Hello! I’m
Mike Schmidt.
(Nice to meet you.)
I’m the Director of Features and Series at The New York Times working with a brilliant team of filmmakers, animators and social media gurus. On any given day throughout my career you can find me collaborating with talented designers, animators, video producers, reporters, editors, illustrators and photographers, most recently at CNN’s branded content studio, Courageous. Prior to that I was at Mashable and National Geographic Magazine, responsible for the vision, strategy and management of their respective short-form video teams. Before that (long ago now) I was an Associate Creative Director for the prescient but ill-fated iPad only news publication, The Daily.
When I’m not high fiving members of my team while seeking digital enlightenment through collaborative mayhem, I’m often found strolling with my wonderful pitt-mix rescue pup Pepper. Thanks for visiting!
Featured
^ The New York Times Features Video
As Director of Features Video and Design, my team works on a variety of projects within the NYT editorial video department. For example, check out Diary of a Song, it's definitely something special!
^ The New York Times on Snapchat Discover
As the Executive Producer for a special multimedia daily edition, custom animated and only on Snapchat, I was responsible for leadership, strategy and creative problem solving with a team of writers, animators, photo and video editors. We added millions of engaged young readers to The Times every week. (And yes, the youths actually can read - lol.)
^ CNN Courageous Studio
As the Editorial Director for the new branded content studio at CNN, I was responsible for leadership, strategy and creative problem solving of a rapidly growing team of video producers and directors. We made big business deals and ambitious, dynamite projects with top tier brands for digital and TV audiences across the Turner portfolio.
^ Mashable
As the Director of Editorial Video, I was responsible for building and managing (nurturing) the team that makde all the editorial video published on the main site, Youtube channels, Facebook, and Snapchat Discover. We worked closely with the various editorial teams on news, docs, tech, comedy, puppies and whatever else we dreamt up. During my tenure we went from 1M to 100M video views in less than 8 months. Boom.
^ The Marshall Project
Morel designed the site and design system for this forward thinking, non-profit single-topic journalism endeavor about the criminal justice system in the US. We developed design solutions that visually paid homage to the time period of namesake Thurgood Marshall, but felt modern and updated. Named the “World’s Best Designed Website” by the prestigious Society for News Design (SND).
^ The Center for Digital Arts
Morel designed a fresh, updated branding system and crafted a new website for the new ownership of this Boston digital training school that specializes in photo, video, design, 3D animation and code – skills building that is close to my heart!
^ National Geographic Short Form Video
I was responsible for three teams that made short form video as one cohesive unit. We made original short, documentary films for News, The Magazine and numerous special projects including animations, sponsored projects and over a dozen pilot series. Our team ran the video domain for national geographic as well as the heavliy trafficked Youtube Channel.
^ Serengeti Lions
Nick Nichols and Nathan Williamson spent two years in the field with a battery of high tech image making gear. And the digital team came together to make one of my favorite all time projects. Jody Sugrue led the charge on the ux and design, and my team worked on the immersive video content. We even won a webby for best use of video.
^ Year in Review
At the end of 2013 a few of us cherry picked a handful of our favorite things created at NG that year. We crafted gorgeous new video teasers and built it into an interactive experience.
^ 125th Anniversary Issue
For this special magazine edition we developed a full multimedia experience for the iPad edition and the website. Incorporating video interviews of our photographers and an animated cover. Plus, we launched a 50-video series about the power of photography that appeared bi-weekly on our photo blog, Proof.
^ Last Days of a Storm Chaser
When Tim Samaras, the legendary self-taught scientist, engineer and tornado expert, was killed in the biggest storm ever recorded, we crafted a multimedia story to honor his lifes work. A short film was combined with an interactive video that captured the intersecting paths of Tim and the storm from multiple perspectives.
^ The Daily
I was amongst the first wave of iPad content creators at this innovative and beautiful, but ultimately doomed, news publication. I was there from the beginning to launch it on the first generation iPads and helped steer the design team for two years.
^ Gift & Gadget Guide
A micro-team from The Daily created a single, beautiful iPad issue featuring the best in tech with a retro-modern feel. Featuring gorgeous illustrations and designs, original photography and interactive videos it was downloaded over a million times.
^ Alexia Foundation
I partnered with Jody Sugrue and Tom Jackson to rethink the website and branding for this revered photography grantmaking foundation. Much of the structure and branding we created is still in place, but unfortunately they have changed up the overall designs.
^ New York Times Graphics
I joined the graphics team during the 2008 and 2010 Olympics games to create dozens of interactive information graphics and multimedia coverage on daily deadline.
About Mohawk Street
I was born in the 70’s and raised on the coolest block in
Chicago, Mohawk Street, between Armitage and Dickens. Home wasn't
just inside the building, but out on the street, laughing on the
stoops, drawing on the sidewalks, racing through the gangways and
exploring the alleys. In 2001, I named my personal studio after
my original stomping grounds.
©
Mike
Schmidt aka Mohawk Street. All rights reserved.