Barber Osgerby - A brief overview
A lot of people will see a product, and will just quickly scan over who the designers of a product are. They don't really care about the designer, they just want to see the brand and the price. In this blog I intend to give an overview of where and how Barber Osgerby was formed, as well as outlining some of their great designs.
Edward Barber was born in Shrewsbury ( England) and studied Interior Design at Leeds Polytechnic. Jay Osgerby was born in Oxford (England) and he studied Foundation Art at Oxford Brookes University. They both then decided to study Architecture at the Royal College of Art, and this is when these two creative minds first met.
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They decided to combine their efforts and form their company Barber Osgerby in 1996, and their first ever piece which they designed together was the Loop Table. The loop table is a design classic from Barber Osgerby and is being held in the permanent collection at The Design Museum.
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The two British designers are based in London, England and will be holding a talk this year on the 20th September at The Design Museum for 100% Design. They are both Honorary Doctors of Arts and their company has one multiple awards, including the Jerwood Applied Prize. Barber & Osgerby are also founders of Universal Design Studio ( London, 2001), which has also won awards such as the Design Week Award.
Barber Osgerby have worked with many great manufacturers, including Vitra, Magis, Swarovski, B&B Italia, and many more. Below are some of their designs.
Mariposa Sofa for Vitra
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The Mariposa Sofa radiates an inviting aura of spacious comfort – and yet maintains a subtly understated presence thanks to its balanced proportions. The sofa owes its extraordinary comfort, on the one hand, to the pleasantly soft upholstery, which completely surrounds the sitter and prevents contact with any hard structural elements. On the other hand, an ingenious adjustment mechanism makes it possible to individually tilt the side and backrest elements for various sitting or reclining positions. The Mariposa was released in 2014 at Milano Design
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Tip Ton Chair for Vitra
The Tip Ton Chair, an icon of the future, defines a whole new type of chair, a solid, plastic chair with forward-tilt action. The Tip Ton sits naturally as a chair does but it can also be tilted a few degrees forward where it then stays in place. The innovation behind this simple feature lies in the skids, which rise at a nine-degree angle.
The Tip Tons clever forward-tilt sitting position straightens the pelvis and spine and thus improves circulation to the abdominal and back muscles. Barber Osgerby were investigating school furniture and how dynamic movement in a chair can aid concentration, resulted in the forward-tilting Tip Ton chair launched with Vitra in 2011
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Four Leaves for Magis
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The Four Leaves is a coat stand which is manufactured in die cast aluminium, as the name suggests it features four leaves which act as hooks on which to hang coats and hats. There's also an option for an umbrella stand. Barber Osgerby took a minimalist design on this piece, yet it brings out an aesthetical feel and appearance to any room.
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Tobi-Ishi Low Table for B&B Italia
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Barber Osgerby designed the Tobi-Ishi to highlight the natural hand-crafted appearance of a multipurpose table without sharp corners that, with its rounded shapes, is extremely practical when placed in front of a sofa. Due to its lack of sharp edges, it's a great furniture piece to have if you have small children.
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Not only have Barber Osgerby designed these few great products and many more, but they also designed the 2012 London Olympic Torch and the 2013 London Underground two pound coin.
