Jay Osgerby studied a bacherlor’s in furniture and product design at Ravensbourne College of Art in London from 1989-92. From 1992-94 Osgerby studied for a master’s degree in architecture and interior design at th Royal College of Art in the same city where he met Edward Barber. In 1996 Osgerby and Barber founded the Barber & Osgerby architecture and design studio in London. The following year their first piece of furniture went into production, the Loop Table in bent plywood for Isokon Plus, for whom they also made the birch Flight stool the following year. In the beginning the duo was inspired by the materials and technique that they had used in their education to create models. This was most notable in the Pilot table made of bent plywood by Capellini in 1999. In 2001 the duo founded the London-based Universal Design Studio, and three years later they were awarded the Jerwood Applied Arts Prize. For the renovation of the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-on-Sea 2005, Barber & Osgerby designed the De La Warr pavilion chair, made by Established in Sons. With the De La Warr project, the duo started to work with color as the starting point for their design, where the bright red-orange finish was a reference to Alvar Aaltos furniture for the original pavilion in 1935. In 2006 they continued their work on color with the limited-edition Pantone Stool, which referenced the Pantone Color Scheme, and made together with Pantone for the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in New York. At the fair, Barber & Osgerby were awarded the ICFF Editor’s Award for Best New Designer. Barber & Osgerby has made several lightings, starting with the Tab light (TAB) for Flos in 2007. Nine years later they designed the Bellhop lamp (again for Flos) for the British Design Museums new permanent home in West London that opened in 2016. In 2007 the duo was appointed Royal Designers for Industry by the RSA and in the coming years they designed, among other things, the Tip Ton Chair for Vitra, the Poppins umbrella stand for Magis and designed the Olympic torch for the 2012 London Olympics. They were also engaged by Sony in 2010 to design electronic equipment. During 2012 Barber and Osgerby also founded the MAP industrial design studio and were awarded honorary doctorates from Oxford Brooks University. Barber & Osgerby were honored with the Maison & Objet’s Designers of the Year in 2013, and the year after they curated the exhibition In the making at the Design Museum in London. In 2016 the duo made their first venture into office seating with the Pacific Chair, made for Vitra.
