Scott Ballum

Founder/Director, Sheepless Co.

Scott Ballum is a writer, designer, entrepreneur and sustainable small business advocate. He is the founder of the media collaborative Sheepless Co., and the web-based magazine Sheepless.org.

Scott is recognized for writing on the intersection of creativity and social responsibility as it applies to design, consumerism, and entrepreneurship. He is a contributing writer to The Huffington Post and PSFK, and his editorial work has recently been featured in Objects-Journal of Applied Arts (Germany), LINO Magazine (Australia), Resurgence (UK), and ChangeThis.com.

In 2005, Scott created ConsumeRevolution, a self-published magazine exposing a growing complacency with globalization and consumerism and offering viable alternatives to a “mass-produced” lifestyle. In 2008, he pushed the idea further with the ConsumeReconnection Project, a year-long online journal about his efforts to meet the laborers and craftsmen who made everything he bought, with a focus on traceability, buying local, and conscious consumption. These endeavors have been featured in GOOD Magazine, Adbusters, Resurgence (UK), Step Inside Design, and All Things Considered on NPR, among others.

Other media projects include work for the Art Directors Club, School of Visual Arts, Parrish Art Museum, MIX Film Festival, and the Brooklyn Food Coalition. Scott was previously a Senior Designer at C&G Partners–creating identity projects for Signature Theatre Company and Alhurra Television Network, among others–and Design Director for Housing Works, Inc. Scott has received design awards from the Art Directors Club, GD USA, and the School of Visual Arts, and was honored in AllDayBuffet's inaugural NewYork100.

He is a proud and active alumnus of SVA, and member of Common Spaces and The Bakery. Scott splits his time between Brooklyn, NY, and San Diego, CA.

 
Recent Contributions
Video
August 25, 2010
We're hitting the road! Sheepless founder Scott Ballum is driving from California to Maine—and back—to discover innovative and unique small businesses wherever they may be. Read more about the idea...
Short
August 24, 2010
It's been many months since I've published an update on the status and the direction of Sheepless.org. To be frank, as I near the one-year mark of publishing online in this venue I find myself, and...
Short
August 10, 2010
When a big box store in Mesa, AZ, shuttered its doors for the last time, it was not celebrated in the way some communities rally for the closing of a Walmart Superstore. In fact, in its last days,...
Short
August 4, 2010
I was late to the game of discovering the work of activist, writer, educator, and publisher Jen Angel. I first saw her speak in 2008 at Bluestocking Bookstore in New York City's Lower East Side,...
Project
July 24, 2010
We're hitting the road! Sheepless founder Scott Ballum is driving from California to Maine—and back—to discover innovative and unique small businesses wherever they may be, and documenting the trip...
Feature
July 13, 2010
There's a neighborhood I've heard about, with the most remarkable sense of community. On one block there's a giant warehouse outfitted for woodworking, photo studios, computer rooms, and painters...
Video
June 28, 2010
Nestled in between vacant warehouses and bustling industrial yards, 3rd Ward offers both a playground and a serious workshop for creative professionals in Brooklyn, NY. The space houses photo...
Video
June 15, 2010
Alive Structures is a unique landscape design firm, grown out of the recent interest in increasing green spaces in urban environments and the long-term benefits of green roofs. We talked with the...
Video
June 14, 2010
Sheepless.org champions the small businesses that make our communities more sustainable, accessible, creative, and fun.
Short
June 8, 2010
Kyle Abraham's company, indeed his work is unlike most others. He's a young and talented dancer and choreographer from Pittsburgh, PA, who performs regularly around the country. He recently presented...
Feature
June 2, 2010
As easy as it was to schedule a meet up with Cafe Moto owner Torrey Lee, it’s much harder to pin down a description of his business. The list includes solar power, social responsibility, sustainable...
Short
May 20, 2010
Yeves Perez has a distinct vision for San Diego, arguably sparked by a singular horrific meeting with a potential real estate investor who asked, in completely sincerity, “What are you planning to do...
Project
May 12, 2010
On Monday, May 10, Sheepless.org hosted a reception and video screening at Green Spaces in Tribeca, NY, honoring the small businesses and organizations we've profiled over the past year, and...
Video
May 12, 2010
Jessica Stockton Bagnulo and her partner Rebecca Fitting opened Greenlight Bookstore in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY. We talked to her about the place for independent bookstores in...
Video
April 6, 2010
In our first video profile, we talk to Taylor Mork, Co-owner of Brooklyn and Chicago based Crop to Cup Coffee Company.Video not loading correctly? Watch it here on the Sheepless.org Vimeo Channel....
Short
March 31, 2010
Those in creative cultural centers like parts of New York and Brooklyn might take for granted the community of artists and designers around them, and the opportunities for networking and...
Short
March 26, 2010
When Damian Possidente was laid off from the architecture studio he worked at one year ago this week, he took it as an opportunity. The main focus of his work had been affordable, sometimes...
Short
March 24, 2010
One of the things that characterizes this new school of entrepreneurship is the willingness, or desire, to see other folks working in our industry as opportunities for collaboration and inspiration,...
Feature
March 22, 2010
San Diego’s Velo Cult looks the part of a really hardcore, if somewhat trendy, bike shop and it’s owner, Sky Boyer, appears the quintessential bearded gear-head. But anyone who keeps walking when...
Short
March 9, 2010
Emily Green moved to Lima, Peru in August 2008 to start a business, without a real idea of what it was going to be or how it was all going to work out.