Naoto Fukasawa

Naoto Fukasawa is one of the most influential product designers working today, celebrated for objects of quiet, essential beauty. Born in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan, in 1956, he graduated in product design from Tama Art University in 1980 and joined Seiko Epson, where he worked on advanced development design. In 1989 he moved to the United States to join ID Two (now IDEO) in San Francisco. Seven years later he returned to Japan to establish and lead IDEO’s Tokyo office. In 2003 he founded his own studio, Naoto Fukasawa Design, which today works with leading brands worldwide across everything from precision electronics to furniture and interiors.

Fukasawa is known for his “without thought” approach: designing objects that fit so naturally into daily life that people use them intuitively. It’s a philosophy best seen in his work for Muji, including the wall-mounted CD player that became a modern design icon, and in Super Normal, the exhibition and movement he founded with Jasper Morrison in 2006. He sits on Muji’s design advisory board, is art director of furniture maker Maruni and teaches at Tama Art University. His honours include the Isamu Noguchi Award, chairing Japan’s Good Design Award from 2010 to 2014, and the title of Royal Designer for Industry from the Royal Society of Arts.

His long collaboration with Artemide began with Itis, which won a Red Dot “Best of the Best” award in 2007. It was Fukasawa’s answer to a challenge from Ernesto Gismondi to create a Tizio or Tolomeo for a new era. The desk lamp is made of two balanced discs and can fold completely flat. He has since designed several more families for the brand, including the Demetra task lights and the softly glowing glass spheres of Dioscuri.

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