John Polizzi

Art Director

While studying design at RISD, John won the annual egg drop challenge by deploying a previously unexploited technique, subsequently banned from the event. As a graduate student at CalArts, he was mentored by James Benning and dismissed by Thom Andersen.

In Providence, John waited tables at Buddy Cianci’s favorite restaurant, and in New York, he worked on the factory floor at M & Co., where Tibor Kalman graced staff with free lunches. John stretched canvases in Fort Greene and simulated Bigfoot for a series of lectures by Mike Mills. In San Francisco, John was hired at @Home Networks by Roger Black. Not long after that, he was fired by a future Facebook product designer.

John has done contract work for Disney and Microsoft and has designed for many small businesses over the years. He has witnessed firsthand the failures of Silicon Valley, private equity, and one Flash-based game development company. And despite what the palm reader in New Orleans told him, he’s happy to be working with the good people at Obran.