Sr. Creative Director/Studio Director
Vancouver, Canada Area
- Current
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- Student Mentor at Vancouver Film School
- Studio Director | Sr. Creative Director at Blast Radius
- Creative Director/Partner at barking babies
- Creative Director at nsbrands, Tokyo
- Creative Director/Co-Owner at h2collectives, inc.
- Past
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- Creative Director at Amway Japan
- Creative Director at Flying Color Group, Tokyo
- Animation Director at Noisemedia
- Art Director at Familyware Software
- Animator at Living Books
- Animator at Broderbund & Living Books
- Education
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- Sheridan College
- The University of Western Ontario
- Recommended
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26 people have recommended Mike - Connections
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410
connections
- Industry
- Online Media
- Websites
Mike Howatson’s Summary
Creative Direction is the most nebulous of roles... and easily the most satisfying. I've found that the secret is not to dictate, but rally. No one person ever knows the complete answer to a digital experience solution, but an engaged, motivated, happy team of smart, creative people will nail it in short order. Wrangling a team of such people, motivating them, cheering them, being wowed by them, and most importantly, learning WITH them is the heart of the Creative Direction role as far as I'm concerned.
I am basically a huge fan of leading a internet/online/experience solution/user experience/design and development team to create great work, grow and evolve. There is nothing more fulfilling to me than to do excellent work for an interesting and challenging client objective, while enthusiastically coaching the members of the team to reach their next plateau... to extend beyond their comfort zone... to grow and succeed.
Delivery of outstanding, innovative customer experience solutions can only be achieved when intelligent, talented, motivated people come together with a common, focused goal... to lead and encourage these successes is easily my main motivator.
The best part of enjoying what I do, is to do it with an outgoing, positive, and humour-based approach... creative development and problem solving are without question the best way to expend your personal energy, and to do it with a great team is impossible to beat.
This is what I do, and this is what motivates me.
I am what I do... how lucky can you get?
Mike Howatson’s Specialties:
Motion graphics, top to bottom brand development and visual realization, character animation (2D -- both digital and traditional), immersive media, high-end dynamic experientials, illustration (published with Douglas Coupland http://coupland.com/books/books05.html ), top-tier brand executions, complex/multi-channel marketing, customer experience innovation, e-commerce solutions, team building/managing/mentoring, mobile content development, and full-on positive energy. (not in a hippy way)
Mike Howatson’s Experience
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Student Mentor
Vancouver Film School
(Educational Institution; 51-200 employees; Education Management industry)
July 2006 — Present (3 years 6 months)
I also supply my time as a student mentor with the Vancouver Film School's ( www.vfs.com ) Digital Design program. I act as the thought partner, advocate, cheeleader, and support structure for students as they go through their final, and defining projects. Projects range from branding initiatives with all-media support, to motion graphics/music videos.
It's one of the more satisfying hobbies one could have. -
Studio Director | Sr. Creative Director
Blast Radius
(Public Company; 201-500 employees; Online Media industry)
August 2004 — Present (5 years 5 months)
As the Design Manager, all of Blast Radius' Vancouver hub Art Directors, Sr. Designers and Production Designers report directly to me... and in the capacity of Creative Director, I handle the Creative Lead for such clients as Electronic Arts, Nike's Jordan initiatives, various other Nike divisions, and Nintendo of America.
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Creative Director/Partner
barking babies
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Apparel & Fashion industry)
June 2004 — Present (5 years 7 months)
retail of high-end dog fashion, accessories, toys, treats, lifestyle products, and carriers... highly niche brand and business. http://www.barkingbabies.com
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Creative Director
nsbrands, Tokyo
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Online Media industry)
September 2003 — Present (6 years 4 months)
Working with Industry leader, Stephen Bidinger, I provided branding, consultancy, and production design/co-ordination for an energetic and exciting natural skin-care/cosmetics marketing, creation and distribution group.
