CharbelA. Zeaiter
I never fitted either world, so I built three. Then the ventures. Then the songs.
Writer & educator & founder & designer & songwriter &
My first business was in 1988 - a deli in inner city Sydney. I was a chunky, pimply 21-year-old just out of hotel management, and I'd just walked out of an illustrious 2-week career in hotels (because of my penchant for Japanese deconstructionism).
I've been building ever since, and one idea runs through all of it: as you build something, it builds you back.
“The moment you stop asking who you are, you’ve accepted someone else’s answer.”
Momo Jr., Momo & Yeti
The multipotentialite is a series of ampersands.
I’m adding an ampersand to who I am. My life has turned into a collection of ampersands.
I build across branding, education, storytelling, product design, music, and fiction, and the range isn’t a distraction. It’s the point.
Tap one to see the work it made
Writer. Momo & Yeti, Dino Loco and Kith9, and Gospel of You.
Educator. Faster Zebra: the kits, the community and the app.
Founder. Faster Zebra and Velvet Onion & Friends.
Designer. Velvet Onion & Friends, and the apps and games.
Songwriter. Every album released as Charbel X.
The work
Three worlds · three doorsDoor 01Story worlds and their music
Momo & Yeti
A found family of monsters in a city that wants everyone to forget who they are.
momoandyeti.com ↗
Dino Loco
A T-Rex lawyer defends a Stegosaurus accused of stealing 17 fern smoothies.
dinoloco.com ↗
Kith9
Nine young people protect nine real places under real threat. Only the coin is invented.
kith9.com ↗
Swipe for more →
Every world
has a sound.
Words and music by Charbel A. Zeaiter, released as Charbel X. Press play and read along.
Kith9 is on its way.
Ten original tracks: the title song, Beasts, Trees, Bees & Seas, and one song for each of the nine guardians. Follow on Spotify and it'll land in your feed the day it drops.
“You bring you. I bring me.”
Faster Zebra
As you build something, it builds you back.
Playbook and Workbook, from $97
People building together
In the works
Velvet Onion | The House of BetterDoor 03We make things better by making better things.
We design and build apps, games and story worlds of our own, and we build the same way of making into your team.
The distance from idea to app has shrunk from weeks to days.
We bring the system. Your team brings the judgement.
The system Velvet Onion installs inside design and product teams, so your designers spend less of the week on production and more of it on research, problem solving and invention.
Meet Brigid ↗
5The agencyBrigid, for your team
4Knowing selfGospel of You
3Learn and buildFaster Zebra
2MovementDino Loco, F*it, Kith9
1Story worldsBooks, screen and music
GThe loungeWhere the tour starts
A few things I believe
Six beliefsI refuse to let people get away with thinking that they’re not powerful.
-
01
Recognise potential.
See the possibilities in people, ideas and situations, and find ways to bring them to life. Sometimes all it takes is a different perspective to reveal what something could become.
The story under it
At a talk in Sydney, a woman in the audience asked me, “What’s the point?” I asked her what she loved. Her answer became a dinner group, then a moving feast, then everyone bringing something they’d grown, then a quarterly weekend on a farm.
-
02
We’re a series of ampersands.
The range isn’t a distraction. It’s the point.
Back to the ampersands ↑ -
03
As you build something, it builds you back.
It goes deeper at Faster Zebra ↗ -
04
We make things better by making better things.
It goes deeper at Velvet Onion ↗ -
05
Genuine success is shared.
Success is measured by the value we create for others as well as ourselves. It’s about building businesses, teams, relationships and communities where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.
The story under it
When a gambling machine company came to the studio with work, I took it to the team. They said no too.
From Built Back
-
06
Peace is the secret to happiness.
Happiness comes from finding a deeper sense of peace and contentment, independent of life’s changing circumstances. It’s about living with meaning, appreciating the present and making room for what truly matters.
The story under it
When people tell me they feel powerless, I ask them: how is your peace at home? How do you resolve the conflicts within yourself, and within your family? Is there somebody in the neighbourhood who could do with help?
Orion’s headstone · Momo & Yeti, Book 1: Death, Dawn & Other Inconveniences ↗“Took every breath,
lived every second,
embraced every experience;
It was awesome.”
Products I'm creating now
Five apps and games
Gospel of You
Faith, with the fine print removed.
One voice a day from every tradition that ever looked up at the sky. María and Jesús argue it out, you get one question and one thing to try, and every night's answer becomes a verse in a book with your name on it.
Get the link at theunfuckery.com↗Coming to iPhone and Android.
Twelve books, fifteen traditions, one of you.
From the app · swipe
You're a Dinonaut.
Wild dinos wander the real map around you, and you walk to them to meet them. Your steps power everything.
Try taming one
Carnivores want steak, herbivores want berries, and every dino wants a head pat in between.
Every street has a song, and Kith9 helps you hear it.
Kith9 turns your own street into a wild world. You point the guardian’s lens at real living things around you, like the lorikeet on the fence, the gum tree or the bees in the jasmine, and every find grows your own rainforest, reef or savanna, which keeps growing while you’re at school.
Everything alive in your patch plays a part in your song, built from the Kith9 album and mixed by you, so the more you notice, the better your world sounds. When Rutherglen’s drones start turning the music down, you team up with your guardian and their companion to outwit them and win it back.
Early concept screens · swipe
F*it, get f*it.
Strength training from 50 up, coming to iPhone first. No calorie counting, ever. A six-week pilot for about 30 people is taking names.
Call bullshit on a cliché · tap the card
From the app · swipe
Faster Zebra, on your phone.
Short lessons from the playbooks, one real action a day and a belief to flip. Zed, the coach, remembers your business. Launching January or February 2027.
From the app · swipe
What would you build if it awakened all of you?
Come
say hi.
If you’re building a business, a story or an idea that won’t leave you alone, I’d love to hear about it.
Good things come to those who make.