Fumie Shibata

Background

Fumie Shibata was born in Yamanashi, Japan. According to the Japan Design Committee, she graduated from Musashino Art University, worked at a large electrical goods manufacturer and then founded Design Studio S. Flexform's designer page adds that she has worked with many Japanese and international brands across furniture, accessories, objects of everyday use and technology applied to healthcare, and that she is Creative Director of some one-of-a-kind capsule hotels.

Signature Style

Flexform names a propensity for soft yet very precise shapes, with works designed for ease of use. In her own statement on the Design Committee page she writes that design is "the wisdom that allows people to be who they are", and that she wants to bring design outside the design system by swinging by the development power of companies and the technical power of craftsmen.

Notable Works

The Design Committee page lists, among others, the AWA for Brokis (2019), the vertebra03 for Itoki (2019), the unitea for Kinto (2006), the Sacco vase for Kinto (2019), the 9h nine hours capsule hotels (from 2009), the ZUTTO IH rice cooker for Zojirushi (2004), the baby label bath for Combi (2003), the sofa that fits your body for Muji (2003), scales for Muji (2017), a digital thermometer for Omron (2013) and kitchen knives for Tadafusa (2012). On Flexform's site she is credited with the Eri armchair and ottoman, the Eri coffee and side tables and the Enn table.

Recognition

Flexform's page names a 2021 EDIDA Lighting category award, the Grand Prize of the DFA Design for Asia Awards, an iF Design Award Gold Prize and a Red Dot Design Award. She is a member of the Japan Design Committee, chaired the Good Design Awards jury in 2018-2019, and is the author of the book Forms within Forms. Flexform names Tama Art University as her professorship; the Design Committee profile names Musashino Art University.