In the Making at the Design Museum with Barber & Osgerby
On at the Design Museum in London, Barber & Osgerby’s In The Making show explores the design duo’s fascination with the making process via unfinished objects, from pure high-tech silicon to how they put the swirl in a glass marble. Editor Johnny Tucker caught up with the design pair separately and asked them to question each other about the subject via Blueprint. You’re reading their answers at the same time as they are
Main image: clay on its way to becoming house bricks. Photo: Mirren Rosie
Jay Osgerby
Tucker: Which part of the design process do you find most challenging?
It varies from project to project. This may sound trite, but the most challenging part is often evaluating and constructing the brief -- synthesising the real need and requirement. We are very good at responding to analysis creatively. We respond well to constraints, but in a way it is very difficult to create the constraints yourself. Often the brief coming from the client is what they think they want, but not what they actually need. It's a challenge. You have to get it right at the beginning because if you don't, you set sail on the wrong course. Once you get into the process, it's a piece of cake!
Barber: If you were eight, what would fascinate you most in the In The Making exhibition?
I think in a way eight-year-olds are actually our target audience for this. It was probably when Ed and I were around that age that we both tuned into making. I think the whole show should be quite a corker for that age.
Particularly interesting would be the cork -- a one-stop process from the bark, and if they are anything like my eight-year-old, they'll be very familiar with corks lying around! It also shows you how you put the swirls in a glass marble. We have actually got a marble midway through production, which is quite a lovely object.
Barber: What is your favourite piece in the show?
That would be the pure silicon we've got from the making of the silicon chip. It's a beautiful sculptural shape and form, which has come from the technical process and then it's about what that one element has done. In my lifetime, the silicon chip has changed everything. It's pretty epic.
Edward Barber
Tucker: Which part of the design process do you find most rewarding?
It's the early conceptual part, trying to find the big idea. Trying to find the innovation and give the project the character and personality. It's the sketchbook end of it and creating early models. Endless, endless drawing in the sketchbook.
Osgerby: What was your earliest memory of visiting a manufacturer and how did it inspire you?
I suppose you could call them manufacturers -- it would be boatbuilders in Anglesey -- seeing clinker-built boats being made. There's the most incredible craftsmanship and skill. They make the frame and then add the sides and I remember the smell of the timber and the varnish and I found it very exciting. I used to do a lot of sailing and I think we'd put a hole in a boat and took it there to get repaired. The hulls of boats are the most beautiful objects, especially when they're made of wood, and that really resonated with me. I spent hours there.
Osgerby: What was your first memory of questioning how something was made?
That's a tricky little question, that one! [Cue a minute of guttural thinking noises]. That would be something from the garden. I used to spend a lot of time with my dad in the garden. So it would be a fork or a spade with the old wooden handle where it splits into two and then they put another round piece on the top for a handle. They cut it down the middle and then steam-bent it into a Y-shape. I remember thinking about that.
In the Making is at The Design Museum, London until 4 May 2014
