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Michael Mann
Senior Story Artist at Relish Studios
Professional Background
Michael A. Mann is an esteemed visual storyteller with a rich tapestry of experience in animation, graphic design, and illustration. His profound ability to communicate complex narratives through visual mediums has made him a prominent figure in the fields of documentary animation, social marketing campaigns, information design, and educational media. Mann's multifaceted career is characterized by his commitment to creating powerful immersive storytelling experiences that resonate with diverse audiences.
Throughout his career, Michael has held various significant positions that showcase his exceptional skillset and creative vision. Currently, he serves as a Senior Story Artist at Relish Studios, where he leverages his storytelling expertise to craft engaging narratives that captivate viewers. Prior to this role, he was the Director at Global Mechanic, where he oversaw creative projects and contributed to innovative storytelling approaches.
With an illustrious career in the industry, Mann has also served as a Creative Director at Mannkind Design, where he guided teams in the development of visually stunning and compelling designs. His earlier roles include serving as a Comp Artist at Titmouse, Assistant Director at Bardel Entertainment, and animator at the prestigious National Film Board of Canada. Mann has also lent his talents as a VFX artist at Insight Film Studios and as an animation contractor at Electronic Arts, showcasing his adaptability and expertise across various aspects of animation and visual effects.
Michael's experience extends beyond conventional roles; he has been an influential mentor at the Gulf Island Film and Television School, where he guided aspiring artists in their artistic journeys. This mentorship reflects Mann's commitment to sharing his vast knowledge and skills with the next generation of creatives. His dedication to nurturing talent is a testament to his passion for the field and the importance of storytelling in visual arts.
Education and Achievements
Michael A. Mann's educational background is as diverse as his professional career. He honed his animation skills by completing a Classical Animation Certificate at the renowned Vancouver Film School, where he immersed himself in the foundational principles of animation that would later shape his career. This intensive training provided him with the technical skills and creative insights necessary to excel in the animation industry.
In addition to his technical expertise, Mann also pursued higher education in Speech Communication, Rhetorical Studies, and Comparative Religions at Ithaca College. This multifaceted education affords him a unique perspective that enriches his storytelling by incorporating elements of communication theory and cultural understanding.
Mann further expanded his horizons by studying Tibetan Studies during a semester abroad at the School for International Training. This experience not only deepened his understanding of different cultures but also influenced his creative approach to storytelling.
Skills and Specialties
Michael A. Mann possesses a broad range of specialties that underscore his ability to deliver compelling narratives through visual mediums. These specialties include:
- Pre-visualization development – expertly planning and conceptualizing animation sequences to ensure clarity and effectiveness in storytelling.
- Storyboarding – creating visual guides to outline and plan animations and sequences, which enhances the narrative flow.
- Motion design – combining graphics and animation to create dynamic visual experiences that engage viewers.
- Typography and kinetic type animation – skillfully utilizing text in animation to add emphasis and enhance storytelling.
- Compositing – blending various visual elements to create cohesive scenes and experiences.
- Logo design – crafting distinctive logos that effectively communicate brand identities.
- Mentorship and pitch development – guiding aspiring artists and professionals in improving their skills and successfully pitching their creative ideas.
Michael's technical prowess is equally impressive. He is proficient in various industry-standard software and tools including Adobe After Effects, Nuke, Flash, Ableton Live, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Cinema 4D. His skills encompass both 2D drawing and design as well as print design, showcasing his versatility as a visual artist.
With such a formidable skill set, Mann has left a remarkable imprint upon the industry and continues to advance his craft through continuous learning and innovation.
Notable Achievements
Michael A. Mann’s body of work spans a wide array of projects and collaborations that highlight his dedication to storytelling through visual artistry. His ability to merge his graphic design background with animation has resulted in numerous successful campaigns and projects. As a part of the National Film Board of Canada, he contributed to some of the country’s most influential animated works, which garnered critical acclaim and audience appreciation.
At Global Mechanic, Mann led projects that pushed the boundaries of conventional storytelling, earning recognition for his innovative methods of engaging audiences. His tenure at prominent studios such as Electronic Arts and Insight Film Studios further illustrates his knack for adapting to the ever-evolving demands of the entertainment industry, while consistently delivering high-quality visual content.
Michael's commitment to mentorship through his role at the Gulf Island Film and Television School demonstrates his dedication to fostering creativity and skill among emerging talents in animation and design. His influence can be seen in the success of many of his former students, who have gone on to establish themselves in the industry.
Through every endeavor, Michael A. Mann continues to inspire others with his artistry and passion for visual storytelling. Whether as an artist, educator, or mentor, he remains dedicated to creating works that resonate with audiences and enrich the landscape of animation and design.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Clay's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Clay isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Clay instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Clay is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Clay can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.