Adam Brodsley co-founded Volume Inc. at the dawn of a new millennium (which admittedly sounds like a long time ago). He has since served as Principal and Creative Director. His broad range of expertise and experience is connected by the desire to engage people through the power of design, whatever the method, whatever the medium but especially in the physical world we inhabit. Adam is a graduate of The Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles and holds a BA in Communications from UC Santa Barbara. He is a Northern California native. His first hostage situation was in the Santa Cruz mountains.

Starting in the hunter-filled woods of rural Pennsylvania, Eric made his way through architecture school and late night DJ sessions at Carnegie Mellon University, a three month cross-country trek, record store employment, and yoga classes in the Maui upcountry before finally studying graphic design at the California College of the Arts (CCA) and founding Volume with Adam in 2001. Eric has taught at CCA since 1999 and was awarded the college-wide Excellence in Teaching award in 2003. His writing on design has been published in Design Observer, Eye and Emigré, and was one of the founding writers for SFMOMA’s Open Space online publication. He spends way too much money on vinyl records, but do know that he does actually listen to them, too.

Raised in Davis (formerly known as “Davisville”), California, James was an active contributor to the Sacramento and Bay Area music scenes, where—as a teenager—his first foray into graphic design was creating album covers and concert posters for local bands. After his sister talked him out of townie life, he went on to pursue a formal education at California College of the Arts (where he met Eric Heiman), and subsequently a career in graphic design. Before joining Volume, he spent several years as the Senior Designer at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. James’ experience and expertise demonstrate a rich history of connecting people to meaningful experiences through design, and his work has been recognized by numerous design awards and publications. Additionally, he once received a cease and desist letter from the NBA for creating an enamel pin which used the likeness of Lebron James crying.

Born and raised in San Jose, California, Jon was drawn to the arts at a very young age. When he wasn’t spending hours drawing his favorite Nintendo or comic book characters, he was dancing in the living room to “Stop Making Sense” by Talking Heads. As a teenager his family moved to the foothills of Northern California, where he spent most of his time playing in garage bands and hanging out with the cool kids in his high school’s art room. Unsure of what faction of the art world he wanted to pursue, he discovered what the heck graphic design was after taking some classes at community college. He returned to the Bay Area and dove head-first into design school, graduating from the California College of the Arts with High Distinction. He also has an encyclopedic knowledge of The Simpsons, years 1989-1999 (the golden era).

The quiet little ninja in the office, Yuya came from Tokyo to hone his design skills and learn new tricks, ultimately obtaining a masters degree in graphic design from the Academy of Art University (while winning numerous package design awards, to boot). His current pursuits outside Volume include training at a local kung-fu school after the work day ends and building a fully functional life-size replica R2-D2 on the weekends to fulfill the requirements for his next master's degree in Jedi Studies.

Born outside of New York City, Nicole has always been interested in how people interact with each other in public spaces, both concrete and digital. With a background in anthropology and architecture, she has spent her career using design and technology to create meaningful experiences that spark connections and engage people. Her work has taken her around the world, with projects in cities including Los Angeles, Shanghai, and Rome. Always a West Coaster at heart, Nicole arrived in foggy California a few years ago. When she isn't serving in her capacity as Volume's Senior Project Manager, she can usually be found stalking Korean dogs on Instagram and growing her already-expansive knowledge of Japanese mascots (Nebaru-kun, call me if you're reading this).