WORLD CREATION AND STORY DWELLING

Hillman Curtis
Principal and Chief Creative Officer of hillmancurtis.com, inc., a digital design firm in New York City

Previously, he was design director for Macromedia. He has published four books on new media design. Curtis was listed by the Internet Professional Publisher Association in its DesignerONE awards for 2001-2002 as one of the top ten web designers. He has designed sites for Yahoo, Adobe Systems, Aquent, the American Institute of Graphic Design, Paramount, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Metropolitan Opera and others. Canoë magazine called him le pape du Flash (the Pope of Flash) in 2000. Glide magazine labels him the “Michael Jordan of web design”. As a filmmaker he first gained notoriety with his online “Artist Series” — short documentaries on designers/artists including Phillip Glass, Milton Glaser, Paula Scher, Stefan Sagmeister, Pentagram Design Group, and the filmmaker Mark Romanek. He also has made several short dramatic films. In 2008, Curtis made a short documentary for the David Byrne and Brian Eno album Everything That Happens Will Happen Today and later directed the documentary Ride, Rise, Roar which chronicled the Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno Tour. Ride, Rise, Roar as well as several national commercials for Ogilvy/IBM, online commercial work for Rolling Stone, Adobe, Sprint, Blackberry and BMW and the popular documentary series“Artist Series”. He has also produced nine short narrative films; “Bridge”, was selected as one of only seven shorts for the GenArts 2009 festival in New York, “Embrace”, and “Spinal Tap” each won “Best Dramatic Short” Webby Awards. His books on design and film have sold close to 150 thousand copies and have been translated into 14 languages. Hillman Curtis’ work has been featured in numerous design publications worldwide. He has also lectured extensively on design and film related subjects throughout Europe, Asia and the USA. He was nominated for the Cooper Hewitt National Design award in 2009. Hillman’s work can be seen at:

• http://www.hillmancurtis.com/index.php?/film/view/short_films/
• http://www.hillmancurtis.com/index.php?/film/view/artist_series/

Jim Banister

CEO of SpectrumDNA Studioes, Inc., DNA Studios is based in Park City, Utah, developing web/wireless “engines of engagement,” including the SXSW-award winning wordplay engine, The Addictionary; the new white-label mobile-social networking engine, PlanetTagger; and the groundbreaking semantic web platform for building contextual browser apps, OptEngage. More at http://spectrumdna.com. Jim is also the author of the book “Word of Mouse: The New Age of Networked Media” (Agate Fine Print, August 2004). The common thread of Jim’s career is in engaging audiences through a mix of content and technology, and generating revenue doing it. He created and managed TRW’s Engineering Visualization Center; producing award-winning television and film programming; designed and built the multi-media and post-production system for Steven Spielberg’s Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Project; and created the XQuest television/cross-media franchise. He also spent five years at Warner Bros. Online, where he was a prime-mover in the company’s digital media strategy and programming development, first as VP Production & Technology, and ultimately as Chief Development Officer. After the AOL merger he was recruited to work with Yahoo founder Terry Semel.

Lorne Lanning
President / Creative Director / Co-founder, Oddworld

Lorne Lanning is an world creator, game designer, writer, and voice actor. He is co-founder and president of the legendary Oddworld. His creative vision in game design and property development at Oddworld Inhabitants has gained him worldwide recognition, including several documentaries and his character creations featured on the cover of Wired Magazine. Lorne is on the board of directors for The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences and also on the “advisory board to the president” for the San Francisco Academy of Art College.

