Steven Jos Phan

NY-based creative director & technologist with 15 years of experience leading teams at the intersection of brand design, computation, and human experience. Current Masters Candidate in Interactive Media & Technology at NYU ITP/IMA. Former Creative Director Lead, Meta Brand Experience Design Team; Executive Creative Director, Invisible North; freelance Creative Director and Creative Producer for A24, Google, Spotify, Oprah, and more; Production Designer for narrative and commercial films; garden and hospitality design hobbyist.

Select Features: New York Times / New York Times / AdWeek / A/V Club / Nowness / PSFK / New York Times / Dezeen

phansteve at gmail dot com / linkedin

Encoded_meaning

Master’s Thesis
NYU ITP/IMA
2025

Encoded_meaning is a exploration in design, computational cryptography, machine learning, computer vision and information dissemination through radically offline networks.

The project allows for a seemingly innocuous message to be cryptographically encoded with hidden meaning and shared in broad daylight without fear of interception.

Project Deep Dive