Curriculum Vitae

News (1/1): A very happy new year to you all. | Added my lifestreams page.

Photo of me Last revised: 25 June 2009.

Please contact the desginer from this page. Or you can check his other activities from this page.

Design interests and motivations

I am strongly interested in; anthropological, social, emotional, ethnographic elements in design (=broader sense of interactions); ever growing fusion of software and hardware; design as a communication medium and lifestyle proposition.

Been through different international environments, I am eager to apply my knowledge and skills in industrial design into different and broader contexts of people’s life.

Some inspirations/admiration:

Works of Jan Chipchase and his colleagues (janchipchase.com)
Apple
MIT media lab
Don Norman
takram design engineering

All design on the website are so far concept design with or without prototypes therefore not available for purchase. However I am always on the look for any manufacturing opportunities, so please get in touch with me through the contact page if you are interested in my design. Thank you.

Personal Details

Name: TAKUMI YOSHIDA (Sorry for any confusion, but “taqumi” with a “Q” is just my internet/design name as ‘Takumi’ is a quite common name.)
Sex: MALE
Age: 24
Nationality: JAPANESE
Contact: click here
Blog: taqumi blog
Downloadable portfolio in PDF (old one): Portfolio 2006 (3.2MB)
2009 version on the way.

Professional Experiences

Oct 2008 - present: Joined Experientia in Turin, Italy as an industrial/interaction designer. Working on ranges of projects including visonary UI, interaction, industrial and web together with other design researchers/ethnographers
Aug 2006 - Jul 2007: Worked as a design engineer/assistant at NOKIA R&D UK as my industrial placement serving a team of mechanical architecture engineers and collaborating with inhouse designers. (1year payed internship)

Education

Oct 2004 - June 2008: Graduated from Industrial Design and Technology (BSc) at Loughborough University, UK with one year work placement at NOKIA.
Sep 2001 - May 2003: Gained scholarship and studied Math, Art and Design Technology as the Higher Subjects under International Baccalaureate at the United World College of Atlantic, UK. Gained IB diploma with 40 points, top 5% of the world IB cohort
Apr 2000 - Jul 2001: Studied at Ikeda Senior High School attached to Osaka Kyoiku University, Japan
Jan 1998 - Mar 2000: Studied at South Island School, Hong Kong
Nov 24th 1984: Born in Sydney, Australia

Volunteer Work and other Responsible Roles prior to higher education

January 2006: As a team of four, designed a new tabletop advertisement fixing solution for Zest Promotions in less than two weeks.
Oct 2005 - Nov 2005: Re-designed a website for a sport supplement supplying venture, BUSN
May 2005 - Oct 2005: Designed and launched a website for a street basketball apparel venture, Crossover.Inc
Jul 2004 - Aug 2004: Participated in CHINA project as a volunteer staff and taught English at local Chinese schools for one month
Oct 2003 - Feb 2004: Produced a A4 product catalogue of over 40 products (80 pages) for Noritake (UK) Ltd
Sep 2002 - May 2003:
- Worked as a cheif editor of the yearbook for the UWC of the Atlantic
- produced clothing with an original college logo for the UWC of the Atlantic and raised over £600 for the student bursary fund

IT/CAD/CAMM/Web Skills

Competent in: Microsoft Office Package, Pro/Engineer, 3D Studio Max, Alias ImageStudio, Maxwell Render, Photoshop Ver.7-CS3, Illustrator CS1-CS3, Flash (Including ActionScript2, 3), Quark Express4, HTML and CSS coding
Able to use: Dreamweaver, InDesign, CATIA V5
Have basic skills and knowledge in PHP coding and MySQL database
Literate in both MAC and WIINDOWS. (Main use = Mac)
Fluent in English and Japanese; beginners level Mandarin and Italian

Workshop & Prototyping Skills

Basic interactive prototyping with electronics, including use of Arduino with various I/O components and computers.
Competent in working with basic materials (woods, metal, sheet metal, polymer, blue foam) for small to large scale model making
Basic machining including milling, lathing, grinding, tapping, basic CNC coding etc.

Awards and Prizes

June 2008: [SÉNS] mobile phone design was awarded a third prize in Design and Technology Enterprise Award 2008 from Loughborough University Enterprise Office
May 2008: eco-boutique packaging design was awarded a prize as a winning design amongst other proposed designs from Pacific Direct
October 2007: “butterfly” sunglasses were selected as one of the winning pieces of OPUS DESIGN AWARD 2007
February 2006: Modular Chair design was awarded second place in International Photoreal Furniture Competition 2005
October 2005: Design “clip” was selected as one of the winning pieces of OPUS DESIGN AWARD 2005
August 2004: Design “SPOKEN” was selected as one of the winning pieces of OPUS DESIGN AWARD 2004

Personal interests outside Design

Learning and enjoying practising Shotokan Karate
Often in my free time, I drop in by a music room in my university and play and improvise on mainly blues, jazz tunes on the piano. Being able to do so never was a ‘proper’ learnt skill for me,but instead it is a result of learning from and jamming with my college friends competent in jazz.
An occasional midnight stroll

More detailed information or references available upon request.

Please contact the desginer from this page.