The history of the Noguchi table starts in art. Isamu Noguchi, a Japanese-American industrial artist and designer, created a similar table for the president of the Museum of Modern Art in 1939. So impressed by Noguchi’s original design of the table, the Herman Miller Furniture Co. contracted Noguchi to design another.

This second table, known now as the Noguchi table, uses a design model called biomorphism. Biomorphic furniture draws inspiration from nature; Noguchi used naturally occurring patterns and shapes in his work to mimic living organisms and nature as a whole.