Naoki Sakai (industrial designer) explained

is a Japanese industrial designer who known as the designer of Nissan's pike car series with its retro-future design.^{[1] [2]} Currently, he is a professor of Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC), a guest design director for au, and the manager of his own company, waterdesign. He has collaborated with companies such as Nissan, Suzuki, Toyota (WiLL), Olympus, KDDI, and Cassina.^[3]

The S Cargo was not designed by Sakai. Sakai led the Pike designs and created a proposal for the Nissan Figaro, but the design selected for final production (first shown at the 1989 Tokyo Motor Show) was designed by Nissan's in-house design team, led by Jim Shimizu (Shimizu Jun).^{[4] [5]}

Major works

• Nissan Motors

• • Be-1 (1987)
  • Pao (1989)
  • Rasheen (1994)
• Suzuki SW-1 (1992)
• Olympus

• • o-product (1988)
  • Ecru (1991)
• au design project
  • HEXAGON (2005)
  • MACHINA (2005)
  • DRAPE (2006)
• Toray
  • torayvino aqua meister (2007)

External links

• • waterdesign
• Profile – from the Keio University SFC website
• Profile – from au design project
• Olympus O-Product

Notes and References

1. Web site: McAleer . Brendan . 2021-03-08 . How Nissan's Bizarre Pike Factory Built Retro Masterpieces . 2022-11-13 . Road & Track . en-US.
2. Web site: Patton . Phil . 2011-03-18 . Nissan’s Cartoon Cars, Once So Hip . 2022-11-13 . The New York Times.
3. Web site: Kawaguchi . Judit . 2007-05-08 . Naoki Sakai . https://web.archive.org/web/20141227212653/https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2007/05/08/people/naoki-sakai/#.VJ8kK-A04 . 2014-12-27 . The Japan Times . en-US.
4. Web site: Naoki Sakai – Nissan Figaro Designer . Figaro Owners Club . 2022-11-13 . en-GB.
5. . Cult of Cute . May–June 1990 . Chee . Pearlman . 51 . Figaro Owners Club .