Masanori Umeda

Masanori Umeda (1941-) is a Japanese designer famous for his ironic and excessive creations that have become true emblems of postmodernism. Graduated in 1962 from the Kuwusawa Design Institute in Tokyo, he then moved to Milan where he lived for many years. Here he began his career working in the studio of Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni (from 1967 to 1969), and then worked in the 1970s as a consultant for Olivetti. In 1981 he was called by Ettore Sottsass to design for the first collection of the Memphis Milano collective, giving life to some of the most surprising creations of the group such as the Tawaraya bed-ring or the Ginza Robot storage unit. In the middle of the decade he decides to return to Tokyo to found the U-Metadesign studio but continues to maintain a strong link with Italy, creating, for example, for the Tuscan Edra a series of "floral chairs" conceived as a humorous rediscovery of values of nature against the excesses of consumerism.