This paper proposes a systematic designs methodology for the Takagi-Sugeno (TS) model based fuzzy control systems with guaranteed stability and pre-specified transient performance for the application to a nonlinear magnetic bearing system. More significantly, in the proposed methodology , the control design problems which considers both stability and desired transient performance are reduced to the standard LMI problems . Therefore, solving these LMI constraints directly (not trial and error) leads to a fuzzy state-feedback controller such that the resulting fuzzy control system meets above two objectives. Simulation and experimentation results show that the proposed LMI-based design methodology yields only the maximized stability boundary but also the desired transient responses.