Several years ago, Herman Miller approached Rolf and Mette Hay, co-founders of Danish design house HAY, with a flexible provocation: What could the two design companies do together that they could not independently? The answer: a fresh take on furniture originally designed by Ray and Charles Eames. To Mette Hay, the challenge was both inspiring and daunting: “I went to the archives to look for something that could put me on the right track. I thought at first it was going to be too difficult, but it would be more terrible to miss the opportunity… It felt like a big ask to touch something that is so untouchable,” she recalls.