During the 60s, visionary designers developed the first plastic furniture. The designers’ talent coupled with the versatility of the substance led to its indispensability. Both designers and consumers became addicted to it. Today, we know its environmental dangers. Still, restaurant terraces remain filled with plastic chairs. This is because the market offers little alternative. The design world remains sparsely populated with manufacturers of steel furniture, even sometimes republishing designs from the late 19th century… Here comes the birth of Tomeo: a modern, light & stackable steel chair.

Hugo Charlet is an emerging furniture designer with an engineering background, he graduated in material engineering from the French university Arts&Métiers ParisTech. In 2018 he moved to Milan to pursue a master’s degree in Furniture Design at Politecnico di Milano, after which he worked at Michele De Lucchi's studio for his final internship. In 2020, he moved back to France to work on personals projects and opened his own studio in his hometown of Chamonix Mont-Blanc. In furniture design Hugo found the perfect medium for his creative expression. His trademark is a perfect symbiosis between beauty and simplicity. He likes to say that beauty and manufacturability are two sides of the same coin. Moreover, his work is often tinted with humor and playfulness. He says that he always remained a child at heart and describes himself as a dreamer.

After a master’s degree in furniture design at Politecnico di Milano and a short work experience at Michele De Lucchi’s office in Milan, Hugo Charlet went back to France to open his own studio in 2020. Hugo has found with furniture design the perfect medium for his creative expression. His natural skills for drawing and manual work coupled with his knowledge about material and mechanical constraints are a real advantage for his design practice.