Barber Osgerby closes after 30 years

May 20. Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby announced this morning they're closing the studio. Thirty years, 300+ products, one partnership ending on good terms. The two designers will work independently starting this summer.

The studio's run includes the London 2012 Olympic torch, Vitra's Tip Ton chair, and a decade of commissions for Knoll, Flos, and Established & Sons. The product count is high. The misses are low. That's the record.

The statement reads like an amicable split. No financial trouble, no creative impasse, no drama. Just two designers who've been in the same room since 1996 deciding to work alone. Barber will continue under his own name. Osgerby will do the same. The London office closes in July.

What stays

The studio's archive stays intact. The IP remains shared. Both designers retain rights to the work produced together. Vitra, Knoll, and Flos contracts continue under individual stewardship, terms not disclosed.

The Tip Ton chair, still in production, is the closest thing to a shared legacy piece. It's been in circulation since 2011. The tilt mechanism is the detail that earned it shelf space. Barber will continue that relationship with Vitra. Osgerby's next move isn't public yet.

The timing

Thirty years is a round number. That's part of it. The other part: both designers are in their mid-fifties, the age where solo work starts to look like the next logical step rather than a rupture. The studio peaked around 2012 with the Olympic commission. Everything since has been solid, high-fee work, but not the same kind of visibility.

The closure lands at a moment when British design studios are either scaling up or shutting down. Barber Osgerby chose the latter. No pivot to consultancy, no brand partnership umbrella. Just two people going back to working alone.

The last project filed under the joint name ships in September. A lighting commission for Flos, designed 18 months ago, clears production this summer. After that, the name goes dormant.