TIMO BACH
Multi-media artist,
creative product developer
The Impact:
Followers
300
k+
Views
100
M+
Creating media & creative products from concept to distribution, managing teams & creating systems for success.
Play Video
Profile:
born to create.
Timo Bach wants to make the world beautiful: turning ordinary objects and experiences into joy sparking art. An e-commerce website becomes a virtual art gallery, a used pair of jeans becomes a canvas for wearable art, a tech startup’s ad campaign becomes a viral animated shorts comedy series. Timo has the innate ability to see beauty and tell its’ stories in a way that others can’t see.
“Timo doesn’t settle for done. He doesn’t settle for practical, utilitarian, cheap; he doesn’t look for perfection either. Timo’s the living embodiment of joy and light and love and brings that joy to everything he touches, every personal interaction, every product he designs. He understands people and community and uses his work to capture the beauty and spread joy.”
Bach got his start in media while working at a local TV station in high school, which kickstarted his learning, developing core production skills. He was hooked, jumping at any opportunity he could jam his foot in. By the time he graduated, he was well on his way to mastering photo and video production.
His second career-setting opportunity, came his sophomore year in college, an internship on a new morning show, The Jam. His hard work paid off and that internship turned into a full-time job. A year later he had not only finished his undergraduate degree a year early but was working in the third largest TV market in the country.
While appreciative of the opportunities, after two years with his beloved first show, he left to launch his own online platform, Science IRL.
In less than a year, he had built a youth education platform with 500k+ cross-platform followers and pushed 12M+ views a month. His success led to countless opportunities: the development of a monthly science camp subscription service, long-form content, TV appearances all across the country, and the ability to launch larger projects with the help of his team.
“I know everyone gets their breath taken away when they see the numbers my team was pushing but what I loved most, and many times miss most, was the community. I was able to inspire youth, specifically LGBTQ+ youth, all around the world and help them feel community, even if it was just for a short video or hour live stream.”
– Timo Bach
After 2.5 years building Science IRL, Timo was offered the opportunity to take the reigns of an even larger project: a new national cable news network.
NewsNation was a brand new network, at the time only airing a short 3-hour newscast in the evenings and syndicated thriller series during the day. Over his time with the network, he would see the launch of 5 talk shows, 4 new news format shows, and the launch of a behemoth 5-hour-long morning show.
As his contract came to an end, instead of renewing he was ready for a break, but in true Timo fashion that meant switching from a high-profile network news job to helping startups launch. Since leaving NewsNation, Timo has launched a successful comedy career and worked with several startups and non-profits – in an art & communications director and business coach capacity, assisting company leadership.
In June 2023, he launched his art label titled Odd Dukk which gives him a platform for pet projects and community building.
“I create with a laugh and smile because stress is temporary but frown lines are forever and Botox is expensive. Keep smiling!”
-Timo Bach
MY WORK,
turning ideas powerful media.
NewsNation
Science IRL
History IRL
Renovation Content
MOS
Team STEAM
I have show run two animation projects. The first was a grant project called ‘Team STEAM’ that consisted of two animated shorts about a group of 5 diverse friends who traveled through space and time, using their unique STEAM related talents to solves problems while learning science and history themes in the process.
You can view clips from the project here: LINK
Pigeon Loans
The second was the creation of a company mascot for a tech startup. Pigeon Loans was a new app that facilitated long term loans between friends and family. They came to me to create a mascot for the company. I developed two characters, a crazy Chicken that gets himself into crazy problems and his rich pigeon friend he calls to borrow money from to get out of them. I wrote and produced 18 ads with the help of a graphics team I assembled for the 3 month contract.
Links to video ads:
Odd Dukk
Created an apparel company the repurposed vintage clothing as the canvas for art you can wear. Partnered with local artists in Chicago to print their art on vintage clothing, promoting sustainable fashion and creativity.
Science IRL Science Camp Subscription Box
On the back of the Science IRL brand’s success, I lead a team that launched a monthly science camp subscription. Each month we sent out a camp to subscribers and filmed a 20-30 min video teaching the themes of the box to the kids who subscribed.
Life After Karen
Social media gag that I independently wrote, shot, and edited that pushed over 1.1M views on Tik Tok. As part of the gag I created a website that received 6k+ email subscriptions.
Charles the Chicken Series
A tech startup contracted me to create a mascot and ad series. I developed a comedy campaign featuring a crazy Chicken named Charles that got himself into trouble.
