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Naoto Fukasawa
Naoto Fukasawa has designed everything from watches, CD players and eyewear to pens, chairs and his L-shaped house and studio. Over his career he has worked for a host of international brands, written several books and held roles as an educator, curator, advisor and more. Across all of these endeavours, he applies his nuanced and gentle design philosophy, which is based on the belief that design is most successful when it is so user-friendly that you may not even notice it.
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.
