Naoto Fukasawa Design

Naoto Fukasawa / Product Designer


Born in Yamanashi Prefecture in 1956. Graduated from Tama Art University’s Product Design Department in 1980. In the same year, he joined Seiko Epson, where he was responsible for advanced development design. In 1989, he moved to the United States, where he joined ID Two (now IDEO San Francisco). Having honed his craft for seven years, focusing mainly on Silicon Valley industries, and returned to Japan in 1996. Fukasawa established and headed up IDEO’s Tokyo office, creating a Japanese design consultant base for the company. He went independent in 2003 and founded NAOTO FUKASAWA DESIGN.

Currently, Fukasawa's work extends globally, collaborating with over 70 renowned international brands, as well as providing consulting and design services for Japanese companies. His designs span a variety of fields, including precision electronic equipment, furniture, interior spaces, and architecture.

Fukasawa is well-recognized for his designs - which imbued with a quiet power that embodies peoples’ hopes and expectations - as well as his design philosophies. Conveying them using such terms as “design dissolving in behavior”, “center of consciousness”, “normality”, “outline” and “archetype”, he continues to put these philosophies into practice in his designs.

Fukasawa determined that the impetus for design is found in people’s unconscious behavior and named this “Without Thought”. He has held workshops of the same name every year since 1999 and continues to announce the fruits of these workshops in book form.

Fukasawa is the curator of The Japan Folk Crafts Museum. He is a vice president at Tama Art University and one of the directors of 21_21 Design Sight. He also sits on the design advisory board of Muji and is the art director of Maruni. He is on the judging panel of the Nikkei Shimbun’s Superior Products and Services Award and is a member of the screening committee for the Mainichi Design Award. In 2006, he established “Super Normal” with Jasper Morrison. He was the Good Design Award chairman from 2010 to 2014. He was on the judging committee of the Braun Prize in 2012. In 2017, he became a member of the judging committee for the Loewe Craft Prize. He has been accorded the title of Royal Designer for Industry (Royal Society of Arts). He was awarded the Isamu Noguchi Award in 2018.

Clients

A
A&S / agete
|
ABOUTWATER / FANTINI
|
ACTUS
|
ALESSI
|
AMORIM
|
ARTEMIDE
|
Artek
B
B&B Italia
|
BELUX
|
BOFFI
|
BOTTEGA GHIANDA
C
CONDE HOUSE
|
COTTO
D
DANESE MILANO
|
DE PADOVA
|
DRIADE
E
ERCO
|
Emeco
G
GEIGER
|
GLAS ITALIA
H
HAIER
|
HAY
|
HERMAN MILLER
|
HITACHI
I
IITTALA
|
ISSEY MIYAKE
J
JAKUETS
|
JUT
K
KAGOSHIMA OLIVE
|
KAI
|
KDDI
|
KETTAL
|
KVK
|
Kagoshima Bank
L
LAMY
|
LIFE & LIVING INTERNATIONAL / JIA
|
Lladró
M
MAGIS
|
MARSOTTO EDIZIONI
|
MARUNI
|
MASHIKO TOWN / MASHIKO PRODUCT
|
MATSUYA GINZA
|
MED WINDS
|
MICHELANGELO FOUNDATION
|
MOBIKE
|
MORE TREES
|
Molteni&C
N
NAVA
|
NEC DISPLAY SOLUTIONS
O
OKAMURA
|
ONAO / SIWA
P
PANASONIC
|
PIGEON
|
PLANK
|
PLUS
|
PLUS MINUS ZERO / ±0
R
REALME
|
RYOHIN KEIKAKU / MUJI
S
SAMSUNG
|
SEIKO WATCH
|
SERRALUNGA
|
SHACHIHATA
|
SUS
|
SWAROVSKI CRYSTAL
|
SWEDESE
|
SodaStream
T
TAIWAN GLASS
|
TAOBAO / ALIBABA
|
TERUMO
|
THONET
|
The Yamanashi Nichinichi Shimbun
U
UP TO YOU ANTHOLOGY
V
VICCARBE
|
VITRA
W
WOODONE
X
XUE XUE FOUNDATION
Y
YAMAGIWA
Z
ZANAT

Main Awards

2024 Collab Design Excellence Awards
2020 iF Design Award Gold HITACHI / Air Purifier
2019 Good Design Award Gold MUJI / GACHA
2019 Richard Schlagman Art Book Awards EMBODIMENT Naoto Fukasawa (Phaidon Press)
2019 Wallpaper* DESIGN AWARDS Best meals on wheels JIA / ‘Monolithic' cookware
2018 Isamu Noguchi Award
2015 Good Design Award Gold Hitachi Building Systems / HUMAN FRIENDLY Concept model「HF-1」,Elevator
2014 Good Design Award Gold MUJI / Consumer Electronics Series for Kitchen
2014 International Invitational Tang Prize Medal Design Competition, Gold Award
2013 Good Design Award Gold MARUNI WOOD INDUSTRY / HIROSHIMA Folding chair
2010 Wallpaper* DESIGN AWARDS Best bench B&BItalia / Titikaka ,Bench
2009 Good Design Award Gold Samsung / Mini Notebook PC [N310]
2007 Red dot award-best of the best Artemide / Itis , desk lamp
2007 ELLE DECO International Design Awards Designer of The Year
2005 Good Design Award Gold PLUS MINUS ZERO / Humidifier
2005 iF Product Design Award Gold Ryohin Keikaku / shredder
2005 Oribe Award
2003 Mainichi Design Award
2002 iF Product Design Award Gold MUJI/ Wall-mounted CD Player
2000 IDSA/IDEA Award Gold IDEO+DMN / Without Thought
1998 D&AD Selection ALPS / MD-1000,Color printer

Selected for the collection of the museum

The Museum of Modern Art

USA
neon | INFOBAR
-
KDDI
Humidifier
-
Plus Minus Zero
Wall-mounted CD Player
-
MUJI

Victoria and Albert Museum

U.K.
Wall-mounted CD Player
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MUJI
au W11K | neon | INFOBAR | INFOBAR 2 | NFOBAR A01 | INFOBAR C01
-
KDDI

Designmuseum Danmark

DENMARK
HIROSHIMA Folding chair
-
MARUNI WOOD INDUSTRY

Staff