Naoto Fukasawa
Naoto Fukasawa was born in Yamanashi Prefecture in 1956. He graduated from Tama Art University in 1980. He worked at Seiko Epson, where he designed wrist TVs and mini printers using micro-technology developed from wristwatch technology; LCD TVs, LCD projectors and other equipment. He went to the United States in 1989 and joined the San Francisco deign firm ID Two, the predecessor to IDEO. While working for IDEO, he worked on a number of products related to Silicon Valley computing and electronics technology. Amongst these were the left heart ventricle support systems for Baxter and AVOCET's VERTECH ALPIN/SKI watch. He was also involved in the development of a design language and design concept for Apple. He has designed a number of products utilizing state-of-the-art technology for start-up companies and for big brand name computer and communications related companies, and has won numerous design awards in Europe and the United States successively from year to year.
In 1996, he returned to Japan to start and head up IDEO's Tokyo office. While acting as a design consultant to major Japanese companies, he also held design workshops - the “without thought” workshops - with young designers. The idea behind them was, “People think that design is something that appeals to people's emotions, but in fact people are linked on a daily basis to things, to the environment, without being aware of it – unconsciously. This unthinking state makes actions smooth; if we think closely about what we're doing, our actions become awkward or wooden. By converting the ideas extracted from the interaction of the unconscious mind with objects into tangible form, can we not create designs where individuality does not stand out; designs that make us feel a kind of simplicity, that entwine with people's actions and with the environment?” “Without thought” proved popular and holds exhibitions every year. This year, the 7th without thought workshop is going to be hold. During the first workshop, he came up with the design for the wall-mounted CD player that was taken up and released by MUJI, and which has proved very popular worldwide. In 2004, MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) in New York selected this CD player for its permanent collection.
In 2000, at the invitation of MoMA, he presented his work “Personal Skies” at their “Workspheres” exhibition. Since 2001, he has acted on the design advisory board of MUJI. He went independent in 2003 and established Naoto Fukasawa Design. He worked on design for a mobile phone, called :INFOBAR, which became very popular and lead the design market for mobile phone in Japan. He also started up the electrical household appliance and sundries brand ±0, and the opening of the ±0 retail store in Aoyama, Tokyo garnered a great deal of attention from not only in Japan but worldwide. In April 2005, he presented his works for 7 major brands at Milano Salone del Mobile and?received great response . As of 2005, he began concurrently acting as a professor at Musashino Art University, a visiting professor at Tama Art University and a special lecturer of interdisciplinary information studies at Tokyo University Graduate School.
Magis History
Magis is the brand that has given a novel twist to domestic design, building its identity on incorporating leading edge technology into mass production. Founded in 1976 in the bustling north eastern corner of Italy by a newcomer to the furniture business, Eugenio Perazza, Magis is today a giant international design laboratory that constantly puts itself to the test, seeking technological sophistication and employing a highly diversified workforce.
Magis seizes the day. It embraces the creativity of leading global designers (Richard Sapper, Jasper Morrison, Stefano Giovannoni, Marc Newson, James Irvine, Konstantin Grcic, Ron Arad, the Bouroullecs and many others) and channels it towards objects perched on the cutting edge. The company even earned kudos from the trendsetter's bible, Wallpaper, which placed Perazza on top of its list of "Ten who will change the way we live".
Magis is 30 years old. Until a short while ago Magis was one of the few companies that manufactured objects in plastic. Today the number has increased considerably. Still, Magis uses the most advanced molding technologies and techniques; it was the first company in the world to apply air molding to aesthetical goods.
Plastic will remain Magis' reference material, although it is now experimenting with others such as die-cast aluminum, aluminum metal sheet and wood.
Magis is a company in perfect health because it has good projects to develop as well as good intellectual capital, which is the distinguishing feature of the company. Excellent designers, a good design team and an extraordinary supply chain. Magis is characterized by the multiplicity of its expressive languages, its search for a deep meaning of the project, and its ethics instead of aesthetics.
Magis takes three/four years to turn the idea of a project into a finished product. Magis faces projects, both difficult and complex, taking high risks. Projects are completed as long as they are supported by a high spirit of experimentation and elevated technical cleverness.
Magis works with very well-known designers, but it has always been open to work with young designers, even at the outset of their careers. Jean-Marie Massaud and Jerszy Seymour made their debut on the design scene thanks to the opportunities Magis gave them. Now Magis discovers new passions and punctually chases former design glories, adding them to the mix. There was the interlude with Charlotte Perriand, and new design chapters are being written with Robin Day, a genius of English design, Eero Aarnio, a genius of Finnish design and Pierre Paulin, a genius of French design.
It is the price to pay for success. To reduce the possibility to be copied the entrance barrier needs to be elevated greatly. One will have to do complex projects with inventive loftiness and considerable engineering investments, and make moulds and equipment with high technical performance (technique is the ability of a company to make technology work). A qualitative distribution should too play an important role against copies selecting design-oriented companies and keeping me-too-oriented ones out.
