UMI: Create for the love of the game

Around a week ago, I flew to Toronto to begin my Summer internship as a Product Designer. Walking out of the YYZ airport felt like I was rushing into a new chapter of life; I was excited to finally work in tech, an industry I pivoted to around 8 months ago. Moreover, I am excited to keep building UMI, a creative passion project I have been working on at Shift Creator Space in the last semester.

In Summer 2025, my friends Jean, Yoyo, and myself first conceptualized the idea of a creative product that converges personality and utility. We created UMI, an original IP that doubles as a business card and adorable accessory. We witnessed the boom of POP MART, smiskis, and Sonny Angels, and saw the potential in adding technology to these character designs. I rarely buy one of these toys for myself; I feel a lack of connection to them. Sure they may be nicely designed, but there are many beautifully designed things in this world, why should I invest attention and energy into that one specific toy I don’t resonate with? That’s when I realized I knew nothing about their stories; who they were made by, and what backstories did their makers author.

I knew then that I wanted UMI to convey a stronger sense of purpose, to embody a message people can relate to. I want UMI to be a source of joy and reflection for a niche of people, rather than have it become a mainstream symbol of consumerism.

Sharing my journey through UMI

For the longest time, I have doubted my ability to make a tangible impact through creativity and design. Before college, I lacked a space where I could talk about the things I was making, whether be it a passion project or a portfolio piece. At one point, I felt I was making art purely for the sake of building a portfolio for university applications. The question I found myself asking was more often, “will this look good on an architecture school application?” than, “is this something I feel proud to share with the world?” Somewhere along the way, I convinced myself that architecture was my only option and I had already invested too much time and money to pivot. I told myself I have nothing I could pivot to. I contaminated my own narrative as much as the environment did mine.

When I finally entered college for architecture, I finally realized that I have options. I simply feared the idea of exploring beyond what I was comfortable with, and have my work be critiqued. It turns out that the last 8 months have genuinely been the most exciting, spontaneous, fruitful time of my life. Change and ambiguity are beautiful things.

When I joined Shift Creator Space, I fully understood and felt the value of having a supportive community that not only lifts you up, but also inspires you with the wonderful things that they’re creating. For me, UMI is a culmination of my learnings from the pivots of my career, and the sense of courage that arises as a result of a creative collective.

Let’s see UMI!

So the cat’s out of the box. We registered UMI as an official intellectual property in late 2025, and I’ve been prototyping physically for the last few months. Here’s Jean’s original sketch of what UMI would look like as a bag keychain or even a pop-socket.

Cute, right? But the real catch is the NFC (near field communication) chip sitting inside the plushie. The user can write the chip with any URL of their choice. Could be their portfolio, Instagram profile, or, in my friend Jacob Chen’s case, the rick-roll.

Here’s a quick use case for your reference:

Imagine you’re on a tech social yacht party, and you’re talking to a startup founder about your passion project. You point them to your UMI, sitting adorably on your tote bag; they tap UMI with their phone (similar to how you’d tap a terminal for Apple Pay), and voila! Your project case study is on their phone in less than three seconds. No more, “I’ll send it to you after the party”, or, “how do you spell that again?”. This was my exact use case last week, and everyone on that yacht whom I told about UMI loved it.

What they love more is UMI’s backstory (that I crafted up in a Vancouver coffee shop last Summer):

Umi (うみ / 海) means ‘ocean’ in Japanese; UMI is a frog born in a swamp, and UMI’s lifelong dream has been to explore the ocean and its vast opportunities. As UMI enters the sea, it tries to navigate life as a barista, an artist, an astronaut, a princess, a mob boss… you get the point; UMI can be anything and UMI isn’t afraid of failing, pivoting, and starting over.

With UMI by your side, you can be anything you want.

Where we’re at

Since February, I have been hand prototyping UMI plush keychains using a sewing machine. These prototypes have a fully-functioning chip nested inside them, and I have since handed around 10 of them out to friends for testing and as gifts. If you’re one of the 10, take care of your UMI v.1! These prototypes have made it across the world, from the USA to Canada, Spain, Singapore, the UK, China, South Korea, and some really cool companies that my friends are working at.

Next steps

Jean, Yoyo, and I are actively planning out a mass manufactured batch of UMI’s. So all I can ask you lovely people to do is to stay tuned and keep your eyes peeled for an August launch…

With the professionally manufactured UMIs, we’re also making an accompanying app and seeking out some hardware/material upgrades. I hope you’re as excited as I am, and as a thank-you for making it all the way to the end, here are some images documenting our journey with UMI!

[Project #1] UMI: Create for the love of the game was originally published in shiftcreatorspace on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.