Links to video ads:
Blatantly Honest
After the acquisition of ClevverTV by Hearst Media, I was given the opportunity to develop a 7 episode pilot comedy pop-culture news series. You can see the project: HERE
Monologue Writing
History IRL
After the success of History IRL on short form platforms, I built a team to create long form documentaries on a number of different topics. You can view some of them below.
- Why the US is 50 States and NOT One Country
- The Story of Christopher Columbus
- Athens, The First Democracy
- Top 10 Craziest US Presidential Elections
Ordinarily Extraordinary
Flew to Portland to interview 5 of the world’s top ecologists and used stock footage to tell their stories.
As a passion project I have been working on writing a Juke Box parody musical about the gay coming of age experience. You can see some of the pieces I have work shopped below.
News has been the largest part of my career. I have worked in the digital, local TV news, and national cable news.
NewsNation
Bach Reports
TSL
I have worked in development in 4 different roles and have built many pitch decks. Below are the covers to pitch slide decks that I designed.
Habitat For Humanity
I used my connections at NewsNation to get Habitat for Humanity their largest TV placement of 2022: LINK
They received 3hrs of wall to wall coverage, a 3-5 min hit every half an hour on NewsNation AM shows. The coverage went so well they re-aired the big home reveal in the 3 afternoon shows.
Science IRL
During my time running Science IRL I secured the digital shows placements on the three major network’s affiliates all over the country.
You can read a detailed summary of my projects HERE
Northwest Passage Project
Commencing in August 2018, the Northwest Passage Project will embark on a 22-day expedition into the Passage aboard the state-of-art, ice-class research vessel Akademik Ioffe. Departing from Resolute Bay then traveling south and west to Cambridge Bay via Bellot Strait, the Akademik Ioffe will return to Lancaster Sound and Pond Inlet before traveling down the east side of Baffin Island, with several stops along the way.
Science Literacy of Crowdsourced Experts
Crowdsourced experts are becoming an ever-growing trend. Consumers are looking for answers and turn to social media to get information and connect with others they relate to. Networks such as Instagram and YouTube have developed several subcommunities around health, beauty, and the environment; featuring prominent creators as experts in their fields. There are no license or vetting process for an individual to be considered an expert on the internet. What is the level of science literacy of these crowdsourced experts?
Sex Appeal’s Effect On Social Media Engagement
To date, much of the research conducted around sexual appeal has been focused around three key areas; 1) the seuxalization of the female body and the negative effects it has on the general female populations self body image, 2) the difference between male and females use of sexualized content, and 3) sex allure used in marketing and its effectiveness. To date, there has not been a single publicly released research study that focuses specifically on how to successfully use sex appeal to boost online engagement. Most, if not all (aside from a select few marketing based projects), articles framed sexual appeal in a negative light which has not be done in this study. Sexual attraction is natural, a gift from God, and can be used in positive and negative ways; my goal is to understand the most successful ways to use it.
I have had the opportunity to design, build and light several news and talk format sets. Below are images of the empty set as well as screen shots of them on air.
Below are samples of digital and national broadcast graphics I have created.
Odd Dukk
I have had the opportunity to lead the front end development and design work on several websites ranging from podcasts, webstores, B to B companies, and media sites.
MISC
- Rockets
- Alex Warren Interview
- Trans Man Miss Treated by Medical Staff
- Blatantly Honest
- Afghanistan by The Numbers
NewsNation
Science IRL
History IRL
- Why the US is 50 States and NOT One Country
- The Story of Christopher Columbus
- Athens, The First Democracy
- Top 10 Craziest US Presidential Elections
- King Tut
- Banana Ketchup
- Angels
- Gender Reveal
Renovation Content
MOS
REVIEWS ARE IN:
"Timo is a joy to work with, I genuinely mean that. He's so upbeat, so energetic! He's certainly connecting with people.... His passion truly is contagious."
Nichole Berlie
NewsNation
"He's awesome, I knew him back in Chicago when he was an intern on (The Jam) TV show in 2017. He's a smart kid and he's got a great on-air personality... I've been following him on Instagram and social, he's done celebrity news, created sets (digital shows), he's really hustled!.. I wish him continued success!"
Jenny Milkowski
CBS 8 San Diego
"He's probably one of the few people doing some really cool, informative, interesting, educational things on Tik Tok... He's a rising star with hundreds of thousands of followers, millions of views, and he's teaching people!"
Jon Hansen
WGN Radio
