Six Japanese design names to know now

Straft

Tamaki Ishii and Kazuma Yamagami (both 26) established their Tokyo-based studio after leaving university where they studied industrial design. Their graduation project changed the duo’s focus: they began to explore rice straw, a sustainable byproduct of rice, which they turn into chairs, tapestries and clothing.

Their chairs came first: “I like to imagine a life where straw is part of a space, and the presence of a chair…