GUBI | Design Icons Through Time.

GUBI is a family-owned Danish company established in 1976 by Lisbeth and Gubi Olsen. Their son, Jacob Gubi, took over the management of the company in 2001, changing the focus from residential to the international contract market. The company has an enviable classic collection of design icons from 1930s to the present.

GUBI recently launched a new website and an utterly divine catalogue titled Design Icons Through Time, which is really what I wanted to rave on about today.

The Bestlite Collection.

The Bestlite Collection by Robert Dudley Best.

Bestlite has been in continuous production since 1930. Winston Churchill is numbered amongst its many famous users. The Bestlite design was conceived by Robert Dudley Best who was highly influenced by the Bauhaus movement.

 The Grossman Collection.

The Grossman Collection by Greta Grossman.

The most iconic products Greta Grossman designed in the 40’s and 50’s were the Grasshopper floor lamp and the Cobra floor and table lamps. In 1950, the Cobra lamp won the Good Design Award and was subsequently exhibited at the Good Design Show at the Museum of Modern Art.

The Pedrera Collection.

The Pedrera Collection by Barba Corsini & Joaquim Ruiz Millet.

Many architects and furniture designers of the Bauhaus era were intent on providing well-designed homes and impeccably manufactured furnishings for the “common man”. In 1955, Barba Corsini, a leading functionalist architect, realised his contemporary vision through his renovation of the loft space and the furnishings he custom designed for “La Pedrera”. Antoni Gaudi, who originally designed “La Pedrera”, is generally considered the great master of Spanish Modernism but his unique body of work cannot be defined by any single style or simple classification.

The Semi Collection. 

The Semi Collection by Bonderup & Thorup.

The Semi lamp was designed in 1968 as a product of the creative partnership between two architecture students, Claus Bonderup and Torsten Thorup. Reacting against the ‘cosy era’ that was dominating Denmark at the time, Bonderup and Thorup wanted to create a lamp that incorporated sharp, clean lines and a geometric shape. Their design was submitted for a competition at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture and won first prize.

The Adnet Collection.

The Adnet Collection by Jacques Adnet.

Jacques Adnet is a furniture designer best known for his Art Deco Modernist designs and an icon of French Modernism. In 1950, Adnet formed a partnership with the French fashion house, Hermes, where he developed a collection of leather-covered furniture and interior accessories, including a distinctive leather mirror with brass hinges. Besides the remarkable leather and brass details, the Adnet mirror is also unique as the strap that holds the mirror is in direct proportion to the dimension of the mirror.

The Gubi Chair Collection.

The Gubi Chair Collection by Komplot Design.

The Gubi chair was designed in 2003, has won numerous design awards and is included in the permanent exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

 The Matégot Collection.

The Matégot Collection by Mathieu Matégot.

Matégot was the first person to combine metal tubing with perforated sheet metal; a pairing that particularly characterizes his work. Many designers spend years developing their designs, simply to make them better and better. This was certainly not the case with Mathieu Matégot; he only devoted one decade to the design of furniture and interior accessories, yet these distinctive 1950’s designs would later be considered iconic. The Nagasaki chair is one of