KAREN BARRANCO

Founder |  Creative Director

Special Modern Design was founded in 2000 by award-winning designer, Karen Barranco. After moving from New Orleans to Los Angeles she worked at the design and branding firm, Evenson Design Group, as a Creative Director serving clients such as Warner Bros., NBC, MGM, UniverSoul Circus, Apple, and Reading Entertainment along with heading the herculean task of creative direction for development of product for three "islands" (including, Seuss Landing and Jurassic Park) of the theme park, Universal Islands of Adventure. Barranco also served as the Brand Director at Red Ant Media USA and a few highly financed start-ups in the dawn of the rapid rise of the dot com era. At this time, she gained technical knowledge and experience and has applied that knowledge to extend brands online seamlessly allowing the client to manage their own content via a content management system.

After realizing her clients were not getting the attention they needed and their message was getting diluted in office bureaucracy, she founded Special Modern Design. Inspired early on by the discovery and planning necessary to communicate the appropriate message, Barranco adopted her own process and applied it to such clients as: Shape.com, Cake Monkey Bakery, Los Angeles Universal Preschool (LAUP), LeSanctuaire, Taryn Rose, Dtox Day Spa, Sam Saboura, Music Reports Inc, Jennifer Diamond Foundation, and The Ranch at Live Oak Malibu, etc.

 

 MICAH CALABRESE

Lead Interactive Developer

Micah is a bit of a wonder boy. Programming since the age of five, he is extremely talented both technically and creatively. His understanding, strategic insight, and search engine marketing skills to promote clients’ brand and business goals is instinctual. He can turn a web design into a growing business with abounding traffic and revenue.

Micah is responsible for overseeing all programming and database architecture as well as integrating technical requirements with creative vision. Before joining Special Modern Design, Micah programmed and consulted for several interactive firms such as Red Ant Media Group, Toy Box Entertainment, Southern California Edison, and L.A. County Fire Department. He was the interactive lead at Premiere Radio Networks where he oversaw development and maintenance of content managed websites for popular radio shows such as The Jim Rome Show, Coast to Coast AM, American Top 40. Other online projects: Digital Kitchen, USC, AT&T, Brain Pop, and Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA).

Micah is also an accomplished musician unusually skillful at playing the bass parts on a synthesizer with his left hand and the drums with his right hand --- simultaneously. His ambidextrous skills afforded him to perform at Coachella Music Festival in 2006.