School of Visual Arts (SVA), in partnership with Giraldi Media, announced today the jury who will select the winners of the inaugural Out of Hand International Festival. The jurors are: designer and educator Liz Danzico, Cut&Paste’s John Fiorelli, humorist Ze Frank, director Bob Giraldi, frog design’s Joshua Klein, and PC Magazine’s Jamie Lendino.

The Out of Hand International Festival is a showcase for innovative digital content created by students worldwide and intended for playback specifically on mobile or other handheld devices. Aspiring artists, designers, filmmakers and creative thinkers worldwide are encouraged to enter original content into competition by June 30, 2009. The jury will award one grand prize of $5,000 along with additional prizes, including a summer residency at SVA. A public screening and awards presentation will take place in New York City in October of 2009.


Liz Danzico is a user experience professional, with a particular focus on information architecture, usability and editorial, who has helped to build and manage teams at Barnes&Noble.com and Razorfish. She is the chair of the MFA Interaction Design Department at SVA and was the director of experience strategy for the national staff at AIGA.

John Fiorelli is the founder and executive director of Cut&Paste, a leading graphic arts competition that supports a global network of designers. He is also known for his work in marketing, filmmaking, community development and public speaking.

Ze Frank is a performance artist, humorist, designer and consultant who explores the ways technology shapes the human experience. He has been a featured speaker at annual technology events including Pop!Tech and the TED conference. Frank’s Webby award-winning site, www.zefrank.com, was listed in Time magazine’s Top 50 websites of 2005.

A few highlights of Bob Giraldi’s decades-spanning career consist of writing and directing motion pictures and popular music videos, including Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”; helming advertising campaigns for Pepsi-Cola and Miller Lite; and directing TV spots for Broadway’s “A Chorus Live,” “Evita” and “Phantom of the Opera.”

Joshua Klein is an author, designer and lecturer, having recently appeared at the TED conference. A former principle technologist at frog design, Klein developed mobile/social applications, health care-related systems and other tools that improve people’s lives. Klein’s novel Roo’d (CreateSpace, 2008) was the second book to be ported to the iPhone.

Jamie Lendino is a contributing editor at PC Magazine where he edits Smart Device Central, the magazine’s smartphone and mobile technology site. He is also a contributing editor at mediabistro.com’s Mobile Content Today blog. Lendino is also an accomplished composer and sound designer for video games.

Giraldi Media has created nearly 3,000 commercials, music videos and short films and earned over 500 major industry awards. Bob Giraldi’s directing credits include Hiding Out (1987), Dinner Rush (2001), Honey Trap (2005) and Second Guessing Grandma (2008), and he has two additional motion pictures in production. Giraldi’s films have been featured at the Sundance Film Festival, the New Directors/New Films series presented by the Department of Film and Media at the Museum of Modern Art, The Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Hamptons International Film Festival.

School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City is an established leader and innovator in the education of artists. From its inception in 1947, the faculty has been comprised of professionals working in the arts and art-related fields. SVA provides an environment that nurtures creativity, inventiveness and experimentation, enabling students to develop a strong sense of identity and a clear direction of purpose.

Media Contact: For more information, please contact John Wyszniewski at 212.592.2209 or jwyszniewski@sva.edu.