cybergeisha

ABOUT ME

I was born and raised in Seattle, WA. I spent my early years and adolescence nurturing my love of technology, performing & fine arts, language and communication. While in high school, I participated in japanese speech and skit competition, varsity diving, varsity (competition) choir, theatre, photography, and Running Start, as well as working part-time as a barista at Starbucks Coffee.

After graduating with honors (in art, music, and Japanese) from Lake Washington High School in 2000, I attended Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA until the Spring of 2002. While living in Bellingham and attending school full time, I pursued various extracurricular endeavors, becoming a DJ, model and photographer, and working as a part-time receptionist and certified Water Safety Instructor at the local aquatic center.

Starting in May 2002, I lived in Okazaki, Japan, while enrolled in The Yamasa Institute’s SILAC Program for Intensive Japanese Fluency until late 2002, when I returned to Seattle to take classes in Graphic Design and Network Administration/Security.

BARISTA

After my three-year employment at Starbucks in high school, I took a break from espresso for a while. But when I moved back from Japan, while attending school full-time, I supported myself with contract web design work and a part time job at Tully’s Coffee.

Soon, I was hired at The Black Drop Coffeehouse in 2003. During my time there, I was interviewed for a special on The Food Network, participated in the Northwest Barista Jam and the Seattle Coffee Fest (both are competition events similar in nature to competitive bar tending, but with espresso).

In addition to placing fourth at NWBJ and being named a runner-up at Coffeefest, I was voted as Bellingham’s Best Barista in 2003. After a break of a few years, Kristin resumed being a Barista at Peet’s Coffee in San Francisco for six months in 2007 and 2008.

INFORMATION SOCIETY

She is the principal designer and and web administrator for legendary electropop band INFORMATION SOCIETY, with whom she often travels for the purpose of photographing and filming concerts and events.

For the past year I have been the website administrator and principal graphic designer for the legendary freestyle electro-pop group Information Society. This has been a very successful venture, combining my love of art, music, technology and language (I am responsible for the Japanese translation of the official Information Society website). I now act as the on-staff graphic/multimedia artist, video/photo person and principal graphic designer.

To date, I am responsible for the design of four different t-shirts, more than five officially produced promotional decals, and many different posters, fliers, postcards and other printed materials.

LOCATION

Summer 2007 is when I made the decision to leave Seattle, and I moved to San Francisco, CA. It is a beautiful city, and from the moment I first arrived that it was home. Eight months later, in an unfortunate twist of mental health, I am now back in Seattle but I have no regrets about my time in San Francisco - it was formative, irreplaceable time that I needed to find myself.

Interests:

Music
good espresso
Burning Man
video games
travel
web design
roller skating
photography
writing

My Web Portfolio:

http://hypertextgirl.net/portfolio/