michiko

Released in November 2021, Echo Show 15 is Alexa-powered 15.6" HD smart display and the newest edition to Echo Show Family devices. Echo Show 15 can Display in both Portrait and Landscape orientation which is the first time for Echo Show devices to accommodate both orientations. With Echo Show 15 release, we introduced some new features and one of them was Widgets. Widgets were designed not only for Echo show 15 but for all Echo show devices.

Released in February 2021, Echo Show Gen 3 is an Alexa-powered 10.1" HD smart display with motion that is designed to move with the customer. Because of the rotating display, we wanted to create a non-obtrusive home experience that could be functional, yet ambient when attention is not needed. With this release, we designed a modular layout with information presented in contextually relevant ways across all Echo Show devices.

The Echo Show 5 is smart display released from Amazon in June 2019. The device has a 5.5 inch screen that supports touch interaction as well as Amazon's built-in assistant Alexa response. The Echo Show 5 offers sunrise alarms, making video calls, checking the news, listening to music, controlling your smart home, and interacting with hundreds of Alexa-enabled skills.

The Echo show’s adorable sibling Echo Spot brings Alexa in the form of small 2.5 inch touchscreen with all the functionalities available in Echo Show including Alexa skills, answering questions, making audio and video calls, and controlling smart home devices. Because of its size, Echo spot is a perfect night stand device and lets you customize clock from many various design options. The Echo Spot was released in November 2017.

10-inch screen Echo Show 10 is Amazon Alexa-powered smart display which was released in October 2018 as the second-generation of original Echo Show. This device is a major upgrade over the original with new visual design, a larger touch screen with much more functionalities and powerful speaker system.

With Alexa Smart Home, you can easily setup and control thousands of compatible smart home devices. View and control your security cameras. Dim the lights for a movie. Change the bedroom thermostat before bedtime. Smart Home can be used across the entire Echo device family including Echo, Echo Show, Alexa on FireTV, and more.

Amazon Alexa Music, Cameras, & TV Control is an Android app that runs on Sony Smart TV that adds a number of Alexa features like finding your music, controlling smart home gadgets such as smart cameras from Ring all via voice.

The 1^st generation of Echo Show was an evolution of the Echo speaker with a 7-inch touch screen. This was the first product offering customers visual information in addition to spoken answers to questions. The 1^st generation of Echo Show was released in June 2017.

Explorations of app icons. I love how much communication these icons could deliver.

Designing a poster series to celebrate Amazon’s original fonts, Bookerly and Ember.

Firefly is a technology developed by Amazon and a feature introduced with fire phone release. It is a feature that lets you identify things you see in the real world and purchase through amazon.com. My task was to come up with some design exploration for Firefly Application icon and these were my explorations.

David Adjaye is a young and one of the most recognized architects of his generation from the U.K. This exhibition design highlights his use of materials bespeaks design and the ability to sculpt and showcase light.

Because of David Adjaye’s specific talents the exhibition approach focuses on how natural light casts shadow on objects. Taken from the first letter in his last name, models with different surface textures were constructed in the shape of the letter "A" using only white materials. These models were photographed on the white background to study how the shadow would be cast. These photos were then used throughout the exhibition materials.   

iRiS is a quarterly magazine introducing Japanese culture through the eyes of Japanese artists, with photography as a particular focus. Each issue consists of approximately 100 pages, including four features and six departments. 

While studying Rudolph Schindler and his house (registered as a historical heritage site) in West Hollywood, I explored various aspects of sequential story-telling through both print and spatial media. All images were shot with black and white film and using Contax medium format and Nikon F3 cameras, allowing me to incorporate my interest in photography into this project.

Beginning with a typographically-driven identity system, I re-branded The Annenberg Space for Photography in Century City with a name change to AIM (Annenberg Imaging Museum) for simpler recognition. The name now relates both to the museum’s primary benefactor and a basic premise of photography itself.

I explored how the new identity could visually and seamlessly translate from print-based communications, to screen-based interactions, to environmental dimensions. The identity responds to the unique opportunity of each medium and it was translated successfully because of understanding the purpose of each medium.

This new brand identity system for Canon Inc. begins with designing an iconic identity that can be visually translated beyond the print context context. The identity guideline book demonstrates how the new identity flexes across various transmedia applications.

Tori is a wild-bird watching and feeding kit for people who are new to bird watching. It includes wild bird favorite feeds (10 oz. of peanuts, sunflower and safflower seeds), binoculars, and accessories to turn these wooden boxes, made from Spanish Cedar, into bird feeders for both food and water. Because these boxes are used as feeders, I used dovetail joints (a form of box joint where the fingers are locked together by diagonal cuts) on the wooden boxes to eliminate the use of nails that could rust in the long term.

Nan Goldin is an American photographer known for documenting a subculture in the ‘80s and ‘90s in an intimate style. Subculture is a cultural subgroup differentiated by status, ethnic background, residence, religion, or other factors that functionally unify the group and act collectively on each member. This exhibition design highlights a theme of intimacy that Nan Goldin successfully established between her and her models. I designed the catalog that feels like a journal and conveys a feeling of intimacy. 

During my time at Art Center, my view of digital technology in graphic design has evolved tremendously. While I still have a great passion for printed material, I also have focused on designing for digital media.

The great American Writers Series is an eight-page booklets, including biographies and bibliographies of some of the most famous American writers of all time. 

Logo designs in both typographically driven logotypes and symbolic logomarks.