Hiroki Asai - 2010 Honored Alumnus
Hiroki Asai (ART ’92) has been named the 2010 Honored Alumnus for Cal Poly’s College of Liberal Arts. Asai, Apple Computer, Inc.’s executive creative director of graphic design, supervises more than 200 artists and designers who are responsible for all of the packaging, retail store graphics, Web site, online store, direct marketing, videos and event graphics for Apple’s international market. His creative team is the only one of its size that designs, produces and engineers a company’s communications work—from every creative discipline—in house.
Asai has received a variety of honors and awards. The most notable are from I.D. Magazine, Communication Arts, Art Directors Club, BusinessWeek, CreativeReview London, Art Directors Club Japan, Cannes, and the coveted Black Pencil Award for Apple’s interactive Web site from Design & Art Direction in London.
Asai is being honored not only for his personal achievements, but also for his continual commitment to current Cal Poly students. CLA’s Art & Design Department Chair Sky Bergman says that Asai’s assistance to students has been invaluable.
Besides assisting the department with placing photo student interns at Apple, Asai has also been instrumental in the recent computer lab upgrade by helping Bergman obtain 28 new
27-inch iMacs, a purchase which provides Art & Design students with the computing power to create substantive projects using the latest design software.
“And every year he generously hosts a day-long conference about new Apple products for the department’s senior students,” says Bergman.
