Nic Stark is a French-American Digital Designer based out of Poultney, VT
Creating memorable experiences and engaging content has driven his work as it has evolved over the past decade. From his BFA in Film and Video from the School of Visual Arts to his MS in Data Visualization from Parsons School of Design, he has expanded his skills into Creative Direction & Strategy, Directing, Graphic Design, Motion Design, VFX, Data Visualization, UI, UX, Front-end Web Development, Creative Coding, Augmented Reality, Data Analysis and Data Wrangling in response to client needs and personal interest.
Across these disciplines, he has honed a clear, honest, and engaging aesthetic which starts with audience empathy and is built on the foundational laws of composition, texture, color, shape, scale, motion, and human perception.
His clients range from individuals to multi-national organizations. He is always looking for new collaborators that share a desire to produce unique, engaging content. In the future, he is looking to utilize his skills and experience to help clients produce educational programming, interactive media, museum exhibitions, data journalism, marketing collateral, and branding efforts.
Some of his past clients include:
Entertainment Weekly
WGBH
KPMG
NYC & Co. Tourism and Marketing
Dreamville Records
NYC Economic Development Corporation
New Orleans Entrepreneur Week
Buku Music & Arts Festival
RESUME
SKILLS
Proficient in Javascript (D3.js, BeautifulSoup, P5.js), Python (NumPy, Pandas), C#, Processing, HTML + CSS. Experience with Machine Learning, SQL, R, Node.js, MapBox
Software
Expert use of Adobe Creative Suite — After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro, Lightroom. Experience with Unity3D, JIRA, Cinema 4D, FileMaker Pro, Microsoft Office
Video
Expert knowledge of Digital Cinema Cameras, Color Grading, Production Workflow, Codecs, 360/VR and Computer Hardware
Language
Fluent in French
EDUCATION
2017 — 2019
Dean’s Merit Scholarship — GPA 3.94
2008 — 2012
B.F.A. Film & Video
Concentration in Post-Production
Dean’s List — GPA 3.62
EXPERIENCE
SaaS Startup
2019-2020
Interactive Dashboard Design & Front-end Development
Designed and developed an interactive analytics dashboard using Adobe Illustrator and D3.js. Worked with C-suite stakeholders to identify KPIs and analyze potential problems. Collaborated with in-house development team to gather appropriate information, present and produce back-end solutions. Designed utilizing best practices in the data visualization field including accessibility measures and resolving issues with misleading visuals. Followed company design guidelines, incorporated critiques, and implemented feedback to bring product in line with the rest of the companies offerings.
Brain Computer Interface Startup
2019
Mocked up solutions to both a traditional and first-person view dashboard for professional drone racing bio-feedback analytics. Gathered appropriate technical, conceptual and cultural information regarding drone racing to inform the aesthetic and metrics of the dashboard. Utilized Adobe Illustrator and Adobe After Effects to design and animate mock-ups used in the company’s sales deck.
2019
Presented multiple novel concepts for imbuing levels of statistical uncertainty into data visualizations. The visualizations graphed the marketing channel efficacy through relative ROI. Relayed unique data dimensions visually, leveraged strong conceptual understanding of perception and interpretation of data visualization language. Refined mock-ups were created in Adobe Illustrator.
Parsons School of Design
2018 – 2019
Fostering Relationships to Personal Data Through Zoomorphism
A speculative design project that uses real personal data to generate zoomorphic data visualizations of daily behavior and aims to bring attention to the opportunities for self-reflection in a digital age. The project exists as a web app that was created in Unity, coded in C# and runs in the browser using WebGL. The data was scraped and munged in Python and shaped using NumPy and Pandas.
Record Label
2018
Aviz – INRIA
Digital Sciences Research Institute
Fall 2018
Conceptualized, designed and developed an app that faced the user with the externalized consequence of their consumption by visualizing a year’s worth of their trash through the viewfinder of their smartphone. The project utilized research concepts of concrete scales and situated data visualizations through augmented reality. The app was coded in Unity using C# and the Google ARCore Augmented Reality library.
Semester Project
Parsons School of Design
Fall 2017
Designed and developed a web app using NYC’s Open Data Portal API to map geospatial data using Mapbox and P5.js. Afforded users the experience of discovering statistics on 311 Noise Complaints in New York City by zip code. Explored use of multi-sensory output through P5.sound.js library having the makeup of the selected zip code synthesize a tone driven by the underlying data.
Momentum Worldwide
Brand Experience Agency
2014 – 2016
J. Cole Touring Inc.
Touring Production Company
2015
Visual Effects Director — Forest Hills Drive Tour
Conceptualized and saw through production of video content for screen visuals with unique stage design. Managed remote visual effects team in Russia. The production won the Live Design Magazine Technical Excellent Award.
Dennis Mosner Photography
Commercial Photo Studio
2013 – 2014
On-set VFX supervisor of studio greenscreen shoots. Composited VFX elements. Animated raster and vector elements. Edited, color corrected and graded multiple short-form commercial pieces. Acted as Assistant Art Director, Prop Master, and Camera Operator on various shoots.
Ghost Robot Productions
Creative Production Company
2013 – 2014
Media Manager
Designed and maintained project database, indexing deliverables, equipment, media assets, deliverables, and contacts. Oversaw all project media backup, QA, broadcast standards compliance, transcodes, cataloging and storage.
WGBH NOVA Science NOW
Science News Magazine Show
2010
Animation Intern & Assistant Editor
Edited segments in AVID for every episode of Season 5. Chroma keyed and composited RED 4K RAW footage into 3D environments. Sourced and mixed SFX.broadcast standards compliance, transcodes, cataloging and storage.
WHAT'S WITH THE HAND?
I was born without a middle finger due to Ectrodactyly–ectodermal dysplasia–cleft syndrome (EEC), a rare genetic disorder that typically manifests in a malformation of digits, a cleft lip and palate, missing hair, teeth, sweat glands, and photophobia.
I am missing the middle finger on my right hand, digits on my feet as well as a cleft lip and palate. My experience with malformation has instructed my growth as a human and designer. I balance the desire to be accepted with that to eschew expectations.
I hope to spread tolerance for accepting people as they are.
To learn more about EEC please visit the National Foundation for Ectrodactyly Dysplasia(NFED) at NFED.org
