Creation is life's most beautiful challenge. To bring new ideas into the world requires not just taste, vision, and execution—but also the vulnerability to fully immerse yourself in the process.

It took time for me to get there, but last year I finally centered my life around the pursuit of creative excellence by opening Glenwood. If I succeed in realizing my vision for the studio, this work will unfold across decades, locations, and disciplines. But nothing is perfect and nothing is promised. And right now, I’m still at the beginning.

Rather than laying out the vision, I want to share three foundational experiences that shaped my path to this point.

I was born and raised in Tokyo, but I am not Japanese. This means I will always be a guest in the place I call home. My approach to life and design reflects that—a juxtaposition of East and West held together in one form, like Ando’s glass. If you know the reference, “there’s a little bit of Japan in everything I do.” Family and friends still live there, and I return every year, finding ways to keep giving back to the place that gave me so much. So the studio, like myself, will be multicultural (stay tuned for the first studio release later this year).

Joining Applied Intuition in its early days and working closely with Qasar changed my trajectory. Anyone who’s been around him knows his relentless work ethic and uncompromising standards for prioritization and execution. But the most important thing I learned from him is distillation: complexity only exists within the wrong set of constraints. While building AI systems for vehicles is a completely different business than a creative studio (you know, give or take a few billion in market cap), I’m approaching the business, operations, and design of the studio with the same dedication to simplicity. 

After a few meetings in Lux's Menlo Park office (just a block away from my first California apartment on Glenwood Ave), Bilal called me with the push I needed: “You should just start your own thing.” It wasn’t merely words—he and Scott both promised their support and they’ve followed through. Glenwood wouldn’t be possible without their help, along with Tess and Brandon. The studio came out of relationships and will continue to stay centered on them.

Trust is where creation begins—in people, in process, in potential. That’s why Glenwood starts here, with a few stories and ample whitespace.

After all, time and space is a luxury.

Justin