Connect + Collaborate with Cozy Founder aLEX Berardi-Hawley
I'm Lex; creative collaborator, idea enthusiast, experience designer, and the eccentric soul you'll be glad you brought along for the ride.~
I love getting my hands into the messy beginnings of an idea, finding the interesting connections, and helping turn those sporadic musings into something feasible, distinctive, and genuinely worth doing.
Think of me as the wealthy duke's hermit of the estate— tucked away in some wonderfully peculiar corner, surrounded by projects, books, and vast amounts of inspiration, ready to help bring your grandest schemes to life!
Tell me what you're dreaming up, we'll figure out what it could become!
What can we make together?
Creative direction & concept development
You have a vision, but the pieces haven't quite come together yet. Let's explore the possibilities, develop the concept, and find the through-line that makes it unmistakably yours.
From unconventional business ideas and community experiences to products, creative projects, and delightfully strange experiments, I can help you get from “wouldn't it be cool if…” to “wait, we can actually do this!”
Experience design & community building
What do people feel when they encounter your business, attend your event, use your product, or become part of your community?
I love thinking about the human side of the experience: what makes someone feel welcome, what gets them curious, what brings them back, what makes you/your brand feel accessible to them, and what turns a passing interaction into a meaningful connection.
Together we can explore event concepts, community programming, customer journeys, engagement, retention, and the little details that make an experience memorable!
Brand identity & creative projects
Your brand is more than a logo, and your story deserves more than another template.
I can help develop concepts, shape messaging, brainstorm campaigns, organize creative assets, refine your online presence, and find ways to communicate what makes your work different. I enjoy the playful, the unconventional, the heartfelt, and the things that refuse to fit neatly into a box.
Want some fun and new grassroots engagement? That’s where we party.
Operational flow & thoughtful optimization
Sometimes the vision is excellent, but getting there is unnecessarily complicated.
I enjoy examining how a process, space, project, or customer experience works in practice; where people get stuck, what's being overlooked, and where a small change could make everything feel more intuitive.
I find better workflows, clearer instructions, more accessible experiences, improved product presentation, and systems that work with people rather than against them.
Research, resourcefulness & bringing people together
I don't believe every great idea needs to be built by one person.
I enjoy researching possibilities, finding unconventional solutions, identifying useful resources, and connecting people whose skills and interests complement one another. My entrepreneurial network extends well beyond my own projects, so if your needs reach beyond my particular expertise, I may be able to help you find the right person!
Sometimes, the most valuable thing I can bring to a project is knowing what to ask, where to look, and who else should be in the room.
What working together looks like
I'm especially suited to the early, exploratory, and collaborative stages of a project: the moments when you're full of ideas, need a sounding board, or want someone who can see both the creative possibilities and the practical steps between here and there.
Depending on your needs, we might:
Brainstorm and develop a concept together.
Review an existing project, brand, space, or experience and identify opportunities.
Map out a project into manageable, actionable stages.
Collaborate on creative direction, messaging, programming, or presentation.
Research options and connect with relevant resources or collaborators.
Help an existing project find fresh energy, clearer direction, or a more thoughtful experience for the people it serves.
I value collaborative work, candid conversations, curiosity, and the freedom to explore an idea before deciding what it needs to become. I also appreciate clear expectations, honest communication, and knowing when a project needs expertise beyond my own.
I'm not here to pretend I know everything. I'm here to bring what I do know, ask the questions that move things forward, and help find the people and resources that fill in the gaps!
A little proof of concept
I tend to measure creative work by what it makes possible, not just by how impressive a number looks on a dashboard.
My experience spans building Cozykins from the ground up, developing creative concepts and online resources, producing community events, creating written works, coordinating collaborations, and exploring ways to make businesses and shared spaces more engaging and human.
I've built projects from scratch, worked alongside talented artists and entrepreneurs, developed programming for different audiences, and learned to navigate the many moving pieces between an idea and its ultimate, final reveal.
You'll find examples of my work, writing, projects, and creative experiments throughout this site, and my pages across platforms. I’ve done everything— from serving as an extra in the backgrounds of a couple commercials and music videos, grinding out 124 templates for a landlord with commercial tenants, ghost-writing sections of fiction and nonfiction, working the cameras and A/V board in broadcasting, all the way to animal wrangling for tours & parties, feeding large exotics (lions, tigers, & bears, oh my!) serving as a trip guide for curious entrepreneurs incorporating spiritual elements into their work, and helping folks actually start and begin scaling their businesses.
So, what are you dreaming up?
Maybe you have a business that needs a fresh perspective? You're developing an event, rethinking a customer experience, building a community, or sitting on an idea you can't stop thinking about…
Or maybe you don't know exactly what you need yet. That's all right, too!
Bring me the idea-vomit. All the sketches, voice notes, the tangled thoughts, the this might be completely ridiculous, but… brainstorming you’ve done.
Let's find the interesting bits, figure out what they're asking to become, and see what we can build together. Your imagination doesn't have to arrive organized; that's part of the fun!
Let's talk about your project.

