Dale Herigstad, Richard D. Titus and Paul Taormino Partner to Launch Schematic

Business Wire, Dec 3, 2002

Business Editors

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 3, 2002

Schematic:

-- Schematic to Offer Solutions for Entertainment, Technology and Advertising Communities Using Design and Architecture to Protect Market Share and Increase Audience Retention

-- First Clients Include Cablevision, 20th Century Fox, Turner Classic Movies and National Geographic

Four time Emmy-award winning designer Dale Herigstad, Razorfish LA founder Richard D. Titus and Infospace founding executive Paul Taormino have joined forces to launch Schematic. The new company is committed to enabling content creators, advertisers, networks/aggregators and distributors to protect their marketshare, increase audience retention and evolve their business models through the creation of interfaces, visual frameworks, broadcast design and ITV solutions.

The company announced Cablevision Systems Corporation, 20th Century Fox, National Geographic Channels International as some of its first clients.

"The media landscape is undergoing a significant evolution as all the players in the value chain face a dramatic shift in how they've traditionally done business and even more importantly, how their content and brands are delivered and consumed," said Herigstad, co-founder of Schematic. "Schematic exists to meet those challenges head on by using research, design and production to create compelling, dynamic, and aesthetically pleasing solutions that are intuitive for the audience."

"Today's audiences consume multiple mediastreams in their daily lives, often in parallel, which are delivered across an increasing diversity of platforms, networks, and devices. As audiences take control of how they experience and interact with branding, programming, promotion and advertising, companies are forced to address the resulting communications and economic effects," said Titus, co-founder of Schematic. "Dale, Paul and I have been focused on these issues separately for many years, all of us involved with pioneering efforts in the worlds of broadcast, wireless, the Internet, film, and video gaming. Together we are committed to applying our vision and expertise, solving the challenges around on-screen experiences."

"We're thrilled to have Cablevision, National Geographic Channels International and 20th Century Fox among our first clients," said Taormino, co-founder. "As our work for them will demonstrate, not only is there a market opportunity for forward thinking well conceived design solutions that can eventually transition to other platforms, but also for helping advertisers, and other distributors and content creators retain the strength of their branding, by solving the business proposition and branding challenges inherent in such emerging platforms such as iTV, VOD, ETV, wireless, as well as the next generation of EPGs."

Schematic's current client work includes:

Cablevision Systems Corporation -- Schematic is involved in the next iteration of interface design refinements for Cablevision's suite of digital television services "iO: Interactive Optimum," these revisions are currently slated for live, set-top deployment in 2003. Schematic and Cablevision are also working on a variety of other on-going projects.

Turner Classic Movies -- Schematic worked with Turner Classic Movies as part of the highly regarded AFI Enhanced Television workshop this year, designing and developing an iTV prototype with enhanced content and even an embedded game. This project is usable on a SA 3100 explorer set-top box, and is intended to be tested in 2003.

20th Century Fox -- Schematic developed on set playback graphics elements and faux broadcast network design elements for Roland Emmerich's upcoming feature film "Day After Tomorrow."

National Geographic Channels International -- Schematic developed its branding/packaging system and is currently engaged in advising NGCI on its internal marketing and sales tool.

Dale Herigstad is an Emmy and Clio award winner who brings over two decades of experience to Schematic. He has done network branding packages for ABC, ESPN, FOX, National Geographic, the WB, NBC, including the sequential Winter Olympics, among others. Herigstad's design work for film includes the groundbreaking animated logos for Caravan, Interscope and Touchstone, U2's "Rattle and Hum," as well as conceptual design and on-screen graphics for movies such as "Minority Report" and Roland Emmerich's upcoming "The Day After Tomorrow." Herigstad was most recently the founder of H Design.

Richard D. Titus brings over a decade of experience to Schematic. He was the founder and managing director of Razorfish LA as well as VP of strategic investments at Razorfish, Inc., and co-created and produced the pioneering television and web series "The Visitor.com" for 20th Century FOX, with "Independence Day" team Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich. Titus began his career as a sound engineer for the Beach Boys, eventually moving on to other music industry ventures, which led him into new media where he produced several successful video games and CD-ROMs. He has produced an array of feature films and digital video projects including the feature "On Line," which premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, won best picture at the Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose, and is slated for theatrical release late spring of 2003.