LocalProjects

Jake Barton, Principal

Jake Barton is founder and principal of Local Projects, an award-winning media design firm for museums and public spaces. Jake is recognized as a leader in the field of interaction design for physical spaces, and in the creation of collaborative storytelling projects where participants generate content. Currently, Local Projects is partnered with Thinc Design as lead exhibition designers for The National September 11th Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center. Other projects include interaction design for StoryCorps, six films for The Beijing 2008 Olympics, media design for The National Museum of American Jewish History, media design for the Official New York City Visitors Information Center, and co-creation of Timescapes for the Museum of the City of New York. Additional clients include jetBlue, the Tribeca Film Festival, the New-York Historical Society, the National Building Museum and the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum.

Jake was a finalist for the National Design Award in Communications in 2006 and attended the White House reception hosted by the First Lady and the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. He has lectured extensively at conferences including the Gravity Free Design Conference in Chicago, UX Week in San Francisco, and the IDEA Conference in both Seattle and New York. His work has received two gold, one silver, and one bronze medal from the IDSA Industrial Designers Society of America, as well as five awards from ID Magazine, and three from the AIGA. He serves on the board of AIGA/NY and on the advisory council of the Gravity Free Design Conference. He has a master’s degree from NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, where he currently teaches the master’s thesis class. Before founding Local Projects, Jake worked as an exhibition designer for Ralph Appelbaum Associates for seven years.

Ian Curry, Director of Interaction Design

Ian Curry has led interaction design initiatives at Local Projects since 2007. Previously, Ian spent several years at Frog Design’s New York studio, where he helped create websites, large-scale interactive displays, product UI, and iTV interfaces for clients including MTV, BBC, Hewlett-Packard, IPC, and Microsoft. Independently, he has worked on interactive projects for Eyebeam, and the United Nations. He has an M.P.S. from the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and a B.A. in Comparative Literature from The Colorado College. Ian co-teaches “Public Interfaces” with Jake Barton as part of SVA’s Interaction Design MFA program.

Katie Lee, Art Director

Katie Lee is a graphic designer working in print, interactive, and motion design. She began in New York City as a print designer for Shapiro Design Associates, then as a Web designer for Razorfish in the New York and San Francisco offices. In 2004 she moved to Los Angeles, where she worked for the Brand Integration Group at Ogilvy & Mather, ReVerb, and Prologue Films. While at Prologue, she designed and art directed motion graphics and titles for television and film. Katie holds a B.A. in Art from Yale University and an MFA in graphic design from the Yale School of Art.

Ariel Efron, Designer / Filmmaker

Ariel Efron is a cross-media artist operating between media art and media design. His work combines the use of media in installations, spatial design for dance, music, and theatre performances, and museum and art installation. Ariel has shown his work throughout the world, including the Venice Architecture Biennale 2004, the Rotterdam Biennale 2005, the Tokyo Dance Biennale 2002, and others. Ariel completed his master’s degree at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University.

Tiya Gordon, Studio Director

Tiya Gordon directs operations while developing and producing individual projects for the company. Her showcased work includes the permanent media installation of close to 60 custom films and interactive exhibits for the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia as well as the full media design and production for the upcoming National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City. Prior to joining Local Projects, Tiya worked as a Media Producer for the American Museum of Natural History where she designed and executed media installations for the museum’s permanent halls as well as international traveling exhibitions. Her work has received awards and recognition from The New York Academy of Sciences, The Cannes Film Festival, AIGA, Core77, The American Association of Museums, ResFest, MIT, CINE and I.D. among others. She graduated from
Parsons School of Design where she currently teaches in the Communication Design and Technology Program.

