Mika Takahashi
（a.k.a. MIKADana）
高橋美夏
Graphic designer and Web designer
[Background] Born in 1982 (Showa 57). After graduating from Kagoshima Prefectural Ibusuki High School, I studied design on my own. After being featured in “Japan Creators 2023” in 2023, I was asked by a local company to write a promotional manga and design characters, and presented my first commercial design.
After that, I was in charge of designing templates for flyers, Instagram ads, and YouTube thumbnails at the Korean browser-based design creation tool “MiriCanvas,” and localizing templates created by Korean designers for Japan. I am currently working as a freelancer.
[Qualifications held] Color coordinator (standard class), Eiken Grade 2
[Motto] My maternal grandmother’s favorite saying was “Work quickly and neatly.”
[What motivated me to start designing] When I was in middle school, I was moved by the cover of PIZZICATO FIVE's album "HAPPY END OF THE WORLD," designed by Mitsuo Nobuto.
[Favorite designers] Shin Sobue, Tadanori Yokoo, Mitsuo Shindo, Hisui Sugiura, and Goyo Hashiguchi. I also like looking at Kandinsky's paintings, and I always want to create works that have the same rhythm as him.
[Origin of the shop name] Knowing that foreigners have difficulty pronouncing "Takahashi," I combined my name, "MIKA," which is understood overseas, with "Dana," which means "large store," in the hope of prospering business.
[Self-promotion] I used to be good at writing, so I used to take on writing jobs through crowdsourcing, and before I knew it, I was able to create works in both graphic and web aspects, including design, coding, writing, and WordPress. My strength is that I am a serious person, and I have been studying on my own for many years, so if there is something I don’t understand, I immediately look it up and try to do it until I can do it. Also, when I had a contract with “MiriCanvas”, I was asked for both quality and quantity, so even now I often finish my works in 3 to 5 days, so before I start working on it, I always do detailed research and simulate it in my head so that I can work smoothly.
[Future goals and prospects] I would like to participate in the revitalization of my local town through design. In addition, I have a bilingual portfolio for overseas, in Japanese and English, so I would like to work with overseas clients as well.
If you would like a design that will add color to your life, please contact us using the button below. We look forward to hearing from you.
MY SKILLS
This is the app I’ve been using the longest. I mainly use it for retouching images and creating textures.
This is the app I mainly use at the moment. I use it for overall design and illustration production.
Able to do basic coding to create a website.
I use it to create and run this portfolio and personal hobby site.
I recently started using it for illustration production. I use it to create complex illustrations that are difficult to create in Adobe Illustrator.
Our Address
Ibusuki-shi, Kagoshima, Japan