Ikea has created a plate for its famous meatballs

There is no doubt that in recent decades Ikea has helped shape a global image of Nordic design; it has reached every level of this operation, to the point that even the now-legendary meatballs, available in the stores’ restaurants, are perceived as a design object.

And now comes a collaboration between the Swedish giant and Gustaf Westman, which puts the meatballs at the center, quite literally. The creative, who in recent years has gained attention by adding a playful note to the Scandinavian design language, has presented a porcelain plate that, in his words, creates “little thrones” for the meatballs. To celebrate them, and to celebrate the ritual that brings people together around them, the plate aligns and frames them, highlighting each of these individual, spherical units of Nordic flavor in a geometric composition. It is almost the role that miniature “Italian gardens” or decorative centerpieces – the “trionfi”, triumphs, like those imagined by Gio Ponti – played at dining tables in past centuries and decades, but this time food becomes one with the visual celebration.

The plate presented by Westman, which according to Ikea’s Creative Leader Maria O’Brian has given “this Swedish staple a new stage”, anticipates a 12-piece collection that will go on sale starting in September 2025, ranging from tableware to home accessories.