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Naoto Fukasawa
Naoto Fukasawa (b.1956) is one of the best-known Japanese product designers working today. His simple, restrained and user-friendly products appeal to people's shared experience of things. The wall-mounted CD player he designed for MUJI in 1999, based on the image of a kitchen fan, was selected into MoMA's design collection in 2005
The book is the first survey on Fukasawa's work to be published in English. Edited by Fukasawa himself, and with contributions by artists, designers and lecturers, such as Antony Gormley and Jasper Morrison, the book introduces the reader to the designer's particular and innovative design approach. Illustrated with newly commissioned photography, the book showcases over 100 products, which Fukasawa elucidates with a clever combination of images and words
The book is the first survey on Fukasawa's work to be published in English. Edited by Fukasawa himself, and with contributions by artists, designers and lecturers, such as Antony Gormley and Jasper Morrison, the book introduces the reader to the designer's particular and innovative design approach. Illustrated with newly commissioned photography, the book showcases over 100 products, which Fukasawa elucidates with a clever combination of images and words
240 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2007
7 people are currently reading
199 people want to read
About the author
Tim Brown
230 books176 followersTim W. Brown was born and raised in Rockford, Illinois. In 1983 he graduated summa cum laude from Northern Illinois University with a degree in American studies. He is the author of four published novels, Deconstruction Acres (1997), Left of the Loop (2001), Walking Man (2008), and Second Acts (2010). His fiction, poetry and nonfiction have appeared in over two hundred publications, including Another Chicago Magazine, The Bloomsbury Review, The Brooklyn Rail, Chelsea, Chiron Review, Colorado Review, The Fiction Review, The Ledge, Main Street Rag, New Observations, Oyez Review, Pleiades, Poetry Project Newsletter, Rain Taxi, Rockford Review, Slipstream, Small Press Review, and Storyhead. A long-time resident of Chicago, where he was a fixture in that citys literary scene as a writer, performer, and publisher of Tomorrow Magazine (1982-1999), Brown moved to New York in 2003. He currently earns his living as a writer at Bloomberg."
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 31, 2023
Great overview of Fukasawa's work with photographs and explanations behind each product. His designs are simple, elegant, and functional. They are understated but dignified, taking on a shape that embodies the repeated behaviors of people to serve them in their everyday lives and easily fading into the background when not in use. They look really *normal*! But if you take a closer look, they are anything but.
Reading his thoughts on design makes me more observant of the relationship between people and objects, and all the associations that are evoked on a subconscious level. He thinks a lot about things many people don't even notice. If we can learn to see the world like he does, maybe we too will believe that the realizations that lead to great design are already right in front of us.
Favorite quotes:
"There are design outlines that only gradually float into focus when we look hard, and others that suddenly crop up in the middle of familiar, everyday scenes. Either way, they are otherwise unseen realities. Just like constellations that blink into view amidst countless stars, shapes created in human memory by very real entities out there in the cosmos, these outlines are based on recollections that people share in everyday life. Such connect-the-dots lines, seemingly drawn out of nowhere – 'invisible, but easy to see now that you tell us', you might say – such images rendered from our ordinary unconscious experience are the very essence of design." (10)
"I have the strange sensation that Naoto has gone through some kind of barrier, that he thinks in a world that hasn't yet arrived for the rest of us. The objects in his world are unlike the objects in ours: they have an extra level, an added confidence that allows them to be more natural and not to take themselves so seriously. We can laugh at these objects and they laugh back at us." – Jasper Morrison (39)
"[T]he shape of his objects is a repository, the outcome of the exercise of repeated need." (123)
"The fact that I'd once been an in-house company designer, and that the road the students were following led to that world, created a sense of danger inside of me, and this related to my motivation with respect to education. I wanted to convey this feeling of having broken free. In that world, it was believed that new design was something that existed in a special, separate place. It was perhaps akin to the mistaken idea that one cannot take good photos unless you go somewhere where the scenery is good. I wanted to show them the reality in front of our eyes every day, saying 'See ... look!'. I wanted to make the obvious appear obvious." (224)
"He is not interested in innovation of form if it obfuscates the understanding of purpose." (226)
"I recall Naoto once saying something like, 'I'm napping all by myself, a lone island in the middle of the Pacific.' In other words, he has ideas that no one else has, which he dreams up on a deserted isle, all by himself at the centre of an ocean of inspirations. With prodigious drive, he's only now beginning to tap that vein of ideas to the maximum, setting up an industrial complex to extract them all. The wealth of his resources seems to be staggering. I'm not surprised that European brands are clamouring to commission his designs. It has nothing to do with trends or fashions; it's the result of consistently thinking about design, and of designs that offer a continual sense of awakening to so many." – Kenya Hara (229)
Reading his thoughts on design makes me more observant of the relationship between people and objects, and all the associations that are evoked on a subconscious level. He thinks a lot about things many people don't even notice. If we can learn to see the world like he does, maybe we too will believe that the realizations that lead to great design are already right in front of us.
