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In 2007, when I watched Steve Jobs unveil the iPhone, I had an instinctive feeling that the world was about to change.

What struck me went beyond the beauty of the product. Technology and design had created an experience that had never existed before, and it was beginning to transform people’s lives themselves.

I later moved to San Francisco in 2011 and witnessed new companies such as Airbnb, Instagram, and Uber emerging one after another. There, design was treated not simply as a way to make things beautiful, but as an essential force for understanding users, building businesses, and shaping the future.

“The day will surely come when design stands at the center of business in Japan as well.”

With that conviction, I founded Goodpatch in 2011.

Fifteen years have passed since then.

The environment surrounding design has changed dramatically.

Designers now work at many companies, and terms such as UI/UX and customer experience have become commonplace. Design has expanded beyond products into business, organizations, brands, and management.

Today, we stand at the threshold of another profound transformation—AI—one that may prove as significant as the arrival of the smartphone.

AI has dramatically accelerated the speed at which ideas can be brought to life. Things that once required experts to invest significant time are becoming achievable by anyone in a short period.

That is precisely why what matters from here is no longer simply whether something can be made.

What should we create? Why should we create it? For whom, and what kind of future should we create?

We must engage with questions that have no single right answer, imagine possibilities that do not yet exist, and connect people, technology, and business as we envision the future that ought to be realized.

I believe this is the role design must fulfill in the years ahead.

For Goodpatch, AI is not something that replaces human creativity. It is a new partner that expands human potential, enabling us to envision farther, experiment faster, and realize more possible futures.

We are also reexamining how we work and how we design with AI as a premise, while continuing to expand the possibilities of design and technology.

The mission we have upheld since our founding remains unchanged.

“Prove the power of design.”

Yet what that “power of design” means continues to evolve with the times.

Until now, Goodpatch has used design to move products and businesses forward.

From here, we will go even further.

We will envision the future that companies and society should pursue together, and remain alongside them through the work of making that future real.

In an era of continuous and unpredictable change, the future is not something to wait for. It is something we must draw for ourselves.

Through the power of design, we envision and realize futures that do not yet exist.

Goodpatch will continue creating design that moves the world forward.