The Storytelling Animal
Jonathan Gottschall
A Beautiful Constraint
Adam Morgan + Mark Barden
Final Cut
Steven Bach
Watching
The Defiant Ones
Allen Hughes
The Wire
David Simon
City of Ghosts
Matthew Heineman
Barry Lyndon
Stanley Kubrick
Matt Checkowski is a designer, filmmaker and creative executive.
Matt’s award-winning body of work features collaborations and innovative projects that have inspired audiences around the world. He has served as the creative force behind the dream sequences in Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report, a first-of-its-kind interactive perfume museum for Sephora in NYC, the digital media content for a science-fiction opera at l’Opera de Monte Carlo, and the co-director of Lies & Alibis, a feature film starring Steve Coogan and Rebecca Romijn.
In 2006, Matt established the Department of the 4th Dimension, a company dedicated to groundbreaking creativity at the intersection of strategy, design and storytelling. The D4D helps brands and organizations become more meaningful, effective, inspiring participants in the cultural conversation. The multi-disciplinary team of thinkers and makers has positioned and produced communications, content campaigns and media experiences for clients including the Walker Art Center, Sephora, Unilever, Electrolux, the University of California and Cal State systems, and Harvard Business School. The firm has been honored by the Webby Awards, One Show, AICP Next Awards, Core 77 Design Awards, and the Technological Breakthrough of the Year at the FiFi’s, the “Oscars” of the fragrance business.
As a non-fiction filmmaker, Matt has interviewed dozens of the world’s most influential thinkers and creators in the arts and sciences, including dinosaur hunters, atom colliders, espresso makers and molecular gastronomers. His work has been recognized at AFI Fest, CineVegas, and the Savannah, Sarasota, Anchorage and Richmond film festivals.
Matt has spoken about the intersection of design and storytelling on Vice News Tonite, at Semi+Permanent (Wellington), Profile Intermedia (Berlin), PROMAX/BDA, the Kansas City Art Institute, the AMA Symposium on Higher Education, and his alma mater, NC State.
