Mike Davidson - Resume

Education

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON, Seattle, WA

B.A., Business Administration — Concentrations in Marketing and Advertising
(1993-1997)

OXFORD UNIVERSITY, Oxfordshire, England

Graduate curriculum in Advertising Theory and Management
(1996)

Professional Experience

President and CEO

Newsvine.com, Seattle, WA

8/05 to present

Founded online participatory news media company, featured in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Time Magazine, BusinessWeek, TechCrunch, and many other publications. Acquired 10/5/2007 by msnbc.com.
Provide user experience and design vision for company.
Manage staff of employees and oversee all company operations.

Art Director & Manager of Media Product Development

ESPN.com / Walt Disney Internet Group, Seattle, WA

2/01 to 6/05

Provided design and art direction for web properties, broadband applications, streaming media, and other high profile online initiatives within Disney and ESPN.
Managed multimedia, broadband, and other special applications within Disney sites such as ESPN.com, ABC.com, and Movies.com.
Authored CSS/XHTML coding and design standards for site redesigns.
Represented Disney and ESPN at design/technology conferences.
Designed, developed, and deployed Flash applications, event packages, live gamecasts, fantasy sports games, and other content on ESPN.
Taught Flash, XHTML, and CSS to ESPN, ABC News, and other network-affiliated employees.

Creative Director

Seasonticket.com, Seattle, WA

3/00 to 11/00

Provided creative strategy and art direction to a team of web designers and developers.
Designed and developed company’s identity elements and propagated them across all media.
Represented company at multimedia conferences and evangelized technology to potential partners.

Creative Director

Digital Sherpas, Seattle, WA

2/99 to 3/00

Provided creative strategy, art direction, and copywriting for a team of web designers and developers.
Start-to-finish concepting, design, and production of high-profile, award-winning web sites.
Sites designed include: New York Rangers, Seattle Mariners, Minnesota Wild, K2 Skis, K2 Snowboards, K2 Bikes, K2 Skates, State of Alaska, Bellevue Square, and The Space Needle.

Art Director

AAG/Costacos Sports, Inc., Seattle, WA

9/97 to 2/99

Designed and wrote copy for worldâ€™s top selling NBA, NFL, NHL, and MLB posters.
Authored and created marketing materials and business-to-business presentations.
Designed, administered, and oversaw all aspects of corporate web site.

Software

Languages: XHTML, ActionScript, JavaScript, CSS, PHP, DOM, English
Platforms: Macintosh, Windows
Macromedia: Flash 8 (expert), Dreamweaver 8 (expert)
Adobe: Photoshop CS 3 (expert), Illustrator CS 3 (expert)
Microsoft: Word (expert), Excel (advanced), PowerPoint (advanced)
Miscellaneous: TextMate, WordPress, Movable Type, Eclipse,
Streaming Formats: Flash, QuickTime, Windows Media, Real

Awards and Recognition

Webby Award — five time winner (best sports site, people’s choice best sports site)
Macromedia Site of the Day — for K2 Skis, K2 Snowboards, K2 Skates, and K2 Bikes
Envision Award — three time winner (best overall site, best streaming video site, and best sports site on the net)
Seattle Show Award — six-time winner (two golds, two silvers, two merits, and a Best of Show runner-up)
Seattle Online Network Award — Best Site to Kill Time On (Seasonticket.com)
CoolHomePages.com — Multiple works on display
Featured on the cover of the 2000 Macromedia Annual Report
Featured in Print Magazine
Member Emeritus of Seattle Show Board of Directors
Designed Safeco Field inaugural ticket and all commemorative tickets for the Mariners on a recurring basis
Designed world’s first virtual observation decks in Flash

Speaking Engagements

Online News Association (ONA) Conference Speaker
An Event Apart (AEA) Seattle Speaker
Interactive Media Conference Speaker
Syndicate Conference Speaker
SXSW Conference Speaker
WebVisions Conference Speaker
DV/Web Video Expo expert panelist
Flash Forward expert panelist
Instructor of Advanced Web Design and Advanced Flash classes at the School of Visual Concepts
Creative Assets and ArtSource seminars

Shared

PBS Frontline - Breaking the Bank: An entertaining and illuminating hour-long look by PBS into the near collapse of the U.S. banking system. Frontline has done an excellent job of covering the financial crisis over the past year. Lots of good Ken Lewis/John Thain footage in this particular episode.

Long exposure shot of a Roomba cleaning a room — I owned one of these things and found it to be substantially more trouble than it was worth. While this shot makes the coverage area look good, a lot of “stuff” collects near the edges, cords and other impediments often stop the thing, and it just doesn’t pick up enough at the end of the day. Great photo though.

LogoLounge: Trends in 2009 Logo Design

A nice roundup of what's going on in the world of logo design. Looks like we're finally moving away from the whooshes and ovals of the last several years. Good stuff.

Using brain waves to levitate ping pong balls: Amazing implications for biofeedback, video games, and our future as a bunch of sedentary Wall-E characters (via Scott Adams)

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: The Unstoppable Skyhook - “I don’t recall ever being blocked by someone who was guarding me.” I’ve always wondered why NO ONE in the NBA has made the skyhook their go-to weapon. It is the most unstoppable shot ever invented and yet no one learns it anymore.

Why Did the Cat Skip Town? Ouch.

The Best Free Photos on the Web (Where to Find Them and What to Do With Them) (via John Nack)

Rands In Repose: A Deep Breath

If reading this doesn't make you feel like an inadequate manager, you must be really really awesome. And people wonder why Apple makes such awesome stuff...

Now you got a crapload of squares (via igotyourcrazy via jimray)

TiltShift Generator - Need to get myself a legit tilt-shift lens. Until then, I am more than happy to roll faux with this slick online tool.

How to create an HDR effect using only Lightroom and Photoshop

Great tutorial by Russell Brown. I really need to get up to speed with editing photos in RAW mode. Then again, I'm sure cameras will automatically take bracketless HDR photos within a few years as well.

Scripts which create interesting effects in Adobe Illustrator CS

... and here I am not even knowing you can run scripts in Illustrator.

Share Your Google Analytics Data With Everyone

Apparently, Google Analytics has a public API now. Pretty cool. Not sure this is enough to get me off of Mint, but maybe I'll start running both for a little while.

Veerle shows how to make beautiful posters using Illustrator blends and masks

Hivelogic's Top 10 Monospaced Fonts for Coding

Will have to try out Consolas and Inconsolata. I've always been a staunch Monaco 9 guy, but hey, might as well get ahead of my eventually failing eyesight.

Overshared

Nice, Hi-Ball just redesigned their bottles so they are easier to open. Thanks, now I won't feel like such a wuss.