Born in Milan in 1984, Francesco Meda grew up watching prototypes take shape on his father Alberto’s workbench. After earning an Industrial Design degree at the Istituto Europeo di Design (2006), he left for London, first modelling tabletop pieces in Sebastian Bergne’s studio, then exploring biomorphic forms with Ross Lovegrove. Back in Milan by 2008, Meda began splitting his week: part of it spent alongside Alberto on projects for Kartell and Caimi Brevetti, the rest devoted to his own experiments with stone, metal, and digital tools. Those side projects quickly found a stage—Nilufar and Rossana Orlandi in Milan, Mint in London, Schoeni in Hong Kong—culminating in the Orme Cinesi tables, shown at the Hong Kong Art Fair and published worldwide. He likes objects that work hard and read clearly. Flap, the sculptural acoustic panel he co-designed for Caimi Brevetti, took home a Compasso d’Oro in 2014. LED Bridge lamps, marble benches, and 3-D-printed jewellery now sit in the Triennale Design Museum collection, proof that Meda’s curiosity ranges from macro structures to millimetre-scale lattices—always looking for the next material story.