THE BEGINNING
In 2011, engineer NORIYUKI KOGAand designer Ken Suzuki pooled their respective expertise to found cado.
Rather than treating performance and beauty as separate entities, we integrate technology and design to create products with unprecedented value.
That philosophy is the foundation of cado's craftsmanship.
NORIYUKI KOGA
CEO
Joined Sony Corporation in 1980. Worked as a mechanical designer for the WALKMAN, contributing to the development of successive WALKMAN models.
After that, he was in charge of the portable audio business.
After serving as President of SONY ACBC since 2006, he was appointed Representative Director of the current cado Co., Ltd. in 2012.
KEN SUZUKI
CREATIVE DIRECTOR/COO
Joined Toshiba Corporation in 1996 and worked in design for the Home Appliances and Information Equipment Group.
After retiring, he became involved in the design of the "amadana" home appliance brand.
In 2011, he founded cadoDesign.
It has won numerous design awards for its outstanding aesthetic appeal and timeless design.
SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL.
While working in product development at a major manufacturer, the two of them recognized a growing disconnect between creators and users due to the trend toward multifunctionality and the increasing complexity of development processes.
At the heart of this is the philosophy that “Small is beautiful.”
It doesn’t simply mean working efficiently with a small team. It involves planning and designing products, overseeing their manufacture, delivering them, and incorporating user feedback into future products. It’s a philosophy of taking responsibility for the entire manufacturing process based on our own initiative.
Being small means getting closer to the essence of things. We think for ourselves and take responsibility for our creations from start to finish. That philosophy lives on in cado today.
The first theme cado chose was “air.”
While air is essential to our daily lives, we rarely give it a second thought. However, its condition greatly influences the comfort of a space and the quality of our lives.
That is why cado decided not only to manufacture air purifiers but also to position itself as “a brand that designs air itself.”
We design to create a certain atmosphere.
This phrase embodies the concept of designing not only the air but also the space and atmosphere.
Rather than a white box hidden in a corner of a room, we aimed for a design meant to be displayed. Through materials, form, and even light, we sought to create products that allow you to sense the very atmosphere around them.
What Koga and Suzuki sought to create was not merely “designer appliances” that were beautiful only on the surface.
From the very beginning, they placed the fusion of superior performance and beautiful design at the heart of their manufacturing philosophy.
The first product to bring that concept to life was the “LEAF” air purifier.
Its unique airflow design promotes air circulation throughout the entire room, maximizing purification performance. With its aluminum housing and visual indicators that use light to display air quality, it transforms performance into a beautiful experience.
The first-generation air purifier was the first product from a Japanese manufacturer to achieve the world’s highest rating on the CADR scale, the global standard for air purification performance. This objective evaluation demonstrated cado’s philosophy of blending performance and design.
For cado, functional beauty is not simply about creating a beautiful exterior to encase a finished mechanism.
It involves considering the intake and exhaust structures, airflow, operability, light, materials, and form as an integrated whole from the very beginning—creating a state where function naturally leads to a beautiful aesthetic.
It is not about beauty as decoration, but rather about how natural beauty emerges from a pursuit of rationality. It involves designing not only to maximize performance but also to consider the user’s sensory experience and their interaction with the space.
That is what cado considers functional beauty.
With this philosophy as our foundation, cado continues to create products as a brand dedicated to designing air and space.
THE STORY CONTINUES
Through the fusion of technology and beauty, we create products that move people’s hearts—products unlike anything else in the world.
This philosophy, established at the time of our founding, remains the cornerstone of cado’s craftsmanship today.
True to our roots, cado will continue to bring new value and inspiration to everyday life through craftsmanship and beauty.
