Areas of Expertise: Entrepreneurship, Branding, Startups, Design, Marketing.

Michael Nieling is a designer, educator, husband, father, and full time spaz. He the Creative Director at Ocupop, co-founder of Kunoa Cattle Company, and lectures on logo design at MIAD. Splitting time between offices in Hawaii, British Columbia, California, and Wisconsin, if he's not on an airplane, he's likely somewhere shouting about marketing and design.

Michael has been helping to define the visual language of our digital experience since 2000. As Creative Director and founder of Ocupop, he has led projects for companies, foundations, and non-profits at all ends of the spectrum - from Google, Facebook and Mozilla to countless successful (and horribly failed) startups to cause-driven work with ProPublica, FIRST, ReFED, and the W3C, Michael has directed his small, super-powered team in creating some of the most influential logos, campaigns, and user interfaces on the web and beyond.

Prior to founding Ocupop, Michael received his Masters of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin with a focus on product design. His graduate studies centered around hybrid vehicle powertrain research for the Environmental Protection Agency and Ford Motor Company. Michael lives in Kahala on the island of Oahu and tries to surf as often as possible--working hard to keep up with his daughter Izzy and son Håkan.

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