About

Biography

Alvin Takamori was born in Los Angeles in 1961 and grew up in Gardena California. After studying physics at Occidental College from 1979-1981, the desire to pursue creative interests led to a transfer to study industrial design at CSU Long Beach. In 1987, he began working at the studio of one of his former instructors. Stacy Dukes. There he was primarily a craftsman, building custom signage and displays and installing them. But he also did work as a draftsman, sculptor, model maker, designer and photographer.

In the 1990's he developed an interest in computer graphics software and took a series of extension classes in a variety of software starting with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. This led to a graphic design job at Concepts, where he gained experience designing logos, stationary, brochures, packaging, ads, trade show signs and banners, t-shirts and caps, and bags, etc. He developed ideas, created families of graphic styles applied in multiple ways, and prepared files for print, embroidery, and silkscreening. He also designed graphics, following guidelines for licensed products.

After the owner of Concepts retired, he went back to Stacy Dukes Design where he helped to design and construct a series of public benches for the city of Manhattan Beach. He also started working as a freelance graphic designer.

Among the projects he’s worked on, he created graphic designs in accordance with the themes of the Santa Barbara Fair & Expo. It included campaigns of over 20 different graphics for advertising & promotion. Additionally, he designed maps and schedules for the fairgrounds, the graphics for the staff t-shirts, and graphic elements to be used in video promotions.

For many years, he has created the graphics from ideation to production for the marketing campaigns of the Gardena Valley Japanese Cultural Institute’s annual Carnival/Matsuri, which is their largest fundraising event of the year. It included flyers, posters, postcards, periodical ads and banners. For the days of the event, he also designed the printed programs, maps, schedules, and donor listing signs. 

He conceived of, designed, built and installed custom signs for the Gardena Valley Japanese Cultural Institute’s: The Bridge JCI Heritage Center. He has also volunteered his time to conceive of, design, build and install rotating educational displays in the Center.

He designed a book of poetry, called “Colorful Lives: A Coloring-Tanka Poetry Book”. Along with the layout design and production preparation, he drew all the illustrations and contributed some of the photos. 

Alvin is also a member of AIGA the professional association for design, the Adobe Technology Exchange Users Group (ATX), and the Los Angeles InDesign Users Group (LAIDUG). He is Co-Manager for LAIDUG, serves as newsletter editor for the South Bay Watercolor Society, and is on the Board of Directors for the Gardena Valley Japanese Cultural Institute.