Ayana - Chair

Born in Yamanashi 1956, Graduated from Tama Art University’s Product Design Department. As an in-house designer, he engaged in the design of microelectronic devices including watches. In 1989, Fukasawa moved to the United States and joined IDEO and it was a very rare case for Japanese product designer of that time. It was the time when Silicon valley was experiencing a rapidly growth with the computer technologies and Fukasawa was mainly involved in the design of computers and electronics for companies in Silicon Valley, medical equipment, furniture and sporting goods. In 1996 he returned to Japan, where he set up and headed IDEO’s Tokyo office. In 2003 he established Naoto Fukasawa Design. Fukasawa’s approach for product design is very original and his “Without Thought”, and “Design dissolving in behavior” are internationally supported. Fukasawa regards achieving simpleness in design as a way to achieve completeness and harmonious relationship between users, objects and environments as a purpose for design. Such a way of thinking is also described as “Outline”. Outline is about defining the boundaries of relationships between objects, people and environment. Today, Fukasawa is based in Tokyo with his small team and collaborating with many international leading companies. Being accorded the title of Honorable Royal Designer for Industry (Royal Society of Arts) in 2007 as one of the examples, Fukasawa received a number of international awards. Fukasawa is one of the directors of 21_21 Design Site, as well as acting on the design advisory board of MUJI. He acts as the chairman for “ GOOD DESIGN AWARD”. He is a professor at Musashino Art University, a visiting professor at Tama Art University, and a member of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s Research Group on Applications for Strategic Design.