INDEX
The reason I became independent was because I wanted to make things with my own hands.
Takano: Did you originally work for an advertising agency and were you a designer for seven years?
Shimamoto: I was a designer for the first three years, and after that I worked on commercial projects.
Takano: What made you decide to go independent?
Shimamoto:Since I was a student, I was making things that had nothing to do with my classes. I was exhibiting a variety of things, such as contrived images, three-dimensional objects, and photographs. An undergraduate assistant (friend #2) who saw me doing this told me, “There is an employment exam next week, why don’t you take it?”. I took the exam by mistake, and I was accepted.
I thought that since I was hired as a specialist in the production department, I would be working in the same field of manufacturing, so I joined the company. But when I entered the company, I found that it was an outsourced production company that did the planning but not the actual production, and the agency was just a job that held a number of projects and turned them around. I was blacking out at the company, thinking that I would never be able to do that kind of producer thing well. I felt like a “balcony employee. Then, both the company and I decided, “Well, I guess it’s time to leave. ……
Takano: I feel that the company probably didn’t make the most of your talent.
Shimamoto: No, no. It was my fault.
