Sean Yoo

The accomplished and internationally  designer believes he has now reached the point in his career in which he does not need to take on as much work as in his professional youth. Having enough clients and projects, he feels like giving something back to Mexico, a country very close to his heart. He is now developing a teaching program to collaborate with the next generation of designers in Mexico City, trying to shape them into international artists through his own life experiences. He is involved in lectures, informal talks and design-studio sessions, giving advice not only in technical skills, but also on the practical aspects of the profession.

As Yoo states, he would have probably enjoyed  more having learned through a similar process himself, being guided across the various obstacles of the life of an aspiring designer. In his professional years, he has worked in the United States, Japan and Italy, expanding his knowledge and capabilities to a whole new level compared to the one achieved in his university years at California State Polytechnic in Los Angeles. He first started out as an urban planner, realizing only after several years that his true passion was yet undiscovered. After a second round of education he launched his own studio, Apt 5 Design, through which he received enough exposure to become the multi-cultural, globally fluent designer he is today. Not only can he boast of an extremely international client list, Yoo himself has a very eclectic background. Being a Korean-American who started his career in Milan over than 10 years ago, he transcends cultural boundaries and brings together an American stylistic education with European design trends. He has won numerous awards and nominations, including the prestigious Concorso Young & Design Award, for his conception of designing free of any pompousness: in Yoo’s opinion, good design is something that offers solutions, a problem solving idea, which can be easily understood and appreciated.