What led you into design?
I'd like to think it was when I started studying architecture in college but really, it started at Costco. When I was 12, every Wednesday was Costco day. This wasn't because we needed groceries, but because my parents had to buy inventory for a gas station they were working at. After going through all the aisles, we would make one final pit stop outside in the cigarette shed. This is where I did my first unsolicited redesign project.
While my parents distracted the worker in the shed, I took it upon myself to organize all the cigarette cartons by color scheme, brand, and vibe. At the time, I thought I was doing the Costco a service making all the cartons look nice for future customers. However, I didn’t take into account that cigarettes come in different sizes even if they are the same brand. Causing confusion for future customers who visited the shed. After a while, the worker in the shed started refusing my entry because he'd have to fix all of the 'bad' design I did.
What does a typical day look like?
At home before my day starts, I'm motivating myself to stretch or get a quick run in before I look at a screen.
On the C train, I'll be doing music theory practice on my way to SoHo.
At the studio, I'm thinking about what new creativity projects I can dream up.
At my desk, I'm in between Notion, Arc, Figma, and Origami.
Once I get tired of moving noodles around in Origami, I'll grab a pork chop from Taiwan pork chop house.
Outside of the studio, you'll find me playing volleyball, meeting up with friends, or getting inspired.
What's your workstation setup?
Apologies for the unruly desk. My workstation is my home base for all of my work and at this point is a storage unit for random receipts, trinkets, and books.
Where do you go to get inspired?
For visuals: are.na
For art: New Museum (closed until 2025 🥲)
For architecture: Gaudi & Judd works
For feelings: a walk in the park
For life: great conversations
What product have you recently seen that made you think this is great design?
iykyk. It solves a problem very clearly without any hassle.
What pieces of work are you most proud of?
Here is a prototype of a modern metronome app because current offerings have way too many features or are riddled with advertisements
Here are some recent paintings I did in the style of Dansaekhwa
What design challenges do you face at your company?
It's been an interesting experience having an artist archetype working at a startup company. As an artist, you explore design and creativity at an explosive rate, but at one point, you are finished with your piece and are happy with it. In some ways, you are proud of what you made and want to work on the next thing because you are no longer inspired by what you created.
Where at a startup, the mindset required is always to be iterative and incremental. This has been a recent point of conflict and tension between me and the company. This dialogue has been interesting to navigate and we're making a lot of progress in finding what works best for all of us. I'm thankful to be at a company that supports the artist as much as it cares about the business. There's still many more conversations and things to hash out, but there's no other group of people or company that I want to explore this dynamic with.
What music do you listen to while designing?
Any advice for ambitious designers?
If you're in school: do as many internships as you can. (big tech vs startup vs consultancy vs studio)
If it's your first design job: learn a powerful tool (origami, framer, touch designer, swiftUI, c4d)
If it's your second design job: learn to advocate for your vision
If it's your third job: play some sports
If you're late stage: learn to farm
Anything you want to promote or plug?
Typo* is extremely close to launching and we're changing the digitally native messaging paradigms. I believe that this way of messaging is better than any other affordance and pattern that exists and I'm excited to see how you think about it.
Sign up for the waitlist for what I've been cooking up here: https://typo.by/
––
On a personal note, I also started an email list: https://dpark.info/email-list
Related Interview
