Director, designer and visual effects supervisor Jeremiah “Miah” Morehead has joined the creative staff of Thornberg & Forester. Miah brings a broad skill set to his new home, along with credits spanning commercials, broadcast graphics and television main titles, including work for McDonald’s, Dodge and HBO. Formerly an associate creative director at Digital Kitchen in Chicago, he has already collaborated with T&F on several projects, including promos for the just concluded U.S. Open Tennis Tournament and the show open for the 2008 AICP Show.
Much of Miah’s work features seamless blends of live action, graphics, visual effects and animation. That multidisciplinary approach, along with his experience in leading creative teams, makes him a good fit at Thornberg & Forester. “Due to our recent growth, we needed someone who could assume a creative leadership role and oversee projects,” said Thornberg & Forester executive producer Elizabeth Kiehner. “Having worked with Miah on several projects we found him to be a good complement to our creative directors, Scott Matz and Justin Meredith, and someone who works extremely well with clients.”

“Miah is an important addition to our creative team. His experience in live action, in particular, supports the ongoing evolution of Thornberg & Forester,” Kiehner added. “Although we are a design company first, an increasing number of our projects incorporate live action and other types of elements. Miah will be a strong contributor to projects with those needs.”

Miah spent three years at Digital Kitchen. His credits there as creative director included spots for Kohl’s, Dell and Dodge. Last year, he won a Silver Broadcast Design Award for a graphics promo for Ireland’s Meteor Music Awards. He also served as compositor on the Emmy-winning main title sequence for the HBO series Dexter.
Miah studied filmmaking at NYU and began his career as a documentary cinematographer and videographer in Los Angeles. He added motion graphics design to his repertoire during a two-year tenure with the Los Angeles design boutique 88 Phases, without whom, he says, none of his future success would have been possible. One of the first projects he contributed to, a graphics package for New York fashion retailer Today’s Man earned 88 Phases the honor of an AIGA award.

While delving further into design, Miah continued to work behind the camera and increasingly found opportunities to combine the two. His spot Orange Love for McDonald’s melds lifestyle footage of a young woman with graphical and real environments, and stop motion animated product imagery.

“I think having such a diverse path into this industry has given me a unique sensibility as a director,” Miah observed. “I don’t see directing on set, post-production and design as distinct process to be kept separated but as parts of the larger process of storytelling.”

In discussing his move to Thornberg & Forester, Miah said that the studio is home to many like-minded artists.”I think part of the studio’s success is a deeply instilled belief that every piece they work on is finished at the highest quality. They have a passion for putting their all into every spot that goes out the door.”
“I am continually impressed with the sheer talent of everyone here,” he added. “You look at the work and it makes you stop and count yourself lucky to be on the same team.”