers pay them.
Labor & culture / 2019
Why is Scabby the Rat Scabby?
You’ve seen the giant inflatable rat. Here’s why he looks like that, and what he’s doing on a picket line.
Music & digital culture / 2021
This Band Released Their Album on a Playable Game Boy Cartridge
An album you can put in a Game Boy and play. I looked at what happens when a band makes the format part of the release.
A little context
A little more
about me.
I’m a writer, editor, and digital media specialist in Chicago, originally from Long Island. I came to this work through classical singing, recording, and research. I still like getting into the details and asking another question.
Scapi is a big part of that. There are people making interesting work all around us. I want to hear about it, understand it, and help other people find it.
Get in touchKeep exploring
Maureen Smith
Book ornament adapted from Pierre-Eugène Vibert’s Ground-ivy ornament (1913), public domain.
