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Modena → Brooklyn.
The long version.
I grew up in Modena, Italy — the same city that made Ferrari cars, balsamic vinegar, Pavarotti and Massimo Bottura. That's the tradition I was raised in: craft as its own reward. Do it with your hands. Do it until it's right.
I trained in visual design, then in animation, comics and illustration, in Milan. In 1998 I founded Melazeta — Italy's first fully digital studio — and by 2001 I was running digital content for Ferrero. In 2005 a series I created went out on RAI. In 2007 I won the Pulcinella Award for Best Producer in Animation. From 2010 to 2012 I directed film and animation for DIAVIVA in Reggio Emilia — concept, script, storyboards and style frames, then the live-action shoot and CGI supervision, then the whole post chain: edit, VFX and compositing, grade, sound and master. Then I moved to Brooklyn and started again.
For 25 years I've been directing brand stories for the companies people know — Ferrari, Ferrero, Tesla, NIO, Nike, Serta Simmons, Marvel, Disney, LEGO, ESPN, DoorDash. Innovative Transmedia is my studio and my own extension. For big animation productions I bring in trusted external teams. For everything else, it's me.
What changed recently is the tooling, not the judgment. I collaborate with Google Labs on things that aren't public yet. Claude runs beside me daily. ComfyUI and LM Studio run on my own machine. I've been in the Adobe stack since 1996 — long enough to know the difference between a tool that speeds up craft and a tool that replaces the thinking. My heart, my mind and my hands are always in control, from start to finish.
The arc.
BA Visual Design, Milan
BA Animation, Comics & Illustration, Milan
Founded Melazeta — Italy's first fully digital studio, 25-person team
Head of Digital Content, Ferrero (Kinder) — Magic-Kinder.com in 32 languages, 32 markets, 500+ pieces; later Applaydu
PC Toons airs on RAI Italian Television
Pulcinella Award — Best Producer in Animation
Founded Innovative Transmedia, Brooklyn
Film & Animation Director, DIAVIVA — Reggio Emilia: live action, 2D and 3D CGI, concept through delivery
Animation Producer, Starlight Runner Entertainment (Jeff Gomez)
Marvel Custom Solutions partnership begins — fourteen years
Genie The Gene — Boomer Esiason Foundation, cystic-fibrosis awareness
X Media Lab Switzerland keynote, ECAL Lausanne — with Jeff Gomez
Piana Technology — a ten-year engagement begins
U.S. citizenship
Hasbro Stunt Squad — Marvel New Media
Uno and the Game of Two published
Ferrari SF-26 · Phi & Bonacci · Piana × NIO · Adobe × Nike LA28
Marvel engagement concludes after fourteen years — open to what's next
What I use.
Awards & memberships.
Teaching
Adobe Creative Suite instruction at Italian animation and design academies, as visiting faculty. Previously taught sequential art and visual storytelling, including at ISIA — the first university-level public institution for Design — in Florence, and the International School of Comics in Reggio Emilia. The through-line: AI is an accelerator of craft, not a replacement for it — master the traditional skills first, then let the tools amplify what you already know.
Speaking.
X Media Lab Switzerland — Transmedia. ECAL, Lausanne, 27–29 September 2013. Three days, sixteen international keynote speakers, and a talk called “A Dual Universe” in front of an audience of five hundred — alongside Jeff Gomez, the transmedia producer behind Avatar, Pirates of the Caribbean and Halo, and Gianfranco Cordara, Head of Disney Programming for Europe. I was there as a transmedia designer for Disney, Ferrari and Ferrero, and as a member of that year’s Digital Emmy Awards jury. The written version of the talk — Transmedia universes from the perspective of the audience — is on Medium.
Read the talk — “The Pursuit of Happiness” → · Event programme (PDF) →
The (not really) full list ;)
Ferrari · Ferrero · Tesla · NIO · Nike · Serta Simmons Bedding · Caesars Hotels · Air New Zealand · Amazon · American Express · Adobe · Clarins · Baxter Medical · Marvel · Disney · LEGO · Hasbro · Toyota · NFL · DoorDash · ESPN · Christian Louboutin · State Farm · FDA · USDA · CAPCOM · NordVPN · Synchrony · CLEAR · AXE · Adidas · Sony PlayStation · Mondadori Editore · RAI Italian Television · Boomer Esiason Foundation · Italian museums & cultural institutions
Downloads.
Questions I get asked.
What kind of role is Matteo Stanzani looking for?
A full-time, in-house Creative Director role at a technology company or brand — somewhere the work still gets made, not only approved. He is based in Brooklyn, New York and open to hybrid, remote or relocation.
Does he direct the work himself, or manage a team?
Both, and the range is the point. He has led matrixed crews of 8–15 scaling past 25 on flagship deliveries, and he still concepts, art-directs and cuts finished films alone in Premiere. Concept, deck, direction, edit — all of it is his own hand.
How does he use AI in his work?
Every major generative tool sits inside his daily practice — Adobe Firefly, Google Labs (Flow, Veo, Omni), ComfyUI, Runway, Kling, ElevenLabs and Claude — and he collaborates with Google Labs on tools that are not public yet. The tools changed the speed, not the judgment: direction, taste and the final cut stay human.
Can he work inside strict brand, rights and compliance processes?
Yes. Fourteen years directing branded content inside Marvel and Disney’s licensed-IP governance framework, the tightest rights-review environment in entertainment; national public-awareness campaigns with the FDA and the USDA; and a children’s content platform for Ferrero governed across 32 markets.
Is he available for freelance or contract briefs as well?
Yes. Alongside full-time conversations he takes freelance and contract work through Innovative Transmedia Inc., his own practice in Brooklyn. Institutional and government contracting runs through a separate practice — see the Institutional page.
Have a story that needs making?
Full-time roles, freelance briefs, collaboration ideas — I'd love to hear from you.
matteo@innovativetransmedia.comModena → Brooklyn. Craft as its own reward.