Tomi is an exceptional automotive designer with a rich cultural background and diverse experiences that allow him to move comfortably between Eastern and Western creative design environments.

Tomi was born in Taiwan and lived his early years both in Taiwan and the Philippines. He spent his teen years in California and graduated from the prestigious Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California with a degree in Automotive/Industrial Design. With his early exposure to international settings, he immerses himself quickly to different corporate customs and rapidly becomes an integral part of the creative process. He has held positions with large multinational companies – Audi, Volvo, Hubbell as well as working at smaller studios.

As a designer at Volvo Trucks North America, he was given the responsibility of two full production truck programs with limited resources. Instead of shying away from the difficult task, he excelled in the challenge and created the new Volvo VN Series truck which is the leading truck design of North America. In this position he managed a small team of designers and modelers.

Tomi has always been more than just a visual mind, he continually strive to understand the holistic process of design. The integral puzzle pieces of trend forecasting, branding and marketing that transcends a design into a successful product. The realization of how important positive teamwork is from his stint at Volvo, he developed essential interpersonal skills, stressing positive work environments and inspires innovative thinking.

After his return to California, he decided to give back to his Alma Mater, Art Center College of Design. He became an instructor at the institution and successfully mentored and guided students through the difficult Industrial Design Program. Many students that he taught have encouraging reviews of him and are better equipped with significant skill sets than their peers.

Tomi's next professional journey brought him to Teague, in Seattle, Washington; the influential American industrial design firm. He held the Senior Industrial Designer position at their Aviation Studio for close to a year. Although his stay at Teague was brief, he left positive impacts on his colleagues and contributed to ‘Blue Sky’ Boeing concept projects.

Following Teague, Tomi became the Product Research Manager for Asian and North American markets, at Audi’s Design Studio in California. Tomi was responsible for monitoring and recognizing cultural trends and automotive research information that is transferable across global markets. He was the liaison between the design studio in Santa Monica and the Marketing Department in Ingolstadt, Germany. When he held this position at the studio, he traveled extensively to China and Korea immersing himself in the daily customs.

Tomi exploited his unique background; he comfortably navigated diverse environments. The two years that Tomi was a member of Audi, he contributed important knowledge of these markets to the brand.

He also apply his design and research skills to different industries, he worked on different projects ranging from consumer products, electronics, transportation and advanced automotive consulting.

He was at Hubbell Lighting as their Principal Industrial Designer for Architectural Lighting and Industrial Projects for 2 years.

Currently he is available for freelance, contract or full-time positions.

In addition to English, he is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese.