Speaker
Jose Caballer is Co-Founder and CEO of THE_GROOP, an award-winning digital design firm in downtown Los Angeles specializing in interactive design solutions for Web, TV and Mobile. Growing up in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, Jose developed his visual acumen at an early age (he handcrafted a race track and cars out of river clay and cardboard shoe boxes). He quickly developed an appetite for entrepreneurism as well, selling Star-Wars replica space ships made out of chipboard, foam and paper to his 6th and 7th grade classmates (Darth Vader's Imperial Transport was his top seller). He figures that's why he gravitated to a career in digital media because of the blinking lights, sounds and visuals that it combines.
Throughout his career he's had the opportunity to collaborate with clients such as Sega, Microsoft, CharityFinders, Wieden + Kennedy, WK Tokyo Lab, Sony Music, Warner Music, The Digital Living Project, Art Center College of Design, Nike and Live Earth. While Jose is much more driven by results than awards, he's taken home his share of hardware too, including Art Directors Club Young Guns 2004, HOW Magazine's, Interactive Best of Show 2003, American Center for Design Web 100, and he has work in the permanent collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
When he's not producing results for clients or running a contemporary art gallery called Bank that he co-owns, he spends his time dropping knowledge as a professor of digital media and design at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Here he provides students with an insider's look into the ever-changing methodologies that are used to create engaging digital experiences.
