2025: A Year in Review

Today is Saturday, December 27, 2025.
As the year draws to a close, I would like to take a moment to reflect on the past year.

First of all, I would like to sincerely thank everyone who regularly visits the AEDI website and uses our services. Your continued support truly means a great deal to us.

Looking back on 2025, one of the most significant milestones was the launch of our affordable website development service, SimpleTastes.

SimpleTastes was created under the concept:
“More accessible. Higher quality. Websites that are just right for companies and organizations.”
It is a website creation service designed to provide an ideal balance of affordable pricing, high quality, and essential functionality for businesses and organizations of all sizes.

Within SimpleTastes, we offer ST Base, a versatile website solution that meets a wide range of needs—from sole proprietors to mid-sized companies and organizations—as well as ST Shrine, a specialized website service tailored specifically for shrines and related organizations.

These services were not simply launched and left as-is. Since their release, we have continuously worked on bug fixes and feature enhancements.
The latest version, v4.0.6, was released on December 23, 2025, and if possible, we aim to release v4.0.7 by the end of the year. This is planned to be our final task for 2025. (Added on December 28: v4.0.7 has been released.)

In addition to fully custom website projects tailored to individual client needs, being able to continuously develop and provide services like SimpleTastes—designed with a wide range of users in mind—made this a year of meaningful growth for us as a small website and design company based in Okayama and Kurashiki.

On December 26, 2025, the website for I-Plumber Inc. was launched using ST Base.
The site was created with the client designing the structure and content themselves, including dedicated customizations.
I-Plumber is based in the Mizushima area of Kurashiki, Okayama, and provides services such as piping construction, steel fabrication, piping design and drafting, and equipment installation. https://i-plumber.com/ ↗︎

Note: This photo was taken on December 19, 2025, capturing a view of the Seto Inland Sea from Kayo, Kojima, Kurashiki, Okayama. The Mizushima Industrial Complex can be seen on the right.

Another thing that stood out strongly this year was how much I learned from our clients.
Through custom website projects, service development, website maintenance and support, graphic design work such as logos and brochures, and especially through meetings and conversations with clients, I gained an incredible number of insights.

While no one directly pointed out specific issues, countless realizations emerged naturally through dialogue and collaboration. Beyond technical skills, I learned a great deal about my own approach as both a designer and business owner, AEDI’s values, and how to engage with people more thoughtfully and effectively.

These experiences were not always easy. There were moments that required deep reflection and moments of discouragement as well. However, in the end, I believe this year became a valuable one—not only for AEDI as a company, but also for me as a person.

I consider myself relatively sociable, but at heart, I am someone who prefers to work alone and focus deeply. When I reflect on myself, the images that often come to mind are those of Amuro Ray’s father from Mobile Suit Gundam, quietly tinkering with machines alone at his desk (to be honest, my memory may not be entirely accurate), and a manga artist who looks like they could appear in Fujiko Fujio A’s classic The Manga Way, drawing silently and steadily on their own.

I used to think that I was probably someone who preferred working alone. In many ways, I feel that this may still be true even now.
However, this year—especially in the latter half—I found myself meeting people and having conversations over the phone far more frequently. Through these experiences, I began to see myself, AEDI, and the services we provide much more clearly.

This December in particular, right up until the very end of the year, I was constantly on the move—going to various places, meeting people, and attending to many different matters.

In the coming year, I hope to go out even more than I did this year, meet a greater number of people, and apply the inspiration and knowledge gained from those encounters to my work. My goal is to create websites and designs that truly help, support, and bring joy to our clients. There will surely be lessons to learn along the way, and if we are fortunate, there may even be moments of unexpected serendipity.

This article includes quite a few personal reflections, but I hope you will accept it as AEDI’s 2025 Year in Review, from the perspective of a web and graphic design company based in Okayama and Kurashiki.

Thank you sincerely to everyone who supported us throughout the year.

We look forward to continuing our work together in the coming year.

Wishing you a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year.