Famouser

MICHAEL TABTABAI
www.michaeltabtabai.com * michaeltabtabai@gmail.com

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Interactive Creative Director, Modernista!
2008-present
Lead the interactive creative department, working across all clients. Interface with traditional senior leadership and ECDs to
ensure that interactive creative is on strategy in a fast-paced, collaborative environment. Manage creative expectations from a
creative team of approximately 25. Determine interactive creative goals and direction at a strategic turning point for the agency.

Interactive Art Director, Crispin Porter + Bogusky
2007-2008
Conceive and produce interactive and traditional advertising campaigns for world-class brands, with specific concentration and
leadership on Coke Zero and Nike accounts. Lead a small team of designers and copywriters during conceptual and production
phases, taking part in all relevant decisions while working closely with producers and vendors.

Creative Director & Partner, Nterface LLC
2006-2007
Oversee and participate in all aspects of web media development, from proposal to production to integration. Establish creative
direction in the social web space, with an emphasis on the development of forward-thinking social applications, tools, and
e-commerce solutions. Design and prototype user interface platforms that are intuitive and aesthetically progressive.

Interactive Art Director, Palm Pictures
2006 – 2008
Oversee conception and implementation of web strategies for Palm Pictures’ theatrical and retail film releases. Design and
maintain Palm Picture’s future web identity. Conceive, design, and implement compelling web experiences that accentuate and
extend individual directors’ vision. Primary activities include producing initial design concepts, overseeing subcontractors,
designing and producing advanced Flash development for the web.

Freelance Designer / Art Director
2005 – 2007
Produce and deliver client proposals, manage and organize subcontractors, conceive and produce new media and web projects
with an emphasis on engaging social experiences. Clients include: The American Museum of Natural History, Michel Gondry, Palm
Pictures, Warner Independent Pictures, National Geographic Films, Res Media Group, Directors Label, ESPN, Burger King, Reebok,
Nike, Everlast, and others.

Freelance Photographer / Director
2003 – 2005
Photographer/filmmaker with a specialization in viral music videos, live concert photography, promotional photography, and album
artwork for the independent music industry. Clients include Vagrant Records, Doghouse Records, among others.

SELECTED FREELANCE EXPERIENCE

Creative Director / Art Director, Wall of Human Expression Installation (WoHE), American Museum of Natural History
2006 – 2007
Visual concept and production of a compelling visual motion graphics installation for the permanent collection of the American
Museum of Natural History. Animate and deliver 3 minute narrative program comprised of graphic visual effects and curated
media from the museum’s archive. Measuring at 16’ x 8’, WoHE serves as a powerful visual and narrative conclusion to the
lessons of the museum’s newest exhibition wing, the Spitzer Hall of Human Origins.

Lead Creative / Art Director, Michel Gondry’s Dream Ether
2006 – Present (work in progress)
Conceive and implement a radically new online social network centered on the content of users’ dreams, and the inter-personal
connections made through the dreaming subconscious. Produced in collaboration with Michel Gondry, Barbara Barry (MIT Media
Lab postdoctoral associate), and Steven Baughman (fellow Parsons graduate student, and frequent collaborator).

Interactive Art Director, Directors Label Web Identity
2006
Created and implemented the visual and back end of the 2006 Directors Label web site (www.directorslabel.com). The widely
heralded brand presents the music videos of seven of world’s most sought-after directors, including Michel Gondry, Chris Cunning-
ham, and Spike Jonze.

SELECTED INDEPENDENT PROJECTS

BIKESPACE.NET, AN ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORK FOR CYCLISTS
2006 – Present
Constructed as a singular component of the Parsons MFA thesis requirements, BikeSpace.net was designed and constructed in
collaboration with Steven Baughman. The network was built from scratch utilizing PHP, MySQL, HTML, and Flash. Released as a
public alpha in late 2006, BikeSpace.net currently has over 1000 users, and was a semi-finalist in the TechStars.org national
grant competition. A beta release is scheduled for July, 2007.

MySpace Haxxors
2007 – Present
A series of experiments constructed around a custom MySpace scraper. These projects capture the information stored in the
MySpace databases, and recontextualize them in an attempt to make user interaction patterns more transparent, and to reveal
emerging patters in online behavior. Three projects have been released publicly, and the scraper will be released as a public API
for future community development in June 2007.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

PARSONS THE NEW SCHOOL FOR DESIGN
2007
Adjunct faculty, MFA Design & Technology department. Instructor, Creativity and Computation lab. Graduate-level introduction to
the fundamentals of programming and development for mobile platforms. Languages covered: Python.
2006
Instructor, Principles of Code. Introduction to the basic concepts of writing code for first year graduate students. Languages
covered: Java (Proce55ing), ActionScript
2006
Teacher’s Assistant, Mistor Resistor. Circuit-bending and electronics class where students hack electronics to create unique
musical instruments. The semester concluded with a live performance at Flux Factory, NY.

EDUCATION

PARSONS THE NEW SCHOOL FOR DESIGN
2005 – 2007
MFA Design & Technology program. GPA: 3.92, Dean’s scholarship recipient, graduated with high honors.

EMERSON COLLEGE
1997 – 2001
BA, double-major, film production and theater studies (acting). GPA: 3.7, Dean’s list, Gold Key National Honor Society.