Michael started his professional career in 1995 as tech support person and assistant system administrator at the dialup internet provider Planet Earth Communications in Staten Island, NY. There he learned system administration and programming for the web, and in 1996 was hired at Robert Greenberg Associates in NYC. While being hired as a web developer, he often assisted in interactive design and continued to move in that direction, focusing on ways to bring the two together.

He achieved his goal in 1997 when he was hired at CBS' fledgling New Media division as an interactive designer and developer. After working on numerous high profile projects, including a top-down site redesign for The Late Show with David Letterman, he was awarded the role of Senior Art Director for the marketing and entertainment division of CBS.com. In late 1999, he left CBS to co-found an interactive agency, Fistful of Digits.

Acting as partner and creative director at F.O.D., he designed and oversaw the design of a wide range of projects for clients such as FOX, Comedy Central, Revlon, and Black Entertainment Television, among others. In mid 2001 he resigned from his post and ventured out on his own, soon joining HBO and becoming the lead designer for The Sopranos website which launched later in the year.

Subsequently he has consulted at various companies and interactive agencies, including Sporting News where he designed interactive television applications, and POP and Company, where he designed Flash-based games and companion sites for television shows.

In addition to the work he does for his career, Michael has also been a street photographer since 2000. He maintained the popular and innovative photoblog Meccapixel.com (formerly Brooklynkid.com), has been published in Gawker and Gothamist, and has participated in panel discussions at the Apple store in SoHo. In 2001 he appeared on CTV Canada's TalkTV to discuss weblog culture.

Today he is an active contributor to Flickr.com and blogs he shares with his wife Rion Nakaya at mikeandrion.com and son Dante. He is also the former Editor-in-Chief of Parisist.com, part of the Gothamist global blog network.

In 1997 he designed the graffiti-styled typeface Brooklyn Kid and made it available freely for personal and commercial use. It has become one of the most highly downloaded fonts in the world and has been used in a myriad of print, video, and online projects for such companies as MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, Cartoon Network, Activision, Electronic Arts, McDonalds, Altoids, and many more.

You may contact Michael here.