Favorite quotes:
"There are design outlines that only gradually float into focus when we look hard, and others that suddenly crop up in the middle of familiar, everyday scenes. Either way, they are otherwise unseen realities. Just like constellations that blink into view amidst countless stars, shapes created in human memory by very real entities out there in the cosmos, these outlines are based on recollections that people share in everyday life. Such connect-the-dots lines, seemingly drawn out of nowhere – 'invisible, but easy to see now that you tell us', you might say – such images rendered from our ordinary unconscious experience are the very essence of design." (10)
"I have the strange sensation that Naoto has gone through some kind of barrier, that he thinks in a world that hasn't yet arrived for the rest of us. The objects in his world are unlike the objects in ours: they have an extra level, an added confidence that allows them to be more natural and not to take themselves so seriously. We can laugh at these objects and they laugh back at us." – Jasper Morrison (39)
"[T]he shape of his objects is a repository, the outcome of the exercise of repeated need." (123)
"The fact that I'd once been an in-house company designer, and that the road the students were following led to that world, created a sense of danger inside of me, and this related to my motivation with respect to education. I wanted to convey this feeling of having broken free. In that world, it was believed that new design was something that existed in a special, separate place. It was perhaps akin to the mistaken idea that one cannot take good photos unless you go somewhere where the scenery is good. I wanted to show them the reality in front of our eyes every day, saying 'See ... look!'. I wanted to make the obvious appear obvious." (224)
"He is not interested in innovation of form if it obfuscates the understanding of purpose." (226)
"I recall Naoto once saying something like, 'I'm napping all by myself, a lone island in the middle of the Pacific.' In other words, he has ideas that no one else has, which he dreams up on a deserted isle, all by himself at the centre of an ocean of inspirations. With prodigious drive, he's only now beginning to tap that vein of ideas to the maximum, setting up an industrial complex to extract them all. The wealth of his resources seems to be staggering. I'm not surprised that European brands are clamouring to commission his designs. It has nothing to do with trends or fashions; it's the result of consistently thinking about design, and of designs that offer a continual sense of awakening to so many." – Kenya Hara (229)
January 15, 2017
Design Porn, Multiple Orgasm
Really like the concept of design that concretize human behavior into everyday objects
Really like the concept of design that concretize human behavior into everyday objects
November 4, 2022
talvez minha maior referência em design de produto
August 29, 2012
KUDO's to Naoto for showing me the path to great design. The book flows so eloquently like a poetry and he tells you the story of how each product he designed came to life and his thoughts behind them.
It is a brilliant book and highly recommended for anybody who enjoys great products
It is a brilliant book and highly recommended for anybody who enjoys great products
March 8, 2009
His designs are spectacular and the photos show them well. His comments are sometimes interesting and sometimes not. Also, the cover, which is printed white cloth picks up dirt.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews