You may not have known the name for it until now, but you have almost certainly seen it. Furniture that looks gently inflated, lamps with softened, almost swollen silhouettes, chairs that feel more sculpted than structured. Known formally as “neotenic” design, or colloquially as “chubby,” this aesthetic is currently colonising interiors, fashion and even technology. And, as with most aesthetic shifts, it does not exist in isolation.