I’m Kei Yoshikawa. I’m a half-Japanese, half-Filipino creative from the tropical and sunny Philippines.
I’m currently situated in Metro Manila. I used to fly to Japan three to four times a year, staying a few weeks/months at a time.
The current situation meant I’m stuck working from home — not that it’s any different from my pre-pandemic life.
Kei says she’s been a creative person all her life. She loves drawing and painting. She also plays the violin. “During my teenage years, I’d spend my days glued in front of my computer, changing my website/blog templates or meticulously trying to make a cool effect work on my MySpace or Friendster profile,” she says
I earned a living by providing designing services through a self-owned shop throughout my twenties.
I mostly provided custom branding packages for my clients. I still do to this day, albeit I started limiting the number of projects I take on.
In 2020, I worked as a video editor briefly. When I was hired by my current company, I was still working as a video editor.
When juggling both jobs (or three, since I never stopped designing) proved too difficult, I decided to take the risk and work full-time for my current company.
Now, I’m a Development Manager for a start-up social media marketing agency based in Canada.
“When the world is back to normal, I will be able to travel again and take pretty photos outside the four corners of my room to share with everyone”
I didn’t know why I jumped the gun and left a stable job at the time — I was about to be just the 3rd employee of this company.
It was probably because our CEO was such a nice guy that I figured working for someone who knows my value is more fulfilling than knowing you’re a dispensable team member.
When I was still working for both companies, I was hospitalised for COVID-19 and couldn’t work for a good part of two months.
The way my current company’s owner handled that made me feel better about making the decision.
That is not to say that I had it easy. I probably had the most difficult time of my career last year. I was the project manager for all the 50-60 clients we had at the time, and I managed all the teams. I was also responsible for the hiring (and firing) while taking care of client needs through countless meetings a day.
I also learned how to do everyone’s jobs so I could help out any time.
I understood what it entailed working for a start-up company, though.
Kei always worked from home (except a year or two when she was younger)
I worked hard, and within a year, we have now established several departments. I want to give myself a pat on the back. I know I did a great job.
I learned a lot from this experience. I will continue to work hard because I know a lot of people depend on us now.
Currently, I’m still training a few key team members of the company, but after this hurdle, I will have enough time to do what I love again: creating.
During the little free time I have, I play a lot of small indie games (Sable is my current fave!), do some watercolour painting, and build mechanical keyboards.
Kei also collects Starbucks Sakura tumblers and mugs. She started in 2012, and have hundreds to date
I document my hobbies on my Instagram @keittycat_ .
It’s a newly created account after I lost my main account of ten years, which contained a lot of travel photos and artwork.
When I started getting creative with my workspace, I made sure to make it a safe space that is artistic, artisanal, homey.
I wanted to make it a space that is a hundred percent me.
I love pastel pink and soft tones. This, I think, is the non-negotiable aspect of my workspace.
Firstly, I got rid of everything that wasn’t pastel or was too bright. I literally had to throw or stash away a lot of pink stuff I had because I was so particular with the kind of pink I wanted if that makes sense.
I also incorporated lots of gold elements into my space to give it a chic factor. I always chalked this phase up to my tastes, getting more mature because I used to love cute stuff.
Pink desk setup, inspired by cherry blossoms
In 2020, when I started working as a video editor, I needed something powerful enough to handle heavy loads, and that’s what got me started on building my PC.
The last PC I had at this point was probably a decade prior. Before I built my PC, I’ve only been using my trusty 2017 15-inch MacBook Pro for work and play.
Back when I only had my laptop, matching things and staying on the theme was easy.
Since I wanted everything to be pastel and there are not a lot of PC parts and PC peripherals that fit into that category, finding PC parts that are the right colour was (and still is) the biggest challenge for me.
I chanced upon some pastel fans and I changed the white fans I had. I made sure every single part was white/light coloured. I also added faux cherry blossoms to my PC.
I love cherry blossoms.
For me, it’s not just a trend and an “aesthetic” — it’s my lifestyle.
When I was building my computer, I also made sure to incorporate that. This could probably be because of my Japanese roots, but there’s something inexplicable that just makes me so in love with it. I’ve had a huge fascination for it since I was a kid.
When I was a young teenager, I’d cover my blogs and profiles with so many falling cherry blossom petals (back when those Javascript effects were all the rage) that people would complain whenever they visited my page.
Adding the faux cherry blossoms to the PC was probably one of the greatest decisions I ever made with regard to my workstation.
It just made it somewhat different from the rest and made it me. I didn’t want something generic, and just that simple addition already made it stand out from the rest.
