Japanese designer Nao Tamura (1976) studied communications and graphic design at the Parsons School of Design in New York. After working with some New York design studios, she founded an agency in Tokyo and soon moved it to Brooklyn, where she currently works. Her design vocation stems from her family background, which originated in the clothing line founded in the 1940s by her grandmother. Her mother's activities as an interior designer and her father's as an industrial designer influenced her greatly.
Tamura's work is characterised by a constant search for a harmonious balance between innovation, aesthetics, technology and sustainability. Her work focuses on simplification, the use of natural forms and the combination of Japanese culture and different languages. In 2012, she designed the July wood stool for the Finnish company Nikari and the Quill rugs for the Nanimarquina brand, unique handcrafted pieces inspired by nature. Her studio takes a multidisciplinary approach and boasts meaningful collaborations with Artek, Nike, Wonderglass and Issey Miyake. For Miyake, she designed the unisex 1/6 industrial-style watch. More recently, Tamura developed projects for the Japanese design lighting brand Ambientec. This collaboration led to the creation of the Turn and Sage families of cordless USB-charged lamps with essential and classic forms and highly innovative optics.
Nao Tamura has also worked in architecture, creating a block of public, highly accessible red toilets on a triangular lot in Tokyo's central Shibuya district. This project is part of the Tokyo Toilet project managed by the Nippon Foundation, which called upon other influential designers like Toyo Ito, Shigeru Ban, Tadao Ando and Fumihiko Maki. Her project received the Good Design Award and the EDIDA Japanese Social Design Project Award.
She has received numerous prizes and awards: the IF Product Design Award, the Red Dot Design Award, the Industrial Design Excellence Award, the EDIDA Young Designer Talent, the Good Design Award, the ADI Design Index, the How Annual International Design Competition and the Archiproducts Design Awards. In 2019, she created the SunShower installation at Design Miami for Lexus, a visually striking multimedia project.
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