Meet Len Shirase | Multi-Disciplinary Designer and Developer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Len Shirase and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Len, where are your from? We’d love to hear about how your background has played a role in who you are today?
I am from Venice, California and both of my parent’s came from Japan (separately) at a young age. I think my upbringing is forever a part of me for better or for worse.

I think about that scene in Curb Your Enthusiasm where Cheryl tells Larry about how he shouldn’t expect people to know all of these arbitrary rules that are in his head. I feel like that a lot and I think about why I am the way I am.

I work in and out of an industry that for lack of a better term gutted the neighborhood I grew up in. I’m a designer and developer, working in the tech and design industry. I like the make things for people. I like making things that make people happy.

The constant battling ideologies of success within this industry matched with seeing how my old neighborhood changed and is constantly changing at best helps me keep a balanced perspective and at worst makes me overly cynical.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I think I would consider myself a designer over an artist. I make things to serve people or at the very least for someone else. I used to think I was an artist or a part time artist but I think I am happy with the title of designer. I create for myself quite often as well but in the back of my head I think I am the most at peace and comfortable when it is for someone else.

I work between mediums, digital and physical, and the prefer the interspaces between the two. I draw a lot of inspiration from my upbringing, Venice surf and skate, Japanese media and art, and early internet aesthetics and video games. I like to bring the physical to the digital and the digital to the physical over and over again to create interesting textures and juxtapositions.

I am a designer and developer, making things from websites and complex applications to coffee bags and posters.

I feel like I kind of feel into things my entire life until now. I grew up skateboarding, surfing, tagging the side of my house while at the same time being very on the computer, playing video games and learning early HTML. My first real job was as a newspaper layout designer because I knew how to use in-design from making little zines. I designed my yearbook cover because my photo teacher also ran yearbook. I wanted to go to art school but I got a full scholarship to University of Michigan. I thought I might as well formally learn a technical science if I’m going to Michigan. I started as a Computer Science major but didn’t like the people in it. I found out about there was something called the School of Information I could transfer to within Michigan where I could learn User Experience Design. I learned a lot there, one of them being how to design for people. I started interning for places in the tech world, like Fandango. After school someone I met while interning offered me a job at the NFL. I worked as a designer for the NFL, talking to passionate fans and trying to turn their wants into a reality. I wanted to step back so I quit and learned how to code even better with my good friend. We spent covid surfing and learning about computers. We started a little company called Noshi to take some clients. We landed some but it was harder than we thought to keep it going. We both got other jobs, and I started doing design consulting for another company. It was a little more corporate than I wanted it to be but I stayed for two plus years while taking freelance clients on the side. I quit recently to figure it all out again, taking freelance clients while I do.

I feel like I go through this cycle of not knowing and knowing, and when I feel like I know something, I go for it. It always feels weird and always feels like a risk but I realized that if you know a situation isn’t right, it’s always worth going for a risk, even if it might be worse because you can always go forward to something new. There is something comforting about stillness but it is just a blanket for what’s slowly eating at you.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I think I will use this entire section to shout out my favorite place in Los Angeles, that is one of the few that has still been there, since I was a kid. It’s funny because the one thing that lasted was one that is on wheels, and it’s La Isla Bonita on Rose. It’s a truck that serves ceviche, tacos, and burritos.

When I was a kid, I used to not like beans and to this day, she still asks me “no beans?” and then asks about my Mom. I will say now that my palate has evolved and I do get beans on everything. The tostadas are some of the best I’ve had and the burrito is too.

This place to me reminds of my childhood and my home and my family and I love to share it with my friends new and old.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I want to shout out my mom, Naoko Shirase, who without her unwavering support, I would not be half the person I am today. It wasn’t always easy raising me but she always made feel loved. Her work ethic, perseverance, and warmth is something I can look to as a destination that I will never reach but will always be on the road towards.

Website: https://www.lenshirase.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lshirase/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lshirase/