Thanks to a mix of kismet and pure talent, the meteoric rise of design darlings Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby began when they met during their first week as architecture students at London’s legendary Royal College of Art. Collaborating even during school, the designers went on to establish their London studio Barber Osgerby in 1996 shortly after graduating. By 1998 were already named Designers of the Year at New York’s International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF).

Today, after 30 years spent working together, the duo’s camaraderie persists—they tend even to finish one another’s sentences. And to the undeniable advantage of the design world and quotidian human experience, Barber and Osgerby remain steadfast in their dedication to ingenuity and innovation. Although they work on roughly 50 projects simultaneously, the designers call themselves “pretty fussy” and admit to turning away any brief that doesn’t allow them to “innovate.” Yet, hearing the pair discuss innovation isn’t trite. In 2021, they express unwavering confidence in the future of product design, even as the global pandemic has rattled the architecture and interior design sector over the past 19 months or so.