Artist Kazuhiko Hachiya, 39, is president of PetWORKs, a small company with nine employees. According to him, they "do big things in a funny and cute way." His company is behind the popular mail software PostPet, in which animated characters deliver the mail; the hit doll Momoko; and it is now venturing into the wild blue yonder with Open Sky, a "personal flying machine" with a jet engine that is based on Nausicaa's plane in Hayao Miyazaki's book and film "Nausicaa of the Valley of Winds." Obviously, Hachiya's imagination knows no bounds.

Amateurs can make good professionals. Before PostPet, I had never made any software, but I saw the need for something to assist people in communicating via computers, especially because at that time software was made by tech geeks who had trouble talking, even through the Internet, so what they made was too difficult to use. This was back in 1995, when it was mostly guys who were using e-mail, and we definitely needed help. I wanted to make a fun software program for people new to the computer, especially my women friends, and that was PostPet.

My function as an artist is to guide engineers toward a better interface. Engineers are always thinking of functionality and since there is a lot of competition, they end up developing products that have way too many functions. I make those items easier to use.