Lorne’s professional training and career began in the early 1980’s at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. Here he studied photo-realism and commercial illustration but ultimately felt his visions were being constrained by the limitations of the still image. Lorne helped to support himself through school by working as studio manager and assistant painter to international fine artist, Jack Goldstein. The intellectual depth of Goldstein’s paintings and philosophy sparked Lorne to further pursue his interests in technology, film, visual effects, storytelling, and traditional and computer animation, by attending the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia CA. Lorne’s fascination with high technology and its implications to future mass media applications led him to pursue work with the TRW Visualization Center in Redondo Beach, California. Here he worked as technical director of computer animation on projects that visualized aerospace concepts and applications such as the SDI (Star Wars) program. Forever fascinated by the trail of high-end militaristic technology as it trickled into the commercial entertainment sector, Lorne pursued his interest by taking a position with Rhythm & Hues Studios in Hollywood, CA. Lorne chose Rhythm & Hues because of the cutting edge computer animated work they were doing in commercials, films, station ID’s, and with aerospace simulators for motion based ride attractions. While at Rhythm & Hues he worked through several career moves, which included roles of technical director, lead technical director, art director, creative director, and visual effects supervisor. Projects included network Station ID’s and feature films, as well as award winning commercials and motion based attractions for Euro-Disney, MCA/Universal, the Worlds Fair, Universal-Japan, Mazda, and Reebok. In 1994 he convinced long time computer graphics veteran Sherry McKenna (winner of over 30 Clio awards and numerous international film and television awards) to be the co-founder of a new video game development company, Oddworld Inhabitants. Inspired by the nature of property universes created by the likes of Tolkien, George Lucas, Jim Henson and Walt Disney. Oddworld has since been dedicated to creating the next generation of digital content by marrying traditional storytelling and animation sensibilities within its uniquely odd interactive universe. Their studio has attracted top video game and computer animation talent from around the world. Oddworld is a consistent developer of hit games that have garnered over 4.3 million units sold and over 100 industry awards including honors from illustration fantasy annuals, international film festivals, and the music industry. Oddworld has also co-produced two music video singles; both based upon the Oddworld universe. The first single went on to attain platinum record sales in Europe, while the second will be released in April 2002.

Brendan Boyle
Partner, Chief Creative Officer IDEO

Brendan Boyle is a Partner at IDEO, a leading design and innovation firm ranked independently as one of the most innovative companies in the world. Brendan’s role also has a special emphasis on Entrepreneurship, both inside and outside of the company. His focus is on creating intellectual property that IDEO develops, along with promoting entrepreneurial thinking and practices throughout IDEO’s eight global offices. He is also one of IDEO’s spokesmen: he is a highly requested public speaker, and has published articles on brainstorming and innovation in the workplace on ABCnews.com, and co-authored The Klutz Book of Inventions.

A passion for invention drives Brendan’s additional responsibilities at IDEO; he co-founded an invention company called Skyline, which was acquired by IDEO. Under his leadership, IDEO has since licensed over 125 toy, game and consumer product concepts with leading manufacturers. In 2007, Cranium’s Sounds By the Seashore, designed by IDEO, was nominated for a Toy of the Year Award by the Toy Industry Foundation.

In addition to his duties at IDEO, Brendan sits on the board of the non-profit National Institute for Play, where he focuses on bringing play-based techniques to innovation. He has also taught various classes in creativity and design at Stanford University as a Consulting Associate Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Design Division and was recently named Stanford Knight Favorite Professor. Currently, he teaches a class that he created in Stanford’s new d.School, called From Play to Innovation.

Brendan holds an MS in the Joint Program for Design from Stanford University, as well as a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan State.

At HATCH, Brendan Boyle of IDEO will speak about his new book, the KLUTZ of INVENTION, and how creativity and fun can change your corporate culture, no matter what you do.

