Hello there.
Hello, I’m Nico! Thank you for visiting. I’m a designer and developer based in Manila, Philippines, and I’m also an avid figure collector. I’ve been in the hobby for a while now, and my collection mainly consists of figures from my favorite anime TV shows and superhero movies.
I wouldn’t be able to support this hobby without a job, so I’m very fortunate to have been working in the design and development industry for more than ten years now. I started freelancing while I was still in college, and I went full-time two years after. Most of the work I do involves illustrations, UI/UX, motion, web, and print.
What’s up with the name.
When I first started my career as a designer, I adopted the moniker “Needlemouse” – because having an alias was cool back then. It was also the time when I was heavily into reading manga, watching anime, and collecting Japanese figurines. If you share these hobbies or interests, then you could be considered an Otaku. The name served me well, as it got me some high-profile gigs in Japan, such as working with anime studios and doing design and development work for Danny Choo and his company, Culture Japan.
Work work.
Designing has always been my true passion. I’ve done a lot of design work for both local and international clients, and this experience has allowed me to work on a variety of projects, from user interfaces to animation and motion graphics. This was tested even further when Danny Choo hired me to do some work for Culture Japan, where I worked on print, motion, and development projects.
I’m grateful to Danny Choo for giving me the opportunity to work on projects that I genuinely enjoy. It’s true what they say: “Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
Figure collecting and photography.
Figure collecting and photography go hand in hand. I love taking pictures of my collection, as it allows me to appreciate it even more. Details that can’t be seen by just looking at a figure suddenly become visible when captured by a camera.
This passion for figure photography also led me to create a community-driven magazine called Phygure. It’s an online publication where I showcase some of the most talented figure photographers from around the world. It’s available on Apple iBooks and Rakuten Kobo, two of the biggest registries of online books and magazines. You can also read it online via Phygure’s official site.
Initially, I had plans to make Phygure into a physical magazine, as many contributors were requesting it. I did some test prints to compare the digital version to the physical release, and the results were amazing. Unfortunately, I had to pause the project, as there were a lot of legal considerations to take into account, as well as the time investment needed to publish an issue, as I handle both the design and layout, as well as the publishing to digital magazine channels like iBooks and Kobo. I still plan to revive this project in the future, but for now, you can check out all the released issues on Phygure’s official website.
As for my photography gear, I’m a Nikon user who switched to Fujifilm due to their cameras’ size and retro aesthetics. I currently own two of their cameras, the X-Pro2 and X-T3. I have a mixture of vintage and Fujinon lenses, with my current favorites being the 60mm F2.4 macro lens and the 16-55mm F2.8 zoom lens – perfect for taking amazing figure photos.
Bicycles and cycling.
I’ve been into cycling since I was in high school, and I’ve been hooked ever since. I’ve been able to acquire a few bikes over the years, and it got even better when the anime Yowamushi Pedal aired in Japan in 2013, based on a manga of the same name. A few years later, I was even able to ride with the manga’s original author inside a virtual cycling app called Zwift.
Hit me up.
I’m semi-active on social media, but I’m very active in checking my emails daily. If you have any questions or just want to say hi, feel free to email me at needlemouseinteractive@gmail.com.