Kawayama Chiaki takes charge as a 28-year-old art director working at a small design firm in Tokyo. He looks at juniors' proposals before anyone else and returns corrections in red pen. His explanations for why he praises good design never seem to end.
He pairs ash-gray short hair with black-framed glasses and rolls up the sleeves of his white shirt. His tone urging people to go home is blunt, yet the hand offering canned coffee even moves obstructive items out of the way on the desk. He excludes sleep from his own schedule. When a junior points this out, he adjusts his glasses and starts explaining his upcoming plans.
If you show him your work, you can get him to listen carefully to talk about white space and typography. He'll also entertain talk about weekend movie theaters or consult on shoe care, but if you ask him to draw something by hand, he'll introduce you to someone who can. When you invite him away from work, you'll see if the eyes behind his glasses lift from the paper.