Worked in several bleeding-edge product and industrial design agencies as a contributor, before founding and managing a digital agency focusing on product incubation.

COMPANIES & AREAS OF FOCUS

Akko was a digital agency I founded and managed, to work with both early stage startups (such as Uber) and new ventures within larger firms such as American Express and Bloomberg. I staffed up a team of junior and senior designers, content strategy and design program management. I also launched Artifacts through Akko, an event series that drew over 1,000 tech and design professionals to bring together artists and designers with technologists, featuring speakers from Google, NY Times, Warby Parker and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

LUNAR was an industrial design firm acquired by McKinsey. I was among the first UX designers at the company and was tasked with helping them to grow and scale the UX practice as a traditional industrial design firm. Much of the work I was responsible for leading or co-leading and independently pitching in Seoul to LG, predicted major consumer electronics trends, from tablets to smart speakers to curved televisions. Other clients included Mercedes-Benz, LG, HP, Roche Laboratories, and more.

Punchcut is a product design firm focused on the edge of new technologies. I was a senior UX designer in the early days of mobile technology, helping clients like AT&T and Disney find their footing as more users moved to using devices on the go, during the era just around the first iPhone launch. One of our projects, in fast, was to ideate on the first phone that had a dynamic and customizable Home Screen, commonplace in phones today.

Automotive & EV

I designed the end to end experience, interaction models and prototypes for several products (Mercedez-Benz, Aerovironment) for the automotive space. Shown here is a rapid charging EV station for traditional gas stations, parking lots, and homes. Below, a pre-Apple CarPlay UI for a Smartcar x Apple integration that effectively did what Car Play did, several years prior (plugging in your phone summons a car-friendly display on a touch screen).

Digital Wayfinding

BKIN was a proposal for NYC to replace old payphone with digital way finding stations, powered by solar panels and transmitting free wifi. This product was nominated for multiple design awards and was included in printed design publication for its unique approach to solving public way finding challenges.

Medical devices for high-risk operations

I led a cross-functional design and ID team to create complex systems that helped surgeons perform eye surgery, and genetics to run multi-day DNA sequencing studies. The on ramping to these complex spaces was among the biggest challenge, as well as covertly testing several hundred pound physical prototypes at major

Branding & Storytelling

Some of the work I led through my studio, Akko, was helping companies big and small tell their story in a way that better connects with new audiences. This product campaign we created for the Metropolitan Museum of Art helped showcase our work in bringing more fun, humanity and approachability to an intuition that could be seen as untouchable and precious, using celebrities who share their favorite museum pieces and playful artwork that speakers to younger audiences.

User insight for home theaters

A project I led for Dolby combined research and design to understand how to help Dolby stay relevant to a new cohort of consumers that are not just technophile gear junkies but may have other aspirations, such as simply a gorgeous but no-fuss home theater that brings together friends and family around the living room. This project was before Sonos landed and successful anticipated the modern trend of wireless plug-and-play that helped newer companies get ahead.