Fumie Shibata

Fumie Shibata is a product designer based in Japan. She studied at the Musashino Art University in Kodaira, Japan, and after graduating, immediately began working for the Toshiba Design Centre. In 1994, Shibata founded her independent office: Design Studio S. With roots in industrial design, the studio works in an assortment of different fields and covers a varied range of projects.

Shibata has become a leading figure in Japanese design and has formulated designs in sectors such as electronic goods, furniture, daily goods and even medical equipment. Fumie Shibata has won numerous awards for her design skills, including the Red Dot Award Best of the Best, the iF Gold Award, and the Good Design Gold Award. As well as product design, she is also a professor at Tama Art University and author of 'Forms Within Forms'.

“No matter what I’m going to design, I already have prior knowledge about it, perhaps I’ve used or seen it before, so I have experience with it as a user. The experience becomes an important hint when designing, and analysing that experience objectively is the first part of the design process.” - Fumie Shibata