B & B ITALIA TOBI - ISHI DESIGN BY EDWARD BARBER & JAY OSGERBY
B & B ITALIA TOBI - ISHI DESIGN BY EDWARD BARBER & JAY
OSGERBY
The shape has impressed both the public and the press, has broken
away from the traditional round table placed on a central support, and has
created an element of surprise with its finishes. Now it expands its functional
features by proposing itself in a rectangular version, first in the dining
version, presented in Cologne with a new range of sixteen satin-finished
colours and now in the low version, only available in oad in four different
finishes: light, grey, black and smoked. A choice created to highlight the
natural handcrafted appearance of a multipurpose table without sharp corners
that, with its rounded shapes, is extremely practical when placed in front of a
sofa.
http://barberosgerby.com/projects/view/tobi-ishi/
B & B ITALIA
B & B ITALIA
B&B Italia has been an international leader in the field of
contemporary furnishings since 1966. Since then, its collection has
progressively acquired new products that are acknowledged and recognised
worldwide, to fill the ranks alongside evergreen products like Serie Up,
Le Bambole and Diesis, now seen as icons of design history. Through its
product range, B&B Italia has shown that it can offer a meaningful
contribution to the culture of design by perceiving and
anticipating trends and responding to changing tastes and living needs.
Antonio Citterio, Patricia Urquiola, Naoto Fukasawa, Gaetano Pesce,
Studio Kairos, Paolo Piva, Mario Bellini, Jeffrey Bernett, Zaha Hadid and
many others are the winning team that, along with the company’s internal
Research and Development Centre, has contributed to the international
success of B&B Italia. The vocation to innovation and technological
experimentation in addition to aesthetics research, are the strenghts and
strategic elements for the company’s development policy. In fact, B&B
Italia was the first company in the world to perfect the technique of cold
polyurethane foam mouldings, which radically changed the
way upholstered furnishings were built.
These strategic elements has brought about many awards both in
Italy and abroad,
among them four “Compasso d’Oro” awards.
EDWARD BARBER & JAY OSGERBY
Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby founded their eponymous studio in
1996 after graduating with Master’s degrees in Architecture from The Royal
College of Art in London. From their first studio in Trellick Tower in London,
they designed their first piece, the Loop Table, produced by Isokon in 1997.
Much of Barber and 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. Plywood and perspex were used in the development of
the Pilot Table, 1999, and Stencil Screen, 2000.
In 2004 the pair were awarded the Jerwood Applied Arts Prize. This
led to a commission to design new pieces for the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill
On Sea. Known for their use of colour, with the limited edition Iris tables,
Barber and Osgerby developed a new direction, using colour as the starting
point for the work. The same year saw the launch of Tab for Flos, a return to
the folded form. In 2009, Barber and Osgerby launched their first major
commission for Murano glassmakers Venini which resulted in a series of unique,
large-scale glass vases, created in limited editions and shown in Milan, Porto
Cervo and London.
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 exploited 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
dynamic movement in a chair can aid concentration, resulted in the
forward-tilting Tip Ton chair launched with Vitra in 2011. The same year,
Barber and Osgerby were appointed to design the London 2012 Olympic Torch.
Barber and Osgerby’s research-led practice has developed collections for Vitra,
B&B Italia, Venini, Cappellini, Magis, Swarovski, Flos and Established
& Sons, whilst also producing edition furniture and one-off works for both
private and public commissions. Both Honorary Doctors of Arts, Barber and
Osgerby have lectured internationally and hosted workshops at Ecal,
Switzerland, and the Vitra Design Museum. Their work is held in permanent
collections around the world including the V&A Museum, London; New York’s
Metropolitan Museum of Art; London’s Design Museum; and the Art Institute of
Chicago. Alongside their eponymous studio, in 2001 Barber and Osgerby founded
Universal Design Studio, now recognised as one of the world’s most innovative
creative design consultancies working in architecture, interiors and exhibition
design. In 2012, the pair followed this with the launch of MAP, a strategy-based
industrial design studio that draws on the creative and commercial skills of
BarberOsgerby to provide design intuition, creative direction and research to
ambitious clients.