A’yen Tran, Interactive Project Manager

A’yen Tran is an Interactive Project Manager for Local Projects. Her most recent work includes producing the 9/11 Memorial Names Arrangement Algorithm and Make History, a website to crowdsource the world’s images of 9/11 for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. Recently she has managed Change by Us, a new multi-city social platform for civic engagement and its predecessor, Give a Minute. Before joining Local Projects, she produced large-scale interactive art and media projects for non-profits and artists. She directed logistics and external relations for artist Swoon’s nautical art projects with Deitch Projects, and served as Online Director for non-profit organization Seeds of Peace. She has presented and installed work at PS1, MASSMoCA, Conflux, Flux Factory and collaborated with Swoon in 2009 to float sculptural boats to the Venice Biennale. A’yen holds a B.A. from Columbia University.

Adam Kosberg, Director of Film and Content

Adam Kosberg directed research and development as the Associate Producer on the Errol Morris documentary, The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara, winner of the 2004 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. In 2006 he moved to Los Angeles, where he worked extensively on documentary and feature film projects for director Jeffrey Blitz, including Lucky which was an Official Selection of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Previous to joining Local Projects, Adam produced several of the permanent exhibition films for the new Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center. Adam holds a B.A. in the Comparative Study of Religion from Harvard University.

Rodrigo DeBenito Sanz, Senior UI Developer / Designer

Rodrigo DeBenito Sanz is a web designer and programmer. He has extensive experience in the conception and development of online projects related to the arts. Prior to joining Local Projects he executed work for major international organizations throughout Spain, Germany and New York including the Liceu Opera House in Barcelona. He has received numerous awards including a La Caixa fellowship and the Opera Web Award from the University Pompeu Fabra of Barcelona for his design of the site The Ring of the Nibelung about Wagner and his epic tetralogy. He holds an M.P.S. from the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and a B.F.A. in Graphic Design from The University of Salamanca, Spain.

Greg Mihalko, Graphic Designer

Greg Mihalko holds a B.F.A in Graphic Design from The Savannah College of Art and Design. Prior to Local Projects Greg worked as a designer for Doyle Partners, Automattic, The Concept Farm and ThoughtForm Design.

Ping Yi Wang, Graphic Designer

Ping Yi Wang holds a M.F.A in Communication Design from Pratt Institute. Prior to Local Projects, Ping worked as a designer in a variety of mediums for agencies in Taiwan and New York including Pao & Paws, Art Atelier, Laird + Partners and Graphis. Ping enjoys basketball.

Ethan Holda, Director of Technology

Ethan Holda is a developer and application architect who began creating interactive television applications for NBC in 1997 and has since executed boutique web, enterprise human resources management systems and development and integration platform development for a variety of industries. Additionally he has done freelance work for Fuse TV, ABC, the International Economic Development Council as well as for not-for-profit organizations such as Friends Shelter and the Museum of the City of New York.

Kristen Svorka, Studio Manager

Kristen Svorka oversees office administration and leads staff support for the company. Kristen’s primary area of interest revolves around the incorporation of digital technologies into the built environment to produce spaces that are interactive and adaptable to the user. Her work has been showcased at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair and the Museum of Art and Design in New York City. Kristen holds a Masters of Interior Architecture from Rhode Island School of Design.

Daniel Liss, Project Director

Daniel Liss is a filmmaker and creative technologist from New York City. Most recently as Senior Interaction Designer, Daniel developed new media properties for 19 Entertainment and was Creative Director at Yoxi, a social-innovation initiative. As Director of Photography, he has shot film and video for clients ranging from MTV to National Geographic and PBS  and spent several years filming interviews for the Survivors for the Shoah Foundation. Daniel has spent the last six years exploring possibilities for story-telling inherent within new media frameworks. Daniel holds a B.A. in Cinema Studies from SUNY Binghamton and an M.P.S from NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program where he now teaches.

