British designers Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby have masterminded everything from commuter rail cars and the 2012 London Olympic torch to installations for Sony and sofas for Knoll. But one thing that the studio– which has been around for over 20 years–hasn’t produced? An office chair.
About four years ago, the Switzerland-based furniture manufacturer Vitra approached Barber Osgerby with a challenge: Design the next-generation of task chairs. “It sounds really boring when you say it like that–‘Oh my god, another office chair!’–but for industrial designers and furniture designers, it’s really the ultimate challenge,” Osgerby tells Co.Design.
Barber Osgerby’s answer was the Pacific chair, an ergonomic, technical office chair masquerading as a lounge chair, which will make its debut at NeoCon–the commercial furniture industry’s Super Bowl–in June.