Oki Sato, the self-proclaimed spinning-top of Nendo, sees design as a means to engage in a form of dance with our endless human curiosities. His passion for design and its limitlessness is uninhibited and childlike in the most remarkable of ways. His brave and unwavering view of the world as a beautiful thing, a place of balance beyond the physical, stems from his shared Japanese and Canadian heritages. Since establishing the Nendo studio in Tokyo in 2002, Sato has continued on his quest for exploration in all aspects of design, in his own quirky and nuanced way. 

He was born in Toronto Canada, 1977. In 2002 when he was 25 years old, he graduated from Waseda University in Tokyo with a ‘Masters of Arts’ in architecture and in the same year founded ‘Nendo’ company in Tokyo. Sato also reveals in several interviews that the encounter with Issey Miyake was a large influence in his and Nendo's work.

His first exhibition, called "Streeterior", was introduced in Tokyo and then in Milan, Italy in 2003. Oki Sato received several prizes: Good Design Award, German Design Award, Elle Deco International Design Award, and in 2012 he was named the "Designer of the Year" by Wallpaper magazine. He also designed the 2020 Summer Olympics cauldron in Tokyo.