Interior Design Blog

In retrospect the design duo's rise to success happened quite quickly with Italian furniture giant Cappellini spotting the Loop table and it becoming one of the first BarberOsgerby collaborations in 1997, following their graduation from the RCA in 1994. 'It certainly didn't feel that way,' laughs Osgerby, 'you have to remember we also left Uni straight into the last recession and we had to work really, really hard to break through.'

'Getting the Loop Table published was a definite turning point,' says Barber, 'once you are into that world and your ideas are being accepted it's great but until that happens the doors feel very closed.' And of course, they point out that the process of getting published is hugely different now, formally hard copy transparencies of images of products needed to be sent out by post in their hundreds and even if it did get chosen for the final edit there would be a three or four month delay on when it would be seen.

'Now there are thousands of blogs, twitter and creating your own website is relatively simple,' says Barber, 'and with those thousands of blogs several posts will be made a day, so there is less of a selection process, if you have good digital pictures and text ready it can go up in minutes and so many more people will see it.'

'Alongside that though,' adds Osgerby, on the differences of today's world that new designers are thrust into, 'there are so many more designers out there. When we were studying architecture there was not a lot of glamour to it, now everyone wants their name to be heard, everyone wants to be a Superstar.'

Read more of the BarberOsgerby interview and Jenny Brewer's guide for Design Graduates in the idfx June issue.

www.barberosgerby.com

www.idfxmagazine.com