David Meier and Johanna Egner-Meier are a couple in Eichstätt, a small town in Bavaria. In 2021, trusting their instinct more than any trend, they started seijo and gave it the Japanese word for normal, a label for the household objects a room takes for granted, made carefully enough to earn a second look. David is an industrial designer with his own studio, studiomeiid; Johanna is an art director. What they share is a feel for the ordinary object, and a wish to make it a little better than normal.

Johanna designs the linen cloths with Constanze Götz. The linen is certified and sewn by hand in Germany, thin enough to press flat with a little moisture and made for Furoshiki, the Japanese way of wrapping a gift in cloth. The cork comes from Portugal, and nothing else travels further than it needs to; design, making, storage and shipping stay within Germany and Europe, with regional workshops doing the work.

Cork is the material David keeps returning to, warm and light in the hand and forgiving to work, and he shapes seijo's cork pieces, trays, coasters, a smoked trivet, a pinnable wall board, to be picked up and used every day rather than set behind glass. The pleasure, for him, is getting a plain object exactly right, so it works without fuss and still makes you look twice.