Photo Credits: Jane M Sawyer
I Yam Whut I Yam…
Tell us who you are in one sentence.
I’m a former VP, Director, Designer, Cog-In-the-Machine and these days I design mobile apps and websites — constant in my ability to spark the gears of inspiration and initiate the creative process, I love to color outside the lines and eat paste, break things and put them back together again — and I’m partial to run-on sentences.
If you weren’t a designer, what would you do?
I’d draw comics. However, since my design skills exceed my drawing skills — I’d ask DC or Marvel (if they’d have me) if I could stay on and write (instead). More realistically, I’d be a doctor, lawyer, accountant, engineer or any of the other careers approved by most Asian parents. And I’d be miserable.
Thank God for Design School, Mrs Mast, Mrs Gilmore, Richard Carlyon, Akira Ouchi,Robert Meganck and the many other influences in my life who said, “Fuck It, what do you have to lose?” (They didn’t use those exact words but, the gist of it boiled down to the aforementioned quote.)
What is something you wished you designed, either because you love it, or because you feel you could have done it better?
The original ZVOX mini speaker. One cabinet, one connecting wire and a one page owners manual. Afforable enough for the everyman and designed by maverick Winslow Burhoe, it generates immense room filling sound. Marvelous.
What was your biggest design mistake?
Asking, “Who is Martin Sorrell?” in an all hands meeting, on my first day as a designer at OgilvyPR Worldwide. Open mouth, insert foot.
What advice would you give someone entering the design field?
Never stop learning, never be afraid to fail, never shy away from something new and never turn down an opportunity just because it is in another city, state or country — you lose that flexibility as you get older.