DFTV.002 Speakers
Speaker biographies for DFTV002: AIGA Conference on Design for Film and Television, April 2001
Kurt Andersen
Kurt is author of the best-selling novel Turn of the Century (Random House, 1999), which the New York Times called "outrageously funny" and "the most un-clichéd novel imaginable," and The Wall Street Journal called a "smart, funny and excruciatingly deft portrait of our age." Now at work on his second novel, Andersen was a cofounder of Powerful Media, and is the host of "Studio 360," a weekly program about the arts and culture broadcast nationally on public radio. He has been a columnist for the New Yorker and was editor in chief of both New York and Spy magazines, the latter of which he cofounded.
Randy Balsmeyer
Randy and his wife and partner, Mimi Everett, founded Balsmeyer & Everett, Inc. in 1986. The New York–based motion-graphics firm is known for both the design of title sequences and for innovative visual effects. Balsmeyer pioneered the technique of location motion-control photography, and his longtime collaborations with film directors Spike Lee (Do The Right Thing, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X), the Coen brothers (Barton Fink, Fargo), David Cronenberg (Dead Ringers, Naked Lunch) and Robert Altman (Short Cuts, Pret-à-Porter) have yielded some of the most memorable titles sequences in film history.
John Canemaker
John is the director of the animation program for Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, and is an internationally recognized animator and animation historian. Canemaker has created designs and storyboards and directed animation for sponsored projects—for Warners, HBO, PBS and CBS, among others— that have won an Oscar, an Ace, a Peabody and several Emmys. His independently produced animated shorts are part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, and this year several of them will be made available on a Milestone home video/DVD. Canemaker is the author of eight acclaimed books on animation history, including the forthcoming Nine Old Men and the Art of Animation (Disney Press, fall 2001). He writes articles on animation regularly for the New York Times and Print magazine.
Pablo Ferro
Pablo has been hailed as a genius by Stanley Kubrick and described by Jonathan Demme as "the best designer of film titles in the country today." He has distinguished himself in film for more than three decades as a director, editor and producer specializing in graphic design, special effects, sequences and main titles, trailers and print campaigns. He has designed titles for scores of films including Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove and A Clockwork Orange, Gus Van Sant's To Die For and Psycho, and Hal Ashby's Harold and Maude and Being There. He has also collaborated seven times with Demme on films like Philadelphia and Beloved. Widely recognized as one of the preeminent forces in film design, Ferro was inducted into the Art Director's Hall of Fame last year.
Steven Heller
Steven, art director of the New York Times Book Review, has authored more than 70 books on graphic design, design history and political art. Recent titles include The Swastika: Symbol Beyond Redemption?, Graphic Design Time Line and Letterforms: Bawdy, Bad and Beautiful. He also cochairs the MFA/Design program at the School of Visual Arts in New York.
Lee Hunt
Lee manages the media and entertainment practice for Razorfish, where he focuses on exploring new platforms and technologies for clients like Arte, Columbia Tri-Star International, FOX International, HBO, RAI, SKY, Sony/Europe, Tele+, Universal/Vivendi and ZDF. Hunt joined Razorfish upon the acquisition of his company, Lee Hunt Associates, one of the country’s premier entertainment brand agencies. Hunt has created and designed more than 100 entertainment brands, and has won scores of awards. Hunt has helped launch such brands as Disney Channel, E! Entertainment Television, ESPN 2, the History Channel, the Learning Channel, MSNBC, PBS Kids, Toon Disney, TNT/Cartoon Network Asia and Turner Classic Movies.
Jeffrey Keyton
Jeffrey is responsible for all on-air design and off-air creative materials at MTV. His work and the work of his team has been widely recognized by many creative organizations including HOW magazine, AIGA, Art Directors, STA 100, Creativity and The One Show. He has won numerous BDA gold, silver and bronze awards including the 1994 Broadcast Design Association Judges Award for overall excellence in print, and most recently, the Mead Medal of Honor for the 1995 Video Music Awards program. Keyton has served on the board of directors for the Art Directors Club and Worldstudio Foundation. He is also an instructor for the senior portfolio class at the School of Visual Arts in New York.
