(born in Queens, New York City) is a designer and artist currently based in New York City. He founded and is chief designer of the fashion brand Nooka Inc. Nooka is well known for their graphic design inspired wristwatches that have gained an international following among fellow designers and steetwear style icons.
Waldman attended the High School of Art and Design on 57th street in NYC with a major in architecture. While being accepted to Harvard for design, he decided to freelance at age 19.
From 1987 to 1990 Waldman acted as an art director in corporate communications in Tokyo. Moving back to New York City he became the creative director of New York Zoom inc. with backing from a Japanese based agency. During his tenure there, Nooka was conceived as a project. Tom Dixon (industrial designer) who had contacts at Seiko recommended that Waldman should contact them with a couple of time concepts, which he conceived while looking at a clock in London.
Seiko manufactured a watch similar to the current Nooka Zoo, however when they closed all their sub-brands Waldman decided to manufacture and sell them himself. In 2005 Nooka Inc. was created. His first clients in North America were MoMA while in Asia it was United Arrows. During his time with New York Zoom inc, Waldman also created the interdisciplinary design firm, Berrymatch, in 2000 focusing on branding, print and web interactivity.
Matthew Waldman has participated several art shows in the
United States, the UK and Japan. They included Art Storm London 2004, More Art Inaugural Exhibition, and Piece of
Peace Lego Exhibition in Japan.
