Naoto Fukasawa

Biography

The simpler things seem, the more complex they must have been to design. Naoto Fukasawa's innovative designs of familiar objects are based on his close observations of how we use things in our everyday lives. Rather than focusing on the objects in isolation, he considers how they relate to their surroundings.
These reinventions of everyday objects have turned him into the most famous and influential Japanese product designer, a true "designer's designer", admired by colleagues all over the world.

Born in 1956 in the Yamanashi prefecture, Japan, Fukasawa graduated in 1980 from the Department of Product Design at the Tama Art University. After working at IDEO in the USA for seven years, Fukasawa was appointed director of IDEO Japan. In 2003, he founded the Naoto Fukasawa Design studio. Representative works include the wall-mounted CD player for MUJI, the mobile phones "Infobar" and "Neon" and his own "±0" brand of household electrical appliances and sundries. And, of course, the poetic Swedese bench and stool Log, totally unique and also used for storage.

Fukasawa has won some 50 awards, is professor at Musashino Art University and author of "An Outline of Design".