Learn from Naoto Fukasawa

Typography and Layout | Works of 2016

< 2016, Kiel >

All the unneccessary things have been thrown away, no decorations, no extra functions. This is my first impression of Naoto Fukasawa. He cuts the outlines so well that the design he made can’t be more, and also, can’t be less. He can always find the unnoticeable tiny little details which are just the pain point of our daily life. When looking at his design, there will never be a “wow” effect. But people will smile and say, “that’s what I always want.” Although his works seem to be unde- signed, they exude a sense of calm, comfort and well-being. He never really created things, as he said, but he always finds, in the plethora exam- ples or expression of a basic need, some essential functional characteristic that allows comfortable human behaviour to emerge.

This booklet doesn’t include all of Fukasawa, but a clue which I think is important, and it is Super Normal. I have not shown his most representative works here, such as the CD-Player and the mobile phone “Infobar”. Because if I were the designer, I don’t want to hear that “Fukasawa, the designer of the CD-Player” after almost 20 years since the CD-Player was released. So the products shown here are not that famous. You may even ask “are they Fukasawa’s design?” Well, the answer is absolutely “yes”. As my point of view, what makes Fukasawa Fukasawa is, he can make normal things super.

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