John Taylor graduated from Stanford University in 1983 with degrees in English and Biology. He was a founding member of Oracle's first Multimedia Department. In 1992, John studied educational software design at the MIT Media Lab and at the Harvard School of Education, where he received his Masters degree. He worked as a designer on WGBH's Interactive NOVA series, then went on to produce family entertainment CD-ROMs for Apple Computer. John formed his own company in 1994 and has produced, designed, and programmed titles for clients such as Electronic Arts, Lucas Learning, and the Disney Channel. John also managed the content-development department at Organic Online and was a senior producer and designer for the first multiplayer games at shockwave.com. Projects include the award-winning Math Heads series, a Star Wars product for kids, and new services for TiVo.
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Bill Purdy received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Cognitive Psychology from Northwestern University in 1981 and a Masters degree in Educational Technology from Harvard's Graduate School of Education in 1988. He worked on the original Interactive NOVA series at WGBH-TV and helped produce several multimedia projects for Apple's Multimedia Lab. In 1990, he formed his own company, and produced the award-winning "Teaching, Learning & Technology" for Apple Computer. Since then, Bill has developed hundreds of programs including CD-ROM titles, museum exhibits, eLearning modules, UI designs, custom tools, professional development videos, casual games and iPhone applications.
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Mike Buettner is an Emmy-award winning art director and graphic artist whose clean, sophisticated design aesthetic and versatile skills have made him one of the most sought-after talents in the Bay Area. As a creative director, Mike has years of experience on large complicated projects leading teams through the product development process—designing the content, user interfaces, interactive activities, digital video graphics and packaging for these products. He has extensive experience, especially, in the educational market and is responsible for the art design of many K-12 curriculum products and games currently on the market. A handful of Mike’s clients include Apple Computer, Classroom Connect, Tenth Planet, WebTV, Library of Congress, and Macromedia. Mike lives with his wife in Arcada and works on vintage cars in his free time.
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Michele Costa is an award-winning educational video producer with 20 years of experience producing for public tv, broadcast and cable tv, corporate communications, nonprofit organizations, foundations, and schools. She has a BA degree in television production from Santa Clara University, and graduate school credits in the Humanities from Dominican College. In her work, Michele consciously uses the power of media to explore human connections, tell people’s stories, and to make important and serious information interesting and accessible to others. She’s produced extensively in the areas of environmental education, health and medicine, current affairs, the arts, and teacher professional development for K-12. Some of Michele’s clients include the Exploratorium, McGraw-Hill, Classroom Connect, Apple Computer, Kaiser Permanente, PG&E and school districts and universities. She brings a curious nature and a documentary sensibility to all of her projects.
Bryan Purse has been working as an interactive designer and animator for the past 15 years. Upon receiving a degree in illustration from Ringling school of Art and Design, Bryan turned his focus to digital media. Since the early incarnation of interactive design, Bryan has provided his strong sense of color and design to numerous technology and educational projects for companies such as Apple Computer, WebTV, Macromedia, Lightspan, Disney Interactive, NEC, and Compaq. He has worked with Handtap Communications to create graphic content for clients such as Nokia, Sprint, ATT and Palm, and has created content for wireless devices such as PDA's and cellphones. Bryan is an expert Flash artist and has created designs and animations for many of the web's most popular sites, including shockwave.com and Better Homes and Gardens.
Chuck Gamble has been cartooning, illustrating, designing, and animating for over fifteen years, creating work for web sites, TV, publications, computer games, and just about any other media you can think of. Chuck has a talent for web design, illustration, and animation, with a particular focus on kid and tween markets. Some of his recent projects include work for HarperCollins Childrens, Dreambox Learning, and Mattel. Previously Chuck was Creative Director and Executive Producer at Headbone Interactive (a convergent media company for kids) where he was involved with the production of 4 award-winning, animated CDRom edutainment/games, a multi-faceted online activity site, and several broadcast TV projects, including the animated series "D-tour," which aired on the Discovery Channel.
Robin Hirsh is a veteran Cameraman/DP whose extensive award-winning credits in the media community include PBS, network television, documentary film and large video projects for major companies. Robin’s work over 25 years has taken him to 40 states, 20 foreign countries, and into hundreds of children’s classrooms for educational projects. With a Photography degree from Layton School of the Arts in Milwaukee, he brings a sensitive artistic eye for composition and lighting to his shooting, and an uncanny instinct for catching special live-action moments as they unfold. Some of his clients include the National Geographic Channel, WGBH-TV, Dateline NBC, Apple Computer, and Oprah. Robin lives with his wife and son in Berkeley, California, and likes to fish.
Tom Fiene has worked as a developer and interface designer for more than 20 years. He has built many consumer titles for CD-ROM and the web and was the lead programmer for widely distributed products by Creative Wonders, MSN, Oracle, Apple Computer, and numerous other clients. Tom has also written software for consumer products such as Excite@Home cable networks and the Flip Video Camcorder. He has been using Director and Flash for many years and has consulted for Macromedia / Adobe on high-profile demos of their Director and Flash products. Tom has a B.S. in computer science from Lewis and Clark.
