cerebral design - Barber Osgerby

design
text : : sylvia khan
visuals : : barberosgerby.com
universaldesignstudio.com
lee mawdsley
sony
barberosgerby:
cerebral design
skilled and sophisticated, the design partners edward barber and jay osgerby
defy stereotyping with broad spectrum design across product and space
definitions
Edward Barber and
Jay Osgerby
were both born in England and are urban
citizens, having studied interior design at Leeds Polytechnic
and product design at Ravensbourne College of Art in London,
respectively. They met in the mid-1990s during a postgraduate
course in architecture at the Royal College of Art, where their
friendship developed into a professional collaboration that
resulted almost immediately in commercial success. This was
the Loop Table, which was actually a reject of the restaurant
project they were commissioned, manufactured by Isokon,
and quickly snapped up for commercial production by
Cappellini after the Milan 1996 exhibit. This relationship
blossomed, and a series of products were developed bringing
early international acclaim to the studio. The Loop Table, went
on to a place in the permanent collection of the Victoria and
Albert Museum in London and the Metropolitan Museum of
Art in New York and BarberOsgerby to being one of the hottest
new names in design. Perhaps it is this sort of experience that
inspires them to say to young designers, “Go for it! If you have
an idea that is good, then do something with it !”
The designing duo’s portfolio spans furniture, incidentals
and lighting, and their more recently instituted architecture
and design practice Universal Design Studio takes this
forward to space, such as Stella McCartney’s retail outlets
in London and New York; Damien Hirst’s erstwhile
Pharmacy bar and the H&M store on the Sunset Strip in
Los Angeles.
iris
saturn stools
lanterne marine
JULY - AUGUST 2010 IGNITE | DESIGN

Combining the sensitive and the cerebral, the
work of BarberOsgerby may be seen in important
centers such as the De La Warr Pavilion, a
landmarked Modernist arts center, where they
were commissioned to design furniture for outdoor
and indoor use, that replaced the original Alvar
Aalto designed pieces. They show a rare degree
of practicality, using materials and technology
with care, fearing useless and expensive
showpieces with little use, and preferring instead
to create objects that people will use, and cherish,
over time.
They’ve done several commissioned pieces for
companies like big boys Established & Sons (see
IFJ vol:06, issue :06, 2009), Magis, Cappellini and
Flos, but also for brands like Coca Cola, Levi’s,
Pantone, Swarovski and Sony. . Royal Institute of
British Architects and the St. Thomas Cathedral in
Portsmouth, England, and sculptural pieces for
public spaces including Greenwich Park.
BarberOsgerby’s designs can be found in the
permanent collections of the Victoria & Albert
Museum in London, the Art Institute of Chicago,
and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
Their exhibit space for Sony at the Milan
Design Week, 2010, pushed out frontiers in a
uniquely adventurous way. The exhibit called
“Contemplating Monolithic Design” explores
the integration of electronics with furniture and
architectural design, offering visitors a conceptual
glimpse of how living rooms of the future could
possibly look, and was based in an anechoic
chamber; filled with sound absorbing cones to
create a noiseless space.
Speaking of this space, Edward Barber and Jay
Osgerby said, “Our thinking was to create abstract
objects for the everyday living environment, to
show suggestions of how the Sony technologies
might appear in our lives. We found it most
interesting to explore abstracted, pure forms,
each one representing a different area of the
living space. We have used simple raw materials,
since these seemed a strong partner for the great
complexity of the micro-technology that they
were paired with.” IFJ had the pleasure of catching the designers in an
informal Q n A . . .
alu shell chair
JULY - AUGUST 2010
riba desk
birds on a wire
BarberOsgerby
IFJ : Is there something you could point to as an “early influence” . . . something that could have
inspired you to choose design, over say, engineering or hairdressing ?
B-O : We have always been greatly inspired by functional, crafted objects created for performance in
nautical and aeronautical engineering. And growing up, these are the things that fascinated us – boats
and aeroplanes. There was no ‘eureka’ moment for us, we have always liked working with our hands
making things, drawing, and solving problems so it was a natural progression.
IFJ : There are some designers who one almost ‘slots’ in one’s mind as “the furniture guys” or the
“lighting guys” . . . this wasn’t possible with your work . . What sort of work really excites you ? Do you
have a favourite thing to do ?
B-O : It is true that lots of areas are exciting to us. We find in particular that the challenge of working to
a tight brief is actually really exciting and produces amazing results.
IFJ : The great thing about doing your job in the 21st century is you have this amazing palette of
“playthings” . . . technology offers you material and new ways in which to treat it. How has this
affected your offerings ?
B-O : We still work by hand, sketching and making full scale 3D models of every design in foam or card,
otherwise there is no way to really test the results - when you make models from a sketch they often
develop quite different personalities to the initial ideas we intended. We now only finish a design on the
computer.
IFJ : Some designers seem to prefer a particular material
over the others . . . is yours aluminium ? Is there something
intrinsic in aluminium as a material, that you find particularly
interesting ?
B-O : Aluminium has definitely been a theme with products such
as Iris, Shell and Zero-in, but our original core material was
plywood (Loop). We still make models in white card, a material
that we have used since our architectural studies. Aluminium is
great in this sense [environmental responsibility] as it can easily
be recycled by simply melting it down and reusing it.
RAPID RORSCHAK
poppins
EDWARD BARBER JAY OSGERBY
If I weren’t a designer I’d be. . . .
A boat-builder A sculptor
My favourite place to be creative. . .
Looking at the sea Wherever the idea comes.
Lazing on the beach. . . or walking through the woods ?
Walking on the beach The woods
All children must be taught. . . .
To respect others To be kind
blue table
sony milan 2010
IFJ : How would you say you do your bit for the
environment or sustainability ? Does this depend
just on you / your decisions, or do other people
have a bit to do with this ?
B-O : Of course, we are always of aware of the
environmental impact of our work, especially
with temporary installations such as the Sony
exhibition. We actually recycled the foam used to
build the show for Sony by sending it to Sheffield
University so that they could build their own
anechoic chambers.
IFJ : The Sony 2010 Project at the Salone was
something completely out of the expected. How
did you actualize the concept?
B-O : Sony approached us because they loved our
work at BarberOsgerby and wanted to work with
us somehow during the Milan Salone. So together
we built what turned out to be a really unique,
experiential installation. It was also a chance
for us to work together with our architectural
company Universal Design Studio. We also got to
go behind the scenes at the Sony research labs and
glimpse new sound technologies in development
which provided the inspiration for the basis of
our prototype designs that were on show. This
really paid off as over 10,000 visitors came to the
exhibition which is three times more than anyone
had forecast.
IFJ : You are both highly trained and skilled at
your craft . . . how has the fact of having a formal
education affected your work, your thinking ?
and how important do you think it is to have that
structured and formal education ?
B-O : We met whilst studying architecture at
the Royal College of Art, however what really
inspires us was working with clients rather than
studying, so we quickly set up a studio together. Of
course, our education provided the basis for our
practice and without it Universal Design Studio,
our architectural practice, would not exist, but
by far the best education, we think, is through
experience.
IFJ : If you could design absolutely anything . . .
cost apart . . . what would it be ?
Barber : A boat
Osgerby : A bridge
IGNITE | DESIGN