NEWS: Michael just launched his second Children’s Book, his first as an author. After his success illustrating the highly acclaimed “Sienna’s Rainbow” (www.siennasrainbow.com), he was inspired to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and write and illustrate a children’s book of his own. Silverback and Son is now available as a paperback and Kindle book on Amazon and a hardcover at Barnes & Noble.
Michael is now running BrandForce 5 a full service Advertising and Branding Agency. BrandForce 5 has been able to bring new brand identities, full page ads, websites, and social media campaigns to life for small to medium sized businesses. They not only continue to do work in the North East but one of their newer clients is a pediatric office in Las Vegas and another runs a national HVAC company out of Florida!
Michael is a full time Creative Director, husband and Dad, not to mention an artist, problem solver, athlete and former firefighter.
A great combination of designer, strategist and leader has helped Michael become a successful Creative Director. He's worked on everything from banking to beer in consumer, and birth control to hemophilia in the pharmaceutical world. Michael loves creating, whether it's a sales aid, a SuperBowl commercial or a "How-To-Use" video, he never stops trying to make the work better.
After years of living in Manhattan, working for Madison Avenue agencies putting out figurative fires, he moved to New Jersey and spent 5 years putting out literal fires as a volunteer firefighter. He's currently living the suburban dream in a small town just outside the city and raising two amazing kids with his wife.
Awards
Michael has won over 20 industry awards for his work on Symbicort alone. As well as: Telly, MM&M, MANNY, RX Club, Art Director’s Club of NJ, GDUSA, Graphic Design Show, Accoladez, DTC National, Aster, DX Creative Communication, Advertising Club.
A Personal Note (I hate writing about myself in the third person)
When you're in the creative field it's important to have a hobby, mine just happens to be robot building. Since I'm a Star Wars fan I decided I wanted to build a full size, remote controlled R2-D2, I tell everyone it's for my kids but I've wanted one since I was 8 years old. When work gets too prescriptive and less creative, it gives me an outlet to use my skills and learn some new ones. I've since learned to solder, program and come up with creative solutions to make things both functional and screen accurate. It's a good combination of spending time alone, problem solving and challenging myself, as well as spending time with both of my kids working on and playing with R2-D2. One of the deciding factors in building him was hearing about the charity work being done by organizations like The 501st and the Rebel Legion. In 2016 we started bringing him to children's hospitals, charities and events and it's opened up a whole new world for us and makes me proud to hear my kids ask to be a part of visiting sick children to help cheer them up while they recover.
