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“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. His focus on stripped simplicity and good functionality has made him the most influential Japanese designer of our time.
Naoto Fukasawa
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 made him the most 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 Product Design at the Tama Art University. After working at IDEO in the USA for seven years, Fukasawa was then appointed director of IDEO Japan. In 2003, he founded the Naoto Fukasawa Design studio. Representative works include the wallmounted CD player for MUJI, mobile phones and his own ±0 brand of household electrical appliances. And, of course, the poetic Swedese bench and stool Log, totally unique.
Professor Fukasawa has won some 50 awards and is author of the important book “An Outline of Design”.
Swedese's ideals are the same today as they have been for the past seventy years. These are to create beautiful furniture for the future, which build on the foundations of Scandinavian modern traditions, designed by forward-looking designers who share in the timeless ideals of architecture.