Michael Ong Takes On Hallmark

Nobody stays in the same place for his or her whole career. Right? Michael Ong has been at T2 for almost half of his. He started in 1994 as an intern and, since then, he’s built T2′s reputation in design-driven production and post-production. Next month, Michael will move to the corporate side and join Hallmark to head up their multi-media department — following in the footsteps of his good friend, Suba, who joined Hallmark earlier this year.

After 16 years, this was an emotional decision for Michael — and will have an emotional impact on all of us at T2. Professionally, it is the right time for Michael to take on his next career challenge — and, over the past few months, Michael has helped us develop a deep bench strength in the Motion Design team, unlike any other time in T2 history (see the 8 New Faces blog post for more deets). Chris Waner just came on as Lead Designer — teaming with Cody Beltram as Lead CGI. Garrett Fuselier leads the group in Interactive and Experiential Design, assisted by another newcomer, Cassie King. Claudia Chagui is growing into a huge force on both sides — Design and Animation — while Darton Simons continues to excel in Motion Graphics and 2-1/2D. We enticed the talented Jennifer Paine to move from Chicago and join us as our Lead Smoke Artist — and Nick Balda assists her as a Jr. Smoke Artist. And the glue holding this amazing creative team together is Paul Schneider, our new Motion Design/Interactive Producer, fresh from New Wave in Los Angeles.

So, it isn’t entirely accidental that we have added all these new faces and much broader design talent inside the T2 + Back Alley Films group over the past year. We’ve realized that the key to success in business these days is accepting that change is inevitable – and being adept at change not only makes all of us stronger, but makes what we can deliver for our clients more powerful. And so, our recent beefing up of the bench is fortuitous indeed, but not at all accidental.

Thanks to Michael for 16 years — and for building one of the best design collectives in the business before he moved on. Time will tell whether or not Michael will like the “big corporate machine” and we can’t wait to sneak over and see what he does with his cubicle (haha) but, one thing is for sure, we’ll miss him a lot. Thankfully, he’ll be nearby and we can grab coffee and beers on a regular basis! Not to mention that we’re excited about the idea of getting to work with him again soon on some really big Hallmark jobs!

All of us at T2 + Back Alley will miss him — but we wish him the very best in this new endeavor.

***Check out Michael’s blog post for his own perspective on his upcoming move to Hallmark.