Q & A
Q: Where the hell am I?
A: You're browsing the personal site of Naoya Wada.
Q: Can you elaborate on yourself?
A: I'm 30 years old and live in Atlanta, GA. I am a co-founder of Never Without. When I'm not working, I can be found online, designing, cooking, playing tennis, riding a bike, drinking a beer, hanging with friends, taking pictures, watching a movie, etc...
Q: Do you do freelance work?
A: Please visit Never Without for all freelancing inquires.
If you're interested in seeing some more work of mine, you can head over to altpick.
Q: Where have you lived?
A: I was born and raised in San Francisco proper. I lived there until I went to college in New York. "Money makin' Manhattan" for 7-8 years, and now I live in Atlanta...
Q: So how did you build this site?
A: This site was built using XHTML and CSS for standards. I code using BBEdit. I have some JavaScript in here as well for good measure. Graphics were done in Photoshop and Illustrator. The backend is powered by MySQL and PHP for dynamic content capture & delivery. Thanks to ID3 and Geoff Stearns of Deconcept for leaving open source code for download.
Q: Who do you host with?
A: This site is hosted with GearWorx (mt) Media Temple TextDrive Downtown Host.
Never Without Profile/Bio:
A dual citizen of United States and Japan, Naoya began his career in Interactive while still attending school at Columbia University (NYC). A Civil Engineering student Monday, Tuesday and sometimes Friday, he spent most of his free time immersed in the web. Learning Flash and HTML (Hand-coding, not WYSIWYG) the old fashion way - through books and trial and error. Naoya landed his first Interactive job at IN2 before graduating. While at IN2 he worked on Interactive Marketing campaigns for such brands as Intercontinental Hotel Group, a.k.a. Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn. After graduation, Naoya to the shock of his mother, decided to pursue Interactive over Civil Engineering, and took a full time position with IN2.
After several years with IN2, Naoya signed on with VH1.com as a Flash Designer. During his stint at VH1.com, he was involved in the web design for the inaugural "My Music Awards", and was the designer of the VH1 "atWorkRadio" identity. The irony of Naoya's time at VH1.com is although much of his web design was used or adapted to broadcast, his 450 sq. ft. apartment in Manhattan didn't have cable.
Searching for more elbowroom Naoya decided to move to Atlanta, and was recruited by Weather.com as the lead Flash designer/developer of their International division. He oversaw the Interactive marketing communication and site design of The Weather Channel's introduction to the United Kingdom, Brazil, Mexico and Germany.
Getting deeply involved with Interactive marketing strategy and wanting more, Naoya left Weather.com and joined Breathe Interactive, an Interactive and Response Marketing Agency. While at Breathe he prospered as the Associate Creative Director driving the strategic and creative direction for numerous Interactive marketing campaigns for brands such as Publix Super Markets, Scion and Toyota.
Having experienced the Interactive space from many different roles and wanting to escape the labyrinth that is today's parking garage. Naoya started Never Without, an Interactive agency built on original thinking and the desire to do impactful, results-based creative.