株式会社スマートドライブに入る前

For about twelve years I worked freelance, doing graphic design, branding, UX, UI, and nearly any other design related project people threw at me. It was a huge variety of work, which certainly prepared me for SmartDrive.

I’ve worked on a lot of compelling projects over the years, but some that stand out were designing the UI for a Sony product, helping NASA get kids excited about Mars, and doing UX/UI consulting for a personal finance product, where I was given a lot of freedom to really dive in and try to make their complex service something more digestible for casual users. In the end, I enjoy any project that challenges me to learn something new or to think about things in a way I wouldn’t have otherwise.

現在

I work on brand, product design, UX and UI for apps and web, content strategy, information architecture, industrial design, interaction design, print and packaging, as well as some aspects of CX. On any given day I might touch five or six of our projects. I’m very interested in projects that help to improve road safety and reduce carbon emissions. I think design has a lot of offer in both of those areas.

株式会社スマートドライブについて

I met Kitagawa-san (CEO) through a mutual friend when he was just getting SmartDrive started. He showed me what I think was his first deck and I could see enormous potential not only in the business that was described in that document, but in Kitagawa-san himself. I really gravitated toward the broad vision and big thinking with eyes on lots of interesting problems we need to solve as a society. Kitagawa-san hired me on a freelance basis for a while, and that ended up being my favorite gig of my career, so when I was asked to be the first employee, it was a very easy decision on my part.

今後どういうことをしていきたいか

That’s a long list! Over the last two years we’ve tossed around a lot of ideas, but I’m very interested in projects that help to improve road safety and reduce carbon emissions. I think design has a lot of offer in both of those areas.

I think designers are always looking for ways to improve their craft, so beyond that obvious one, there’s parenting because I’m helping to shape a life that I co-created, business in general, because I always want my design efforts to synchronize with quantifiable company goals, audio engineering because I make music and I’d like to feel like my tracks are actually finished. And you know, Japanese language due to my current GPS coordinates.