AMI (AHH-MEE), SHORT FOR AMITAI (AHH-MEE-TIE)
I am a NYC native creative with a background in Art Direction, Design, Illustration & Animation who currently resides in ATX.
Growing up, I soaked in a city full of stimuli —transit systems, graffiti, music, architecture, the endless diverse mass of humanity—that influences who I am as a creative & an individual.
I attended Parsons School of Design where I learned, among many things, the importance of developing ideas along with imagery, starting with pencil on paper & a piece of inspiration. It was also there that a teacher named Warren Linn instilled in me the love of working in sketchbooks & capturing my thoughts & experiences as I have them.
I spent my junior year in Jerusalem, attending Bezalel School of Art & Design. Inspired by the the unique and historic texture of the city, I shot my first analog animation, learned & created amongst those with very different perspectives from what I was used to.
My senior year I spent sequestered in the computer lab, with a new-found love of Adobe Illustrator & Photoshop to draw & paint digitally & the desire to master Macromedia Director—which allowed my creations to become part of a non-linear, moving story.
I graduated in the Spring of 1995, took a 4 hour HTML class (which pretty much covered everything at that time) & went out into the world. It was the dawn of the digital marketing era & I found myself in a unique position—an Illustrator/Designer with a combination of traditional skills & electronic know-how. After a few months working freelance projects with small interactive shops, I found myself whisked away to Sardinia, where I spent a year working on CD-ROM games & interactive TV.
Upon returning to NYC I began work for the boutique ad agency Grybauskas Beatrice, primarily for their fledgling digital wing—Blue Dingo. It was a grand time of experimentation in digital media. Without much established precedent in the field, I worked as a Designer on a team that created successful, award-winning web-based experiences for clients such as Chef Boyardee & Tommy Boy Music.
After a couple of years of agency life I struck out on my own—directing interactive & motion projects, working as an art director, illustrator, designer, animator & even sometimes developer. During the tech bust of 2000-2001, I went back into traditional media, working with fashion brands such as American Eagle Outfitters & ENYCE & television animation projects for Bravo, PBS Kids, Cartoon Network—to name a few.
In the mid 2000s I began to circle back to the Agency world, working as a freelance art director & animator for shops such asMRM, Oglivy, Grey & AQKA. My stint at AKQA stuck & eventually went on staff. There I worked with an amazing team to create a number of great digital experiences for ESPN, Dos XX, Coca-Cola. My tenure there culminated in leading the production of Coke's Happiness Factory: Now Hiring—the highly awarded immersive interactive digital extension of their Happiness Factory films created by Psyop.
Following AKQA, I spent some time at JWT & then moved to Euro RSCG (Now Havas) where I led projects from site builds, to interactive experiences, to video shoots, digital ads (of all sorts), brand building & print. What was particularly unique about that experience was the breadth of clients that I worked with. My stint was filled with clients from the CPG space that I was familiar—Triscuit, Dos XX, Heineken. Eventually I branched out, working closely with Volvo production folks to creative beautiful, interactive fly throughs of new vehicles. Later I moved into a Pharma space for a time, learning how to do compelling & successful work within a much smaller box.
In 2011, after spending most of my life in NYC, I headed to—literally browner, but metaphorically—greener pastures in Austin. I spent 2.5 years as a Creative Director for T3, working on projects for clients including various Coca-Cola brands, MetroPCS, HEB, Cartoon Network & Allstate. The particular highlight was leading Sprite's North American digital projects including truly cutting my teeth in social as we brought to them a working social strategy, led tremendous growth & engagement in their Facebook & Twitter presence, as well as launched their Instagram & Tumblr channels. While at T3 I also continued my focus on mentoring & developing young creatives.
In 2014 I joined Spredfast (shortly after their merger with Mass Relevance) as the Marketing Creative Director. I was very interested in the social space after my time on Sprite & also relished the opportunity to work client-side & take more ownership on the development of a brand itself. Over the 3+ years at Spredfast I not only helped evolve the brand, but worked on advancing the general culture and awareness across marketing & throughout the organization. My team & I were also able to infuse the brand with great design & marketing, thinking about projects ranging from 360 event design, to video, site builds, social, webinars, thought leadership, eCRM, direct mail & more. I was also able to continue developing young talent & educating the greater team on successful collaboration & production process.
I am currently seeking new opportunities in creative leadership. Want to hear more? Reach out →