Ichiro Iwasaki: a corporate design centre, then Milan, then his own name

Three moves explain Ichiro Iwasaki. He was born in Tokyo in 1965 and trained inside a company, at the Sony Design Center, where the discipline is the brief, the tooling and the deadline. He then left Japan for Italy and worked in studios in Milan, where the discipline is closer to argument than to specification. Only after both did he put his own name on a door, founding IWASAKI DESIGN STUDIO in Tokyo in 1995. Designers who take that route tend to be unafraid of categories, and his declared range proves it: tableware, watches, lighting, furniture, digital cameras, mobile phones. The recognitions followed, each of them in the upper grade rather than on a shortlist, and he teaches part-time at the Tokyo University of the Arts and at Tama Art University.

In furniture, the manufacturer he has returned to is Arper: Kiik in 2018 and Ralik in 2023, both modular seating. Ralik is the piece Indian projects reach La Mercanti for, across offices where waiting areas get rearranged far more often than they get replaced.