My name is Chris Palmieri. I’m an American designer / musician living in Tokyo since 2001.

Short History

1977 – 96: I grew up in a large Italian-American family in New Jersey. I played bass in a band called Tassica’s Iris and was on the wrestling team in high school.

1996 – 01: I attended the Univesity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where I studied graphic design, Japanese, and Ikebana. I played bass and keys in another band called Cordial. I interned at an e-commerce startup during the dot-com era, and graduated just in time for the bust.

2001 – 03: I moved to Tokyo, taught English, freelance designed on the side, learned Japanese. I joined another band called dryfishbutterfly. They were looking for a drummer, I told them I could make drum sounds with my keyboard.

2004 – now: Together with my super-designer wife, I co-founded AQ, a small design company. We mostly make culture-related, multilingual websites and graphic design, now with Paul.

I also joined Tokyo Art Beat as a volunteer designer.

I co-created Hitotoki, a literary site mapping narratives across Tokyo, with my friends Paul and Craig.

My del.icio.us page

My Tokyo Art Beat event feed

On Twitter

Illustration: “Wanna Ride?” by Eiko