MASANORI UMEDA

MASANORI UMEDA ( Born 1941 in Kanagawa, Japan ) His most famous design is the Tawaraya boxing-ring sofa-bed where Memphis group paused for their iconic group photo. His designs for the Memphis Group where part of Karl Lagerfeld and David Bowie's coveted personal collections that realized high results at auctions.
After graduating from the Kuwasawa School of Design in Tokyo in 1962, Umeda moved to Milan to work in the prestigious studio of Piergiacomo Castiglioni. From 1970 to 1979 he worked as Design Consultant for Olivetti where he met Ettore Sottsass that invited him to contribute to the first Memphis group exhibition in 1981. Back in Japan in 1986, he opened his studio U-Meta Design in Tokyo. His work is part museums collections like the MOMA in NY and the Groninger Museum in Holland.