Born in Munich in 1986, Matthias Ferwagner is a young architect who “fell in love with design.” His background in architecture comes through clearly in his Minimato table for German furniture company Nils Holger Moormann. A side table measuring 30 inches in height and 17 inches in diameter, this little number has big style.

Minimato table. Designed by Matthias Ferwagner. Manufactured by Nils Holger Moormann.

Simple Side Table

Nils Holger Moormann describes Minimato “minimalistically” as “5 bars, 1 table top, Assemble, Minimato.” It serves the piece well to distill it into its essential parts, for the simple design almost acts as a blueprint for a table: here are the necessary parts, it seems to say. A bit like the sticks and discs in Tinker Toys (though Ferwagner would probably not know this, given his age), Minimato gives users the pleasure of construction.

As a side note, Minimato also happens to be the name of some type of tomato growing contraption, which in my mind only adds to the allure of Ferwagner’s design—every good thing deserves its doppelganger.

About the Manufacturer: Nils Holger Moormann attracted lots of attention when he filed a plagiarism lawsuit against Ikea (he won the case). He and his company of the same name specialize in simple, clean furniture. Known for investing in young designers, Nils Holger Moormann maximizes style by minimizing everything extraneous. Some of the company’s best designs are eminently practical: the Schuhkippe shoe cupboard files shoes away as neatly as if they were manila folders, and the Kant desk stores books conveniently in a little trough that’s integrated into the desktop.