Work
Barber and Osgerby have developed collections for B&B Italia, Flos, Vitra, Magis, Cappellini, Swarovski, Venini and Established & Sons, among others. They have also designed works for private commissions, and for public spaces such as the De La Warr Pavilion, The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), and the Portsmouth Cathedral.
Much of Barber & Osgerby’s early work involved the folding and shaping of sheet material, influenced by the white card that they had used frequently in architectural model making. The Loop Table, Flight Stool (1998, Isokon) and Pilot Table (1999, Cappellini) were all moulded from sheet plywood, as was the experimental Hula Stool prototype (1999), a complex assemblage of compound curves. The Shell Table (2000) (nominated for the Compasso d’Oro) and Shell Chair (2001) were further structural studies in folded plywood.
In 2002 the pair were asked to design furniture for the 13th century Portsmouth Cathedral and in 2004 they were awarded the Jerwood Applied Arts Prize. This led to a commission to design furniture for the newly restored modernist De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-on-Sea. Barber and Osgerby's De La Warr Pavilion chair is now held in the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago's permanent collections.
The Zero-In table was produced by Established & Sons in 2005 as part of the British design company’s launch collection. The table’s construction employed automotive industry techniques never before applied to furniture manufacturing. In 2007 Barber and Osgerby were commissioned to design the entrance foyer desk for the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in Portland Place, London, and the same year they returned to the folded form with the launch of their Tab lamp for Flos.
The limited edition Iris tables were created in 2008 for the Established & Sons gallery. Known for their use of colour, with Iris Barber and Osgerby developed a new direction, using colour as the starting point for the work. In 2009 Barber and Osgerby launched their first major commission for Murano glassmakers Venini; a limited edition collection of large vases composed of coloured interlocking components.
2010 saw the creation of an experimental installation for Sony at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan. Through a series of conceptual objects that employed Sony’s new sound technologies, a perspective was presented for how electronics could be better integrated within contemporary home interiors. Another investigation, this time into school furniture and how movement in a chair can aid concentration, resulted in the forward-tilting Tip Ton chair launched with Vitra in 2011.
In 2011 Barber and Osgerby were appointed by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) to design the London 2012 Olympic Torch. The Torch was named the Design Museum’s 2012 Design of the Year.
2012 saw works in marble including the pair’s first design for B&B Italia, the sculptural cantilevered Tobi Ishi table, and the Western Façade bench, commissioned to commemorate ten years of the London Design Festival and exhibited during the festival in the Victoria & Albert Museum’s John Madejski Garden.
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