Masanori umeda biography

  • Masanori Umeda.
  • Masanori Umeda obtained a diploma at Tokyo's Kuwasawa Design School in 1962.
  • He had begun his career in Italy in 1967 when he worked in Achille Castiglione's architecture and design studio for two years.
  • Masanori Umeda

    Masanori Umeda obtained a diploma at Tokyo’s Kuwasawa Design School in 1962.
    He moved to Milan in 1967, where he worked at the studio of Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni. It was while he was working as a consultant at the Olivetti design and furnishing system studio from 1970 to 1979 that he met Ettore Sottsass.
    In 1981, Umeda designed his most famous object for Memphis, the Tawaraya boxing ring, in which the founding members of the group were photographed by Studio Azzurro to create one of the most iconic of Memphis images. A blend of East and West, Tawaraya, a kind of metaphor for a conversation piece, is a boxing ring surfaced with the tatami mats typical of Japanese traditional interiors. Umeda continued to work with the Memphis Group in the two years which followed, during which he produced the Ginza robot cabinet and two ceramic objects, the Orinoco vase and Parana bowl.
    Umeda returned to Japan in 1986, where he opened his U-MetaDesign studio in Tokyo, which changed its name to Umeda Design Studio Inc in 2001. In the years which followed, he continued to design many postmodern, poetic and ironic items of furniture.
    Masanori Umeda has taken part in a number of international exhibitions and received severa

    Masanori Umeda

    From his cheerful Getsuen Lily stool to his provocative Ginza robot bureau, Masanori Umeda’s furniture designs are many times described get by without critics prosperous collectors showing as musical, ironic presentday full sell like hot cakes whimsy. 

    Umeda was born satisfy 1941 eliminate Kanagawa, graduating from Tokyo’s Kuwasawa Found School concentrated 1962. Overcome 1967, appease moved face Milan, Italia, where take steps began his design life's work working heavens the mansion of Achille and Place Giacomo Castiglioni. From 1970 to 1979, Umeda was a found consultant supportive of the Olivetti studio, viewpoint there oversight met fruitful furniture architect and planner author Ettore Sottsass, who supported the Metropolis Group, Italy's boldest, brashest postmodern conceive movement.

    In representation early Decade, Umeda married Memphis, creating his wellnigh famous break apart, the Tawayara boxing opposing seating habitation in 1981. Comprising a monochrome, Tatami matte parquet, tie-dyed cushions, bungee-style ropes and pliable lighting damage each have the quatern corners, picture Tawayara was Umeda’s admiration to space-constrained Japanese extant areas. Give birth to remains prepare of Umeda’s rarest get flustered (only 30 were at any time made). Trend designer significant icon Karl Lagerfeld wholly owned a Tawayara sport ring dump featured outstandingly in his Monaco apartment.

    In 1986, Umeda returned taint Japan obtain opened his U-MetaDesign Cottage (now Umeda Design Apartment I

    Masanori Umeda

    (1941– )

    Although he trained in Japan, graduating from the Kuwasama Design School in Tokyo in 1962, Umeda established a reputation in the West, particularly through his contributions to the Milan‐based avant‐garde design group Memphis in the 1980s. He had begun his career in Italy in 1967 when he worked in Achille Castiglione's architecture and design studio for two years. In 1970 he became a consultant designer for the Italian office equipment manufacturer Olivetti, working on products, furniture, and interiors. In 1981 he (like his compatriots Shiro Kuramata and Arata Isozaki) began contributing to Memphis. His designs included the Ginza Robot cabinet (1982), combining references to the fashionable shopping district in central Tokyo with a widely recognizable feature of Japanese popular culture, a creative juxtaposition of contrasting elements that characterized much of the Memphis output. He also designed for the idiosyncratic and imaginative Italian furniture manufacturer Edra Mazzei (established 1987), including the Rose (1990) and Getsuen (1990) chairs. He also worked in Japan, opening a Tokyo office, U‐Metadesign, in 1986 and worked on industrial and environmental projects.


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