Melanie Malkin, Interactive Project Coordinator

Melanie is a Interactive Project Coordinator and Production Manager.  Melanie comes most recently from the Museum of Modern Art, where she worked for over seven years in the Department of Advertising and Graphic Design. At MoMA Melanie managed production and coordination for the rotating environmental and building signage designed for the museum and education center, and on-going print, outdoor, and digital advertising campaigns.  In addition Melanie managed MoMA’s flagship ipad application for the 2010 Abstract Expressionist New York Exhibition. Melanie holds a B.A. in Fine Art from the University at Albany, where she focused on painting and art history.

Jennifer Snyder, Interactive Project Coordinator

Jennifer Snyder is an Interactive Project Coordinator and Historian. She is currently finishing her Ph.D. dissertation on black diasporas and kinship networks in the Revolutionary Atlantic. Jennifer holds an M.A. in Early American history from the University of Florida where she also worked at the Bob Graham Center for Public Service and the Reubin O’D. Askew Institute on Politics and Society.

Keeli Shaw, Interactive Project Manager

Keeli comes most recently from the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles where as Production Manager for the Collections Information & Access Department she managed all multimedia elements for the permanent collection as well as all exhibitions, from concept creation to execution. She is pursuing a Masters at NYU / Steinhardt School of Education and earned her B.A. from UC Berkeley, where she majored in Political Science and Art History.

Sundar Raman, Senior Engineer

Sundar thinks himself a minor contemporary avatar of Sisyphus: rolling imperfect technology up the incline of artistic demand, simultaneously sanding away the burrs of ungainly code. Sundar’s background spans alternative energy, community radio, permaculture, Internet telephony, open-source advocacy, and most recently social gaming.

Jonathan Han, Graphic Designer

Born in Singapore, New York City based designer Jonathan Han graduated from the School of Visual Arts with a B.F.A in Graphic Design. Jonathan comes most recently from R/GA’s flagship brand development practice where he designed for clients such as Nike Plus and Google. Jonathan’s work has been shown in Spain and Amsterdam at the Malofiej Information Design Conference as well as in the Seoul Design Biennial. Prior to Local Projects Jonathan has worked for such notable designers as Paul Sahre and Michael Ian Kaye.

Angela Chen, Interaction Designer

Prior to freelancing in digital media and interaction design, Angela worked as an architectural designer in New York City where she strove to create meaningful spaces in urban cities. Angela now incorporates her background in physical design to create experiences that are interactive and conversant in nature. In addition to her design work, Angela has won several scholarships to study and practice both in the United States as well as in Europe. Angela holds a M.P.S. from the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at NYU Tisch, and a B.A. in Architecture from Wellesley College.

Jennifer Jiun Choi, Motion Designer and Animator

Matt Wright, Creative Technologist

Matt Wright is a developer with a designer’s eye. He enjoys working in the grey area between design and development where his traditional training in Graphic Design and obsession with technology combine to positive effects. Prior to joining Local Projects, Matt worked in digital marketing and advertising, developing kiosk and web applications for such brands as Progressive, Umbro, and Virgin America. Additionally, Matt co-authored a book on Adobe AIR and contributes to the open source community.

Lynn Kiang, Graphic Designer

Lynn Kiang is a multi-disciplinary graphic designer working in interaction design, video and physical installation. Prior to joining Local Projects, she was a designer at Fathom Information Design in Boston and at SWA Group in Los Angeles. Lynn holds an MFA in graphic design from the Rhode Island School of Design and a BS in Psychology from the University of California at Los Angeles.

Erika Tarte, Graphic Designer

Miriam Lakes, Content Coordinator/Developer

Miriam Lakes is an artist/exhibit developer/content researcher who is passionate about the power of exhibits in helping people connect to each other and the world around them.  She recently re-located from Oakland, California where she developed interactive exhibits for the newly renovated Oakland Museum of California.  She holds a BA in Studio Art from Oberlin College and is currently completing a Masters in Information Science at Pratt Institute.

Philipp Rockel, Creative Technologist

315 West 39th Street
Suite 908
New York, NY 10018
(212) 480-0479
info@localprojects.net