Interview with a Designer

Current location: San Diego, CA 🇺🇸

Languages: 🇫🇷🇺🇸🇪🇸🇯🇵

Creative Type: The Dreamer

Signature color: #1E306E

Book recommendation: Pachinko, Min Jin Lee

Where do you come from?

Lyon & Paris, France 🇫🇷. I moved to the United States (Kansas City, MO specifically) in 2018. I’ve moved quite a few times in my life!

What did you major in?

I obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture in 2015. I was three-quarters into my Master’s before life took some turns. I quit grad school in 2018 and moved to the US right after. Although I can design spaces, I specialized in visual arts and design early on.

Why Kagami?

Kagami (鏡) means ‘mirror’ in Japanese. It’s a name that stuck years ago. It sounds similar to Jeremy and the ideas of seating in front of a mirror, the reflection, the introspection, projecting a double and creating a persona resonates with how introverted I can be.

What artists inspire you?

I loved looking at Edward Hopper and Egon Schiele pieces, even before I knew I wanted to go to art school. I also grew up reading mangas and comics, a lot. I can’t deny that my drawing style is heavily inspired by Takeshi Obata, Akira Amano and Yoshitaka Amano. Special mentions to Edward Gorey and Shigeru Ban.

Where do you currently work?

I am an Assistant Team Lead at Vaco @ Google: I lead projects and a team of analysts while a point-of-contact for stakeholders. As the unofficial Design Expert, I also complete design assignments for the company.

(& I provide freelance design and illustration services.)

What do you work on?

I specialize in branding and visuals as a designer and freehand portraits as an illustrator.

Visuals and branding aren’t just aesthetics, they feature a voice, a presence and an experience — they are practical for users as much as they attract an audience.

I aim to solve problems with my creations but I also want to grow as a professional through them. It’s a journey and I thrive to stay my very creative best!

Bonus question: What’s your signature drink as a former barista?

A matcha lemonade for tea, a citrus-flavored cold brew for coffee. 🍋

Work

  • Assistant Team Lead/Content Analyst

Vaco @ Google. San Jose, CA

  • Graphic Designer

AO2 Management. San Diego, CA

  • Lead Barista/Trainer

Bird Rock Coffee Roasters. San Diego, CA

PT’s Coffee. Kansas City, MO

Mildred’s. Kansas City, MO

Starbucks. Paris, France

Education

  • Design Studies Institute

  • School of Architecture, Design & Planning, Lawrence,KS

Master 1, Architecture

  • École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture Paris-Val de Seine, France

Master 2, Architecture

Bachelor’s in Architecture

  • Lycée Charlie Chaplin, France

Baccalauréat Scientifique, Sciences de l’Ingénieur

Certificates

  • Google Professional Certificates

Digital Marketing & E-Commerce

UX Design

Softwares

Procreate

Paint Tool SAI

Google Workspace

Lightroom

Archicad

Artlantis

Revit

AutoCAD

SketchUp

Illustrator

Photoshop

InDesign

Figma

Premiere Pro

After Effects

Design Process