Combo was founded by me, Chris Barron.
Long story short: I’m Korean Irish American. Grew up in southern Illinois. Went to MIT then spent years working on products at Silicon Valley behemoths like Oracle, Yahoo!, and VMware. One of those is no longer very behemoth-y. Got to work with customers and colleagues from around the world - Korea, India, England, France, Germany, Hong Kong, and across the US. Moved to Minnesota and co-founded a consulting firm that helped a lot of people in big companies with product development and marketing. Also served on the board of Theater Mu - a great organization focused on arts, equity, and justice from the heart of the Asian American experience.
All of that experience working with people in all sorts of roles and organizations gave me a deeper appreciation of other people. What they value. What they believe. What they want to be. And after the seismic shifts that happened in 2020 and 2021, I decided to change the focus of my work. Now I focus on graphic art and design. I’m still available for consulting engagements too.
I want to work with other people, whether clients or collaborators, who try to be authentic, ask why we do what we do, and constantly try to make things better. Less bloodless corporate-speak and more honesty with empathy and humor. As a graphic designer, I’m constantly trying to develop my creative vision, learn new skills, and collaborate with others to get feedback and grow. And I’m especially excited about work that centers the experiences of people who are typically outside the mainstream such as people of color, mixed-race people (myself), and people who identify as LGBTQ+. Representation matters!
Name-dropping MIT and big tech firms in my bio helps grab attention but doesn’t give much meaningful background about me as a person. These pictures do a better job of showing you who I am. Except maybe the last one.
And there’s a part of me that still sees myself circa 1992… (and yeah, I really did have long hair… *sigh*)
A smattering of me with my wife and kids, at least before they became teenagers who don’t like being in pictures anymore. Regarding the last one, be careful letting your kids use your phone. Looks like they might have a future in graphic design though :)
