At Milan Design Week, the "Soft Matters" installation marks an inflection point for the Italian furniture brand Secolo. For the first time in its history, the label has opened its design process to an external collaborator, partnering with the Copenhagen-based studio Tableau. The resulting collection is a study in controlled spontaneity, presented within a space framed by butter-colored foam blocks and playful floral illustrations.
The core of the collaboration lies in a technique Julius Værnes Iversen, founder of Tableau, calls "blind drawing." For a decade, Iversen has practiced sketching flowers from memory with his eyes covered—a process he describes as a form of meditation. For this collection, he invited Secolo’s founders to participate in the ritual, applying these intuitive, sightless drawings directly onto the furniture before it was lacquered. The result is a series of pieces, including the Pingu side table, that carry unique, unrepeatable patterns.
Beyond the graphic elements, the partnership introduced the Trace sofa, an undulating form designed to disrupt traditional seating arrangements. Iversen characterizes the piece as a "conversation starter," prioritizing impactful, organic geometry over standard utility. By blending Secolo’s Italian manufacturing heritage with Tableau’s experimental Danish perspective, the installation suggests a path for luxury furniture that values the idiosyncratic mark of the human hand as much as industrial precision.
With reporting from Dezeen.
Source · Dezeen