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Tokyo-based Naoto Fukasawa is a designer with the innovative design firm IDEO. A laboratory for future products, IDEO's unique design solutions have included the Palm V hand-held organiser and an ultrathin pocket camera for Logitech.
Naoto's personal design is informed by a strong interest in the subtle, but obvious behaviour people unconsciously exhibit in daily life, and his work continuously tries to translate these unconscious actions and phenomena into designed forms. Naoto has worked on collaborative projects with NEC and Epson, and both his NEC 'Whitebox' and Epson 'Printables' projects having been showcased at London's Design Museum.
A man of varied talents, he is an advisory board member of the trend setting Japanese retailer, MUJI, and his CD design for the store won both an iF Gold Award and a Design Week Gold Award. Naoto's New Domestic Cooking Tools for Matsushita (Panasonic) have been widely profiled in magazines such as Form, AXIS and Wallpaper. In 2001 Naoto participated in MOMA New York's 'Workspheres' exhibition, where he introduced 'Personal Skies', a forward thinking project that explores the nexus between personal individuality and public mindshare in a corporate workspace.
A faculty member of Tama Art University and NTT ICC New School, Naoto joined the San Francisco-based IDEO in 1991, returning to Tokyo in 1997 to set up IDEO Japan. Naoto's presentation at the 6th International Design Indaba will offer a rare opportunity to learn from a designer who aims to evoke a "later wow," rather than the all-pervasive "first wow".