Jonathan Notaro
Jonathon founded the Los Angeles–based design firm Brand New School in the summer of 2000 with the intention of introducing a new and innovative creative environment. After graduating from Cal-Arts with a Fine Arts degree, Notaro launched his career as a graphic designer, then art director, at Fuel/Razorfish in Los Angeles. He has continued to work for such high-profile clients as MTV, Sundance Channel, Citibank, Ernst & Young, UPS, DirecTV and American Express Blue. His work has been featured in I.D. magazine, Eye, designinmotion.com and Boards.
Beth Urdang
Beth is the founder and codirector of Agoraphone, an independent music research and production company in New York that provides sound design and musical scores for a variety of current and emerging media, including film, television, advertising and the Internet. Urdang was previously director of creative research at Wieden + Kennedy advertising in both Portland and Amsterdam as well as a freelance music journalist/editor. In addition to finding and producing music, Urdang also composes original music for projects.
David Wild
David catapulted into the commercial industry spotlight with Ten Second Films, his USC thesis, which he refers to as a sort of "Midwestern haiku." The huge popularity of the films led to other projects with MTV, most notably "WORK," a series of 30-second documentaries that profile people with unusual jobs, such as a while-you-wait tombstone service. Wild’s offbeat, humorous sensibility has continuously stirred the imagination of the commercial industry and has been utilized in spots selling a steadily growing range of products. He has garnered numerous advertising awards, including a DGA best commercial director nomination in 1997.
Tomato
Tomato is an internationally known, London-based film, TV and interactive motion-graphics design firm founded in 1991. An extensive client list ranges from Nike, Levi's and L'Oreal to the American Red Cross, the Victoria & Albert Museum, MTV and Volkswagen. The firm’s work has been published worldwide in the design press and has been the recipient of numerous prestigious design awards. Since 1997, Tomato has been a consultant to the British government and, in spring 2000, held the first of a series of international workshops on motion graphics in Tokyo.
| Kurt Andersen |
Kurt Andersen
Kurt is author of the best-selling novel Turn of the Century (Random House, 1999), which the New York Times called "outrageously funny" and "the most un-clichéd novel imaginable," and The Wall Street Journal called a "smart, funny and excruciatingly deft portrait of our age." Now at work on his second novel, Andersen was a cofounder of Powerful Media, and is the host of "Studio 360," a weekly program about the arts and culture broadcast nationally on public radio. He has been a columnist for the New Yorker and was editor in chief of both New York and Spy magazines, the latter of which he cofounded.
| Randy Balsmeyer | [ top ] |
Randy Balsmeyer
Randy and his wife and partner, Mimi Everett, founded Balsmeyer & Everett, Inc. in 1986. The New York–based motion-graphics firm is known for both the design of title sequences and for innovative visual effects. Balsmeyer pioneered the technique of location motion-control photography, and his longtime collaborations with film directors Spike Lee (Do The Right Thing, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X), the Coen brothers (Barton Fink, Fargo), David Cronenberg (Dead Ringers, Naked Lunch) and Robert Altman (Short Cuts, Pret-à-Porter) have yielded some of the most memorable titles sequences in film history.
John Canemaker
John is the director of the animation program for Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, and is an internationally recognized animator and animation historian. Canemaker has created designs and storyboards and directed animation for sponsored projects—for Warners, HBO, PBS and CBS, among others— that have won an Oscar, an Ace, a Peabody and several Emmys. His independently produced animated shorts are part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, and this year several of them will be made available on a Milestone home video/DVD. Canemaker is the author of eight acclaimed books on animation history, including the forthcoming Nine Old Men and the Art of Animation (Disney Press, fall 2001). He writes articles on animation regularly for the New York Times and Print magazine.
| Pablo Ferro | [ top ] |
Pablo Ferro
Pablo has been hailed as a genius by Stanley Kubrick and described by Jonathan Demme as "the best designer of film titles in the country today." He has distinguished himself in film for more than three decades as a director, editor and producer specializing in graphic design, special effects, sequences and main titles, trailers and print campaigns. He has designed titles for scores of films including Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove and A Clockwork Orange, Gus Van Sant's To Die For and Psycho, and Hal Ashby's Harold and Maude and Being There. He has also collaborated seven times with Demme on films like Philadelphia and Beloved. Widely recognized as one of the preeminent forces in film design, Ferro was inducted into the Art Director's Hall of Fame last year.
| Steven Heller | [ top ] |
Steven Heller
Steven, art director of the New York Times Book Review, has authored more than 70 books on graphic design, design history and political art. Recent titles include The Swastika: Symbol Beyond Redemption?, Graphic Design Time Line and Letterforms: Bawdy, Bad and Beautiful. He also cochairs the MFA/Design program at the School of Visual Arts in New York.
| Lee Hunt | [ top ] |
Lee Hunt
Lee manages the media and entertainment practice for Razorfish, where he focuses on exploring new platforms and technologies for clients like Arte, Columbia Tri-Star International, FOX International, HBO, RAI, SKY, Sony/Europe, Tele+, Universal/Vivendi and ZDF. Hunt joined Razorfish upon the acquisition of his company, Lee Hunt Associates, one of the country’s premier entertainment brand agencies. Hunt has created and designed more than 100 entertainment brands, and has won scores of awards. Hunt has helped launch such brands as Disney Channel, E! Entertainment Television, ESPN 2, the History Channel, the Learning Channel, MSNBC, PBS Kids, Toon Disney, TNT/Cartoon Network Asia and Turner Classic Movies.
| Jeffrey Keyton | [ top ] |
Jeffrey Keyton
Jeffrey is responsible for all on-air design and off-air creative materials at MTV. His work and the work of his team has been widely recognized by many creative organizations including HOW magazine, AIGA, Art Directors, STA 100, Creativity and The One Show. He has won numerous BDA gold, silver and bronze awards including the 1994 Broadcast Design Association Judges Award for overall excellence in print, and most recently, the Mead Medal of Honor for the 1995 Video Music Awards program. Keyton has served on the board of directors for the Art Directors Club and Worldstudio Foundation. He is also an instructor for the senior portfolio class at the School of Visual Arts in New York.
| Jonathan Notaro | [ top ] |
Jonathan Notaro
Jonathon founded the Los Angeles–based design firm Brand New School in the summer of 2000 with the intention of introducing a new and innovative creative environment. After graduating from Cal-Arts with a Fine Arts degree, Notaro launched his career as a graphic designer, then art director, at Fuel/Razorfish in Los Angeles. He has continued to work for such high-profile clients as MTV, Sundance Channel, Citibank, Ernst & Young, UPS, DirecTV and American Express Blue. His work has been featured in I.D. magazine, Eye, designinmotion.com and Boards.
| Beth Urdang | [ top ] |
Beth Urdang
Beth is the founder and codirector of Agoraphone, an independent music research and production company in New York that provides sound design and musical scores for a variety of current and emerging media, including film, television, advertising and the Internet. Urdang was previously director of creative research at Wieden + Kennedy advertising in both Portland and Amsterdam as well as a freelance music journalist/editor. In addition to finding and producing music, Urdang also composes original music for projects.
| David Wild | [ top ] |
David Wild
David catapulted into the commercial industry spotlight with Ten Second Films, his USC thesis, which he refers to as a sort of "Midwestern haiku." The huge popularity of the films led to other projects with MTV, most notably "WORK," a series of 30-second documentaries that profile people with unusual jobs, such as a while-you-wait tombstone service. Wild’s offbeat, humorous sensibility has continuously stirred the imagination of the commercial industry and has been utilized in spots selling a steadily growing range of products. He has garnered numerous advertising awards, including a DGA best commercial director nomination in 1997.
| Tomato | [ top ] |
Tomato
Tomato is an internationally known, London-based film, TV and interactive motion-graphics design firm founded in 1991. An extensive client list ranges from Nike, Levi's and L'Oreal to the American Red Cross, the Victoria & Albert Museum, MTV and Volkswagen. The firm’s work has been published worldwide in the design press and has been the recipient of numerous prestigious design awards. Since 1997, Tomato has been a consultant to the British government and, in spring 2000, held the first of a series of international workshops on motion graphics in Tokyo.
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