art meets minimalism

Jay Osgerby, co-founder of Barber Osgerby, shares how AXOR One Collection is set to change the future of bathroom design.

- Sandhya Mahadevan

Jay Osgerby, the one part of London-based design studio Barber Osgerby, became friends with his business partner Edward Barber while studying at the Royal College of Art (RCA). The duo launched their eponymous studio right after their postgraduation in 1994.

Although they majored in industrial design and architecture, an artistic sensibility underscores all of Barber Osgerby’s works. “In the UK, we very much have an art school approach to design and architecture, so I actually started with fine art and sculpture, and then industrial design. And then finally I did a master’s in architecture,” Osgerby shares. Sitting in Singapore’s The Water Studio by Hansgrohe amidst the AXOR One collection, the convergence of all those sensibilities is immediately evident. As is the fact that an artistic bent of mind is fundamental to the design process — in front of him are neatly folded wads of serviettes with design sketches that he drew over lunch. “I am always thinking,” he smiles with a shrug.

Osgerby shares about his work, the intuitive process behind the innovative onetouch interaction of AXOR One Collection and how he balances fine art with design.

How would you describe your design ethos?

I don’t think Edward and I really had an ethos or an agenda to begin with other than it was important to us to create, bring something new to the world, which was clearly authored by us. I think our work is actually pretty artistic and experimental. It’s just a different approach, where we make eight things instead of 100,000, and work with craftsmen — smaller productions but higher value objects. What that allows us to do is research making techniques and find new ways of doing things.