Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby must be pinching themselves to think that they have picked up the Olympic torch design bid. Whilst established designers in their own right, with a company that continues to create objects that are both functional and beautiful, BarberOsgerby have been given the opportunity to design an object that will go into the history books immediately and bring further attention to their work.

Punctured with 8000 holes to represent the 8000 people bringing the torch to London and triangular in shape to represent the third time that the UK has hosted the Olympics, the duo have considered many challenges when designing this torch. Having to consider that a 12 year old child may need to run for 1 mile holding the torch, weight is an important factor in the design. Heat is clearly another concern, so the design partners used the perforations on the length of the torch to allow air through and cool the object down.

Very clever stuff… and this beautiful, enchanting and recognisable object was born.

Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby explained: ‘We have worked hard to develop a Torch that celebrates the Relay, and reflects the passion for London and the Olympic Games. We wanted to make the most of pioneering production technologies and to demonstrate the industrial excellence available in the UK – it’s a Torch for our time. This is our opportunity to represent the UK, in design terms, and we are incredibly proud to be doing so.’

This is a guest post article written by Daniel Nelson (a UK design writer for mydeco.com).