"For a long time, we were the youngest people in our studio" say Barber and Osgerby

Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby have become the first British designers to headline a retrospective show at the Triennale Milano. In an exclusive interview, the pair reflect on their 30-year journey from "reprobates" to trailblazers.

Open as part of Milan design week, the Alphabet exhibition features over 230 objects and prototypes that trace the evolution of the Barber Osgerby studio over four decades, including icons like the Tip Ton chair, the Bellhop lamp and the London 2012 Olympic Torch.

The two designers have been collaborating since the early 1990s, when they met while studying architecture at London's Royal College of Art and landed their first commissions even before graduating.

Today, the pair are based in different cities – Osgerby in London, Barber in Milan – but they still partner on every project.

"We've never worked individually," Barber told Dezeen. "There's nothing in the show that only one of us has had a hand in."

Osgerby said they share "an Anglo-Saxon pragmatism", while Barber thinks they curtail each other's crazier tendencies.

"We don't agree on everything," he said. "It's good because we end up with more rational, sensible designs. But maybe it clips the madness that could have happened if one or the other had done it."

Dezeen sat down with Osgerby in London a week before the opening, before catching up with Barber a day later. Both spoke of their ongoing ambition to "find new archetypes", by which they mean objects that make people think or behave in new ways.

"I don't want people to think that we just make nice shapes and nice colours," said Barber. "There's a lot of thinking behind each and every one of our projects."

"When we take on a project, we often work on the basis that, if you can't stand up and talk about it for 20 minutes, then it doesn't justify its existence," stated Osgerby.

Alphabet is organised chronologically, charting a clear progression in material expertise. Many of the early works were made from bent plywood, in collaboration with Isokon Plus, while experience in metal casting and plastic moulding came later.

As curator Marco Sammicheli emphasises in the show, Italy played a key role in this growth. Many of the studio's best-known designs resulted from partnerships with Italian manufacturers, including Cappellini, Flos and B&B Italia.

"Like most people who have made it in Italy, we have Giulio Cappellini to thank for it," said Osgerby. "He was responsible for finding our generation of reprobates, along with the Bouroullecs and Marc Newson."

Both look back fondly on this time, when they feel the design industry was more open to taking risks. As an example, Barber points to the Stencil Screen, a 2002 collaboration with Cappellini that they have reimagined for this exhibition.

"When we showed it to Giulio, he went nuts for it," Barber recalled. "I asked him if he thought we would sell any. He said definitely not! But he said it didn't matter."

"He was right," he continued. "What's amazing about design is that it doesn't have to be commercial. It can just be about thinking, in the same way that art is about thinking."

Osgerby cites the Tip Ton chair as another success story that resulted from risk-taking. Produced by Vitra, it allows a sitter to tip forward into a more active seating position.

"As a monobloc chair, it was really complicated to make, and neither us nor Rolf [Fehlbaum, then-CEO of Vitra] had any idea if it would sell," he said.

"So to find a new way of sitting for the company that is the chair company... that was definitely a win."

The show includes a recreation of Barber Osgerby's London studio, filled with mock-ups and models of both realised and unrealised designs.

Just like the work, the studio has gone through distinct changes over the past 30 years. It grew to include interiors-led Universal Design Studio in 2001, and creative consultancy Map in 2012, before both were acquired by AKQA in 2018.

"Around 2014, we had something like 5,000 square feet of studio space with architects, interior designers, industrial designers, filmmakers, and all the admin and marketing teams," recalled Osgerby. "It was great fun, because all the barriers of design just completely evaporated."

"For a long time, we were the youngest people in our studio," said Barber.  "We employed people who had already done much more complex stuff than us, so they could help us understand."

The studio is just as collaborative today, say the designers. Technologies like 3D printing have changed how they work, but they haven't dampened their enthusiasm to explore new ideas.

"The companies that work with us say the best thing about us is our openness," said Osgerby.

"We're not prima donnas; we want to find the best solution for everyone."

In addition to Alphabet, Barber Osgerby are unveiling products with seven different brands during Milan design week. These include new partnerships with Kettal and Kartell.

Osgerby said they won't spend the week exploring what else is new. He prefers to find inspiration from elsewhere, rather than looking too closely at what other designers are doing.

"When I visit a city, I go to the flea markets rather than the design stores," he said. "Our job as designers is to absorb history and the future, not the present moment."

The portrait photography of Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby is by Mark Cocksedge.

Alphabet is on show at the Triennale Milano from Apr 18 to Sept 6. See Dezeen Events Guide for a dedicated guide to Milan Design Week.

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