01. Intent
The intent of the website is to showcase Naoto Fukasawa's works, experiences, and career, who is a Japanese product designer with a responsibility for advanced development design.
02. Voice
Naoto Fukasawa is a Japanese product designer born in Yamanashi in 1956. Like his philosophies such terms as "design dissolving in behavior", "center of consciousness", "normality", "outline" and "archetype", his design is well-recognized imbued with a quiet power that embodies peoples' hopes and expectations. Fukasawa's work is: minimal, clean, and practical.
03. Tone
The Homepage of the website is well-organized with the right amount of information and most necessary products' photos that provide the viewer to understand the characteristic of the product and how to use it in reality. The product stands out their own with a best photograph, only for the viewer to create the desire to purchase. In the Project page, he included client, exhibition, personal works and more. It also has a list of categories for each product and search box, so that the viewer can easily find the item what do they need. There are linked in the website of each purchasing address in the explanation. Each project has its own page and titles and a link of the website address in the explanation. Under his About page, the viewr can find more detailed information about Fukasawa such as the brand which was corporate with him and his award history. Each page has its own theme of artworks that she categorized and it follows the homepages format as well. Under a page titled News, it showcases various things that show his activity in recent news. For example, there is a new released list in Millan Design Week 2024. According to what kind of events or news box the viewer click, the amount of information are different. Although it does not overwhelm the viewer because it is spaced out and legible.
04. Brand
Fukaswa's brand is consistently clean, balanced, and minimal. His website uses white background and simple, modern font to empathize the photo of his products. He uses animation on the projects' images to catch the viewer's eye. Everything is quite muted in terms of vibrance. It makes people only focus on the item. I consider that it would work better if the website contained slightly more information or explanation in places. However, It is easy to navigate throughout and simply recognize all information at a glance.
05. Persona
• Example 01
A furniture company called LovePet is hiring a product designer who has a clean and well-organized design skill to create furniture for animals. After researching a bit on Google and other relevant social media platforms for designers, they found Fukusawa's website. When clicked on his website, they were greeted by pictures of his projects that left them more curious to find more of his other works. They showed his website's homepage and looked detailedly at his projects page. They were frustrated that there was not as much information about the project on each page of work. They click on his About page to see if he had another experience to cooperate with other furniture companies or if he fits the criteria they are looking for. They click the News tab to look at how relevant he is in the field of product design. They found he was collaborating with a bunch of companies, and participated in events and exhibitions. It makes him look very popular. Job recruiters in LovePet Company are impressed by his extensive experience and consistent style and want to contact him.
• Example 02
Julia, an industrial design student in her second year, was scrolling through Instagram for inspiration and catches the post of Fukasawa's work. She looked through his project images and unique design shape applied his design philosophies. She clicked on his website only to be more impressed by how much works she found and the exhibitions he was showcased at. Julia looked at his About page and read about Fukasawa but are more interested in his design process. She loved Fukasawa's work, and she thought that she would like to know more about his works because his projects were so inspired. She clicked contact on his website to ask him a few questions as an aspiring product designer about his design philosophies and advice for a design student.
• Example 03
A client named Chris is looking for an industrial designer to create something for his living room space. He adores minimal shape, the design which apply the nature of the material, and he loves to put only 1-2 colorful item. He does not want to find something too simple but to look for unique things. He visits an exhibition of an interior design award and finds Fukasawa's work. He is so intrigued by Fukasawa's design concept and decided to research this designer. When Chris found his website, he fell in love with how the website was designed. On the Projects tabs, he browsed through his works and ignoring any other information because he only wanted to find an item that would be suitable for his dining room to be satisfied with his personal aesthetic. He did not know about the products well since there was no enough explanation but he did not care about it a lot. He has an interest in Fukasawa and contacts him to ask further if the designer accepts personal commissions.
06. Wireframe
07. Copy deck
Title: About
Heading: Profile
Subheading 1: Naoto Fukasawa / Product Designer
Text: Born in Yamanashi Prefecture in 1956. Graduated from Tama Art University's Product Design Department in 1980. In the same year, he joined Seiko Epson, where he was responsible for advanced development design. In 1989, he moved to the United States, where he joined ID Two (now IDEO San Francisco). Having honed his craft for seven years, focusing mainly on Silicon Valley industries, and returned to Japan in 1996. Fukasawa established and headed up IDEO's Tokyo office, creating a Japanese design consultant base for the company. He went independent in 2003 and founded NAOTO FUKASAWA DESIGN.
Subheading 2: Clients
Subheading 3: Main Awards
Subheading 4: Selected for the collection of the museum
Subheading 5: Staff
08. Competition
Naoto Fukasawa's website design follows the same design philosophies and thoughts that he applies when designing his products, covering only the minimum necessary information. The minimized information draws viewers' attention to the products he designed, and as a product designer's website, he has a very good understanding of how to attract people's eyes to focus on the products. It is difficult to pinpoint the specifics of each product because of less explanation.