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Creative Director/Co-Owner
h2collectives, inc.
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Online Media industry)
March 1998 — Present (11 years 10 months)
Online design, animation, motion graphics, Creative Direction, Project Management consultancy team that serviced a wide range of clients in Canada and Japan. 2 sub-companies are owned by H2Collectives, and service the dog lifestyle retail market, and wholesale distribution of Japanese dog couture.
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Creative Director
Amway Japan
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Online Media industry)
September 2002 — June 2004 (1 year 10 months)
For just over 2 years, I worked directly with the Director of the online media team for Amway Japan to establish a cohesive, consistent experience for Amway Japan's various web communications This included both the corporate information site (amway.co.jp, and the enourmous internal E-Commerce site (amwaylive.com). This involved working with contractors, internal teams, and managment.
It was a very challenging engagement on many levels, and it affected hundreds of millions of dollars in ecom... the best part about this engagement was, without question, the exceptional Management team at Amway... most particularly, Johnnie Washington. -
Creative Director
Flying Color Group, Tokyo
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Online Media industry)
September 2001 — September 2002 (1 year 1 month)
I oversaw a team of up to 30 people, in a Japanese office environment, where we conceptualized, developed and evolved mar-com and cross media solutions for many major global brands within the Tokyo/Japan market (Heineken, American Express, Bourjois, Nike, Sega, Grey Worldwide, Jupiter Communications, Shu Uemura, etc). Our approach was a mix of online, mobile, offline, event, out-of-home, kiosk, tv advertisement, print, ecommerce, and consultancy... all designed to maintain multiple touch and insertion points with the target markets, resulting in repeat active participation. We practiced the art of customer engagement at the root level, and pushed every boundary of technology and expectation with every engagement.
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Animation Director
Noisemedia
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Animation industry)
August 2000 — August 2001 (1 year 1 month)
I was responsible for continuing the strategic development and implementation of noisemedia's animation department and was an integral component of noise’s interactive and content divisions.
The full animation team followed me from our previous employer to continue our aim of producing excellence in the brave new world of online animation at the peak of the heady .com bubble. Our work was considered widely as the finest available, and our client list read like a who's who of the online animation world at the time, including such clients as Toyota, Icebox, Mondo Media and Michelin to name a few. -
Art Director
Familyware Software
(Online Media industry)
1995 — 1997 (2 years )
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Animator
Living Books
(Online Media industry)
1994 — 1995 (1 year )
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Animator
Broderbund & Living Books
(Online Media industry)
1994 — 1995 (1 year )
Mike Howatson’s Education
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Sheridan College
Classical Animation , Classical Animation , 1993 — 1995
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The University of Western Ontario
BA , Fine Arts & Film , 1989 — 1993
- Activities and Societies:
- Beta Theta Pi, Soph for Frosh Week (Saugeen), Soph for Frosh Week (International Off-campus Students), Mock Parliment
Additional Information
Mike Howatson’s Websites:
Mike Howatson’s Interests:
reading, media, growth, questioning, thinking, talking, laughing, and my dogs.
Mike Howatson’s Groups:
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Open Vancouver -
Beta Theta Pi Alumni – Canadian Chapters
Mike Howatson’s Honors:
- 3 Cannes Cyber Lions Finalists
- 5 Macromedia/Shockwave Site of the Day/Week
- 1 USA Today Site of the Week
- 1 Lotus Award
- 2 Lotus Award Nominations
- 2001 Revolution Awards for New-Media and Marketing Asia: Mobile Site of the Year, Marketer of the Year, and Best of Show for the Heineken Channel
- Chosen to give lecture to Graphic Designer’s of Canada on topic of Animation and Multimedia development.
- Chosen to give lecture to Independent Film Producer’s of Canada on topic of structuring multimedia production facilities
Mike Howatson’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- career opportunities
- consulting offers
- new ventures
- job inquiries
- expertise requests
- business deals
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
