Michael Eisenwasser

Michael is director of design at Cluster Interactive Group. His primary role is website design and development.

Background

Michael has always been an artist.  While in high school he studied figure drawing at the Art Institute of Chicago. In college he focused on fine arts — drawing, painting, sculpting. He spent summers teaching woodworking courses. His experiences with art eventually led him to graphic design and then to web design.

He found web design to be the perfect mix of his creative talent, technical skills and intellectual curiosity. He worked at a Chicago web design firm in early 2007 and continued as a contract web designer for about 2 years. In 2009 he travelled through Asia with the Tribune Company as his primary client. While in Asia he worked on websites with Matt O’Brien, and upon returning to Chicago they started EasyOutsource together. In early 2010 Matt and Michael combined forces to start Cluster Interactive Group. Michael concentrates on web design and development and Matt focuses on online marketing.

His preference is for clean designs that are instantly understandable. When designing with simplicity and purpose in mind, everything else tends to fall in place. Anyone can make cluttered, confusing designs. The real challenge is to make things simple.

Education

Michael graduated with honors from the University of Illinois, where he studied fine arts and speech communication. Following that, he was offered a full tuition scholarship to study architecture at the U of I as a graduate student. He decided instead to study at Columbia University in New York.

By his second semester at Columbia he realized that architecture as a profession was not all that he had hoped it would be. He withdrew from the program to focus on web design and development. He loves being an entrepreneur and considers leaving grad school to be one of his best decisions. He still enjoys architecture, however he would be unhappy practicing it as a profession or lifestyle.

Personal

Michael loves traveling and meeting new people. He has spent considerable amounts of time in faraway places, including India, Nepal, Thailand, Alaska and Israel. He relaxes by reading, listening to music, drawing, and attending yoga classes in Chicago.

Michael enjoys ice hockey and skiing, and watching the NHL and NFL and occasionally the NBA.