Monday, January 24, 2011

1st Designer: Naoto Fukasawa

Naoto Fukasawa: 

  • Naoto was born in 1956 in Yamanashi Prefecture Japan
  • In 1989 he left Japan for the United States by moving to San Francisco and joining a small office with somewhere around 15 other people.  The company was ID Two, which was the predecessor to IDEO
  • In 1996 Naoto Fukasawa moved back to Japan and helped set up IDEO which consisted of a team of eight designers working mostly for the Japanese market.
  • He then left IDEO and went independent, then in January 2003 he started Naoto Fukasawa Design in Tokyo. 
  • Shortly after, Naoto set up a new product brand plusminuszero and collaborating with toy company Takara Co. Ltd.
  • Plusminuszero designs and produces mostly domestic objects; everything from umbrellas to electronics.
  • He is now a lecturer  in the product design department at Musashino Art University and Tama Art University in Tokyo.
  • Naoto's designs have won more than 50 design awards in Europe and America including the American IDEA Gold Award, the German if Gold Award, the British D&AD Gold Award, the Mainichi Design Award and the 5th Oribe Award just to name a few.
  • Early this year Fukasawa and architect Zaha Hadid were invited to create an "Ideal House" installation at the IMM Cologne

 "Naoto Fukasawa." Design Boom. <http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/fukasawa.html> 24 January 2011.

Ashcraft, Brian.  "Without Thought."  Metropolis Mag.  18 May, 2007

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