A short autobiography

I was born and raised in the suburbs of St. Louis and attended Washington University where I studied fine arts and Japanese language and culture. Art, by far, has always been my favorite subject with Japanese being a close second. I started learning Japanese during my junior year of high school inspired partially by a close friend who was intent on learning the language. I also had a love of Japanese anime and manga (animation and comics), which not only influenced my artistic style, but also increased my curiosity of the culture behind it. I continued classes in Japanese at Washington University until entering the Visual Communications major my junior year. My junior and senior were occupied completely with learning and developing skills in illustration, animation, web design and typography.

I design under the moniker “britkamo” which is both a play on Japanese contracted words and the Japanese phrase “ka mo shirenai”. When I chose “britkamo” I wanted a name for myself that actually included my name yet was more than just going by my initials as I had done previously. After some experimentation, I took the first syllable of each of my names similar to the way a Japanese name might be shortened by taking the first character of the given and family names. “Brit – ka – mo” is also a pun as the phrase “X ka mo shirenai” translates roughly to “May be X”— there is uncertainty as to whether it actually is X. I feel this name reflects the path I have taken from childhood, constantly changing and having so many dreams of what I wanted to be when I grew up. In some ways the idea of uncertainty reflects me today because outside of my focus on design I still have so many other hobbies and interests. The common thread between them all is my longing to create something to the best of my ability.