Inside the Lab: A Q&A with Michael Turkington, Creative Technologist at Tag

At Tag, we believe in the power of creativity, powered by intelligence. Our Innovation Lab team brings together specialists from across the industry to explore how emerging technologies can unlock new dimensions of storytelling, design, and production. 

We’re excited to announce the appointment of Michael Turkington as Creative Technologist within our Innovation Lab. As part of our series, 'Inside the Lab’ we sat down with Michael to discuss his background in creative technology and how he plans to continue to push the boundaries of creativity through technology, bringing fresh energy, deep expertise, and a future-facing mindset to the work we do.  

Q: Michael, your background spans both creative and technological experience. How did this journey begin? 

M: I cut my teeth in music, tiny gigs with a dozen people in the room, loading gear in and out of venues. Boots-on-the-ground type stuff. That grew into running shows for a couple of thousand people across the UK and Europe, and naturally I found myself becoming just as interested in the tech that could help ease the load and help us do more than we were capable of manually. 

That curiosity pushed me into music technology, helping build platforms that made it easier for artists to get booked, promote themselves and actually get paid. I then moved into managing large music catalogues, which by nature meant supporting thousands of Artists’ livelihoods. 
 
Then AR and AI arrived, and by this point in my career, I had already learnt to code, and immediately took on the challenge off moving past traditional web development and went straight into 3D and become a freelance AR developer. Where I built projects for web and social for brands like Pokémon, CocoMelon, Land Rover to working with Artists like Sigur Ros, Ed Sheeran and Paramore. I became an Effect House Ambassador and even built my own iOS application for Snapchat Lens Studio.  

Q: You’ve gone on to lead major digital campaigns. Can you tell us more about that? 

M: I’ve been lucky to work with teams at Google, Meta, TikTok, Instagram and PICO, and to see work go out into the world that has reached well over 500 million views. But what means the most to me is not the numbers. It is that people actually use the things I build. A strange AR effect, a tool, a digital experience or something open-source that someone else takes further. Seeing someone pick up something you made and turn it into their own creative piece is incredibly rewarding. 

That is the good stuff: seeing something you created become part of someone else’s creativity. I have been inspired by other people’s work, so being on the other side of that feels properly full-circle. 

Q: How has AI changed how we think and work creatively? 

M: We’re at a really interesting inflection point. Tools are now teaching us how to use them which is the complete opposite of how it used to be. 

Before AI, there was a steep learning curve. You had to build muscle memory in a piece of software before you could even get an idea out. That discipline is still important, that’s craft. 

But now, instead of spending years learning where everything lives in a menu, you can focus on the idea first. You can create like a kid, explore, experiment and then refine like a scientist. 

Tech gets you to a version. Your instincts get you to the right one. 

Q: How can AI and innovation deliver real client value? 

M: It tightens the feedback loop. We can show the idea sooner not as a storyboard or a written description, but as the actual feeling of it. 

That means clients can make better decisions earlier. And the less time we spend guessing what’s in someone’s head, the more time we spend making the work great. 

Q: You mentioned that AI has changed collaboration in the room. What has that been like? 

M: Traditionally, you’d get the brief, go off, make something, and hope you’ve interpreted what the director or creative director meant. A lot of it relied on language and interpretation. 

Now, I can sit with the client and we make decisions together in real time. We can swap locations, change performance beats, adjust lighting, play with tone right there in front of us. 

It feels more like theatre direction than post-production. It’s hands-on, collaborative, and honestly, fun. The back-and-forth is immediate, and the work benefits massively because of it. 

Q: There are so many new tools out there. How do you decide what to use? 

M: I am completely platform-agnostic. The question is always the same: what is the right tool for the craft we are aiming for? 

Some things require precision. Some things require speed. Sometimes you start rough, then move into high fidelity. It is all about workflow: choosing the right thing at the right moment to get the best result. 

Q: AI is constantly evolving. How do you stay on top of it? 

M: I jump on new tools as soon as they drop. Some become part of my workflow; others go straight in the bin. You only find out by experimenting. Curiosity is the only rule I follow, because it scales better than expertise.