The KLUTZ Book of Inventions, Authored by John Cassidy & Brendan Boyle
The Klutz credo is: Create wonderful things, be good, have fun

Drew Henry, General Manager, NVIDIA/GeForce products

Drew Henry is a computer graphics industry veteran with a passion for computer animation, digital photography & videography, and video games. He is currently with NVIDIA, the world’s leading provider of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) for PCs, Workstations, Gaming Consoles (such as Sony’s PS3), and smart phones. Drew is General Manager for the company’s GeForce Business Unit. GeForce is recognized globally as the best GPU for video gaming and digital media and ships in a very large percentage of the world’s PCs. Prior to NVIDIA, Drew was senior vice-president for marketing with iBeam Broadcasting, a pioneer of internet video and music streaming technologies for media companies like Disney, Paramount, Sony, MTV, NBC, and Launch.com. Prior to iBeam, he was vice-president and general manager for Silicon Graphics’ Visual Solutions Business Unit and was responsible for the company’s global computer graphics product lines serving a broad set of companies like Pixar, Industrial Light and Magic, BMW, Ford, GE Medical, and many other Fortune 500 corporations. Along with Jim Banister, Drew was also a founder of Animated Technologies, which eventually merged with Failure Analysis Associates, and specialized in producing three dimensional scientific and engineering computer animations and simulations. Early in his career, Drew designed electo-optical systems for satellites, which is where he first got started developing photo imaging simulators and computer graphics systems. He holds a MSEE in Electro-Optics from the University of Southern California and a BS in Engineering Physics from the University of the Pacific. Drew lives with his wife Susan and their two teenage daughters on the San Francisco peninsula where he also competes in open water swims. He’s currently training for his third swim from Alcatraz Island to San Franciso. Brrrr!

Joe Wilcox of IDEO

Joe Wilcox is a toy Inventor and works as a mechanisms specialist. Joe also worked as an industrial designer for NASA, and at M.I.T. Aero-Astro Lab where he designed and fabricated the first mockup of the BioSuit for Dava Newman at the Manned-Vehicle Lab. The finished suit was featured in Time Magazine, WIRED magazine, and Discover Magazine.

Michael Dowling, Chief Executive Officer / Co-Founder Intrepret

Michael Dowling is CEO and Co-founder of Interpret. Dowling drove the strategic vision for the launch of Interpret and has managed its explosive growth ever since. Dowling has spent his career successfully building new businesses in the entertainment and technology industries. Prior to co-founding Interpret, Dowling led the Nielsen Co.’s growth into emerging industries, such as video games, wireless and broadband content. During his tenure, Dowling led the efforts to consolidate seven separate companies covering the film, video, music and book industries. Dowling also successfully launched the Nielsen Co.’s video game unit, Nielsen Interactive Entertainment (“NIE”). A pioneer in new media and measurement, Dowling is widely acknowledged as a thought leader in understanding and optimizing emerging media. Prior to joining Nielsen Entertainment, Dowling co-founded and served as President & COO of iFUSE, a youth oriented media company that provided integrated marketing solutions to major advertisers, such as Evian, Nike, Fox, Warner Bros., Altoids, among others. iFUSE’s investors included Coca-Cola, Interpublic Group of Companies, Alloy, Inc., Odyssey LP and Cisneros Television Group. Dowling also served as President of Dali Media, an early-stage software development company, and drove the strategy to build an infrastructure to support massively distributed artificial intelligence for MMOGs. Dowling serves on the board of publicly traded SpectrumDNA, Inc. (“SPXA”)

Tim Daly
Creative Coalition

Perhaps best known as the Emmy-winning actor in the role of Joe Hackett on the TV series “Wings,” Tim Daly is now the President of the Creative Coalition, the leading nonprofit, nonpartisan social and public advocacy organization of the arts and entertainment community. Founded in 1989 by prominent members of the creative community, The Creative Coalition is dedicated to educating its members on issues of public importance, primarily the First Amendment, public education and arts advocacy. Headquartered in New York City, The Creative Coalition also has offices in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and San Francisco. The Creative Coalition does not endorse or raise funds for political parties or candidates. The Board of advisors for The Creative Coalition includes Lawrence Bender, Rob Lowe, Alec Baldwin, Kenneth Cole, Chuck D, Griffin Dunne, Michael J. Fox, Harvey Keitel, Lou Reed, & Robin Williams.

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