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The London studio that made the Olympic torch and the Tip Ton chair splits. Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby are going solo.
May 20. Barber Osgerby, the London studio behind the 2012 Olympic torch and a catalog of furniture that runs from Vitra to Knoll, is closing. Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby are splitting up after thirty years of working together. They filed the announcement this morning through Wallpaper.
The studio opened in 1996. The two met at the Royal College of Art, worked out of a single room, and built a client list that most design studios spend three decades chasing: Flos, B&B Italia, Venini, Hermès. The Loop Table for Isokon landed at MoMA. The Tip Ton chair for Vitra has been in production since 2011. The Olympic torch, designed for London 2012, was the brief everyone wanted and they landed it.
Both designers say the split is amicable. Barber is staying in London, Osgerby is moving to the countryside. They've started separate studios: Edward Barber Studio and Jay Osgerby Studio. No drama, no fallout. Just thirty years done and two people who want to work alone.
The interview runs long on nostalgia, short on the operational fact that matters: what happens to the IP? The studio's back catalog is extensive. Vitra still manufactures the Tip Ton. Knoll still ships the Pilot Chair. Flos still sells the Tab lamp. The piece doesn't clarify who holds licensing rights post-closure, or whether the studios will share royalties, or whether one bought the other out. That's the only question a dealer would ask first.
What the piece does surface: Barber and Osgerby say they took the "unpredictable path." That tracks. Most duos who last three decades either calcify into a brand (Eames, Bouroullec) or split messy. This one stayed light, filed the work, and walked before the catalog started repeating itself.
The last line of the interview is Osgerby saying they were "just having fun." Thirty years, dozens of pieces in permanent collections, and the studio closes on that note. Rare stance for a design partnership. Most would frame it as legacy. This one filed it as a long project that ran its course.
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