John Maeda

John Maeda (born 1966 in Seattle, Washington) is a Japanese-American graphic designer, computer scientist, university professor, and author. He is renowned for his work in design and technology, which explores the area where the two fields merge. He is the President-select of Rhode Island School of Design, a position he will assume in June 2008.

Maeda was originally a software engineering student at Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyPaul Rand and Muriel Cooper. Cooper was a director of MIT's Visual Language Workshop. After completing his bachelors and masters degrees at MIT, Maeda would study in Japan at Tsukuba University's Institute of Art and Design to complete his Ph.D. in Design. He currently is the E. Rudge and Nancy Allen Professor of Media Arts & Sciences at MIT and is an associate director of the MIT Media Lab, where he leads the Physical Language Workshop with Henry Holtzman.^[1] (MIT) when he became fascinated with the work of

In 1999, he was named one of the 21 most important people in the 21st century by Esquire. In 2001, he received the National Design Award for Communication Design in the United States and Japan's Mainichi Design Prize.^[2]

Maeda is currently working on SIMPLICITY, a research project to find ways for people to simplify their life in the face of growing complexity. His research has led to the publishing of Laws of Simplicity, his best-selling book to date.

He currently lives with his wife, Kris, and their five daughters, in Lexington, Massachusetts.