Before everything became "iconic", there was a certain hesitation in granting design objects this title. The debate over which characteristics could transform a product into an icon was animated and constantly open. Yet, while critics and historians continued to question it, the partnership between British designers Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby seemed to have found the answer without even looking for it: they churned out one icon after another, stamped on the bottom with the logos of Vitra, Flos, Magis, Cappellini, and many other leading brands in contemporary design. A few days ago, the two designers announced the closure of the studio they had been leading together since 1996, to pursue their professional careers on separate paths. Both born in 1969, they met at the Royal College of Art, transitioning from classmates to colleagues for thirty years. Their prolific collaboration defined a way of doing design rooted in a precise philosophy, one that seeks a sensitive response to human needs within the standard, translating it into contemporary objects with legible and immediate forms. It is a poetics reminiscent of Jasper Morrison’s, always infused with a certain gentleness: in the warmth of the materials, the softness of the curves, and the welcoming integration of components.
Barber & Osgerby part ways: 5 icons to understand their design
From Vitra’s Tip Ton chair to the London 2012 Olympic torch, Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby have designed some of the most recognizable objects in contemporary design. Now, after thirty years of collaboration, they are closing their studio
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- Nicola Aprile
- 25 May 2026
Barber & Osgerby's signature
It is precisely in these curves that one recognizes Barber & Osgerby’s signature, along with their mono-material and monochromatic objects and that characteristic horizontal element connecting many of their seats: from Vitra’s Tip Ton to the bench for Portsmouth Cathedral, all the way to the chair designed for the reopening of the De La Warr Pavilion, the modernist building constructed in 1935 by Erich Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff.
Their production has spanned every scale and category of industrial product: furniture and lighting, packaging, tiles—such as the collections for Mutina—vases, a mobile phone prototype for Panasonic, and even the two-pound coin for the 150th anniversary of the London Underground and the torch for the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Their collaboration has defined a way of designing rooted in a precise philosophy that seeks in the standard a sensitive response to human needs, translating it into contemporary objects with readable and immediate forms.
Through thousands of sketches and models, Barber & Osgerby’s design practice has always brought together technological innovation and a careful study of industrial processes, without shying away from artistic and installation scales. This is demonstrated by projects like Double Space at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2014 and Forecast, with which they represented the United Kingdom at the London Design Biennale in 2016. Their research into design 'for everyone' earned them the Jerwood Prize in 2004, the title of Royal Designer for Industry in 2007, and the London Design Medal in 2015, as well as a place in the permanent collections of the Vitra Design Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
When design works in two
Today, as the Milan Triennale celebrates their work with a free exhibition open through September, the news of the separation also offers an opportunity to take a distant look at the parabola of a duo that can call many of the products they have designed "icons." The news echoes another noisy separation, that between Ronan Bouroullec and Erwan Bouroullec, still active but now each on their own, and reminds one of a formula that has worked many times in design: that for which one plus one can produce infinite possibilities, as evidenced by the collaborations of Charles and Ray Eames, by Alvar Aalto and Aino Aalto, by Fernando and Humberto Campana or by Formafantasma.
While we wait to find out what Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby will each do on their own, we have selected five objects designed together-a small map of their shared poetics, and perhaps the best way to understand what it means, in design, to work as two.
The most famous chair by Barber & Osgerby, designed for the Royal Society of Arts Academy, originated from a study on posture. A small "step" breaks a straight line and encourages the sitter to adopt different postures, turning learning-related activities from static to dynamic. It had to be indestructible, lightweight, easy to produce, silent, stackable, colorful, and fully recyclable: this is how the Tip Ton was born. Its name recalls the town of Tipton, where the academy is located, and reinforces the concept expressed by the shape of its characteristic horizontal element.
The shape of the torch that traveled from Olympia in 2012 to light the Games in London—a city hosting the Olympic event for the third time in history—focuses heavily on the number three. The pattern generated by the repetition of the holes lightens the product, improves grip, and offers a glimpse into the heart of the flame. There are 8,000 holes, matching the exact number of athletes who carried the torch during the long relay.
This is one of those objects that, simply by looking at it, reveals its own inner workings, design process, and production method. Six large sheets of fabric rest softly on an oak structure intentionally left on display, inviting the observer to do the same: relax on a large-scale sofa that disassembles the components of the domestic archetype and deconstructs our conventional idea of a couch.
It seems like a very simple idea, yet it took time before umbrella stands designed for contemporary models—which are much more compact than traditional ones with large curved handles—finally appeared. Named after a famous umbrella user, this ABS-molded product is designed to fit into a corner, allowing for the storage of up to nine umbrellas or allowing them to be popped in open from the handle side to dry.
It doesn't matter what we collect: deep down, we are all collectors. This series of cabinets was not just designed for rare or precious objects, but for any family of items in search of a "glass house." Supported by a black lacquered wood base, the collection once again reaffirms Barber & Osgerby's love for curves, visible both in the support structure and in the transparent body of the display case.