Airline was founded in Tokyo and supports clients worldwide.
We are hired for our experience concepting, designing and delivering great products.
Paul Pugh
Founder + Chief Designer
Award-winning designer and innovator with 30+ years of experience bringing products used by millions to market. Trained as an architect, Paul spent four years in the field before pivoting into the exploding world of software and web design in the mid-1990s, a move that launched a career spanning consumer electronics, connected fitness, digital products, and enterprise software.
He has shaped product vision, strategy, and design for top-tier companies including Amazon, Under Armour, HP, Nokia, Microsoft, and AT&T. He has built design studios from scratch and led large design organizations and global teams across hardware, software, and manufacturing. A serial entrepreneur, he is a frequent speaker on consumer electronics and the future of design.
Paul currently runs Airline Design, a Tokyo-based consultancy focused on integrated hardware/software products for global clients, and provides management consulting and leadership to other design firms, including Method, a Hitachi-owned company.
Paul has a secret music project called Secret Retreat, suffers through miles and miles of distance running, and enjoys Japanese powder snowboarding.
A note from Paul
Hi, welcome to Airline Design.
I started Airline over 10 years ago when I first moved to Tokyo. Over those years Airline has been and done many things. We started as a consumer-focused boutique design firm with a small but lovely studio in Shimokitazawa. At times we had as many as a dozen full-time or student designers filling up our tiny space. Through Covid we transitioned to fully remote and to a core team of about 6 with members in Japan, India and the US. But now it is back to basics and I operate and do most of Airline’s strategy and design work myself, pulling in experts to help me scale or bring skills I don’t have.
What I have enjoyed over my lengthy time in design consulting is the diversity of problems and industries. Airline has delivered projects in the automotive, health/fitness, consumer electronics and had particular success with Kitchen goods and appliances. Our services have ranged to include product strategy, UX/UI design, Industrial design and manufacturing bidding and oversight. We have done concept work for future cities full of autonomous vehicles and homes full of helpful robotics. We also have designed kitchen appliances, both the hardware and software, down to designing the packaging and experience, every step involved through the first time the customer turns it on.
No doubt the industry is changing. Generative tools are getting very good and will only get better. We can do more in less time and resources and it’s on designers now to prove their value by developing new ideas outside of what exists and then harness these incredible technologies to make great decisions and products for our clients.
Paul PughFounder, Airline Design
Work with us
We are always open to hearing about your project and understanding if we can bring something to its success. If we don’t think your project is a good fit for Airline, we will be happy to point you to one of our friends or partners who can better help you.
We usually respond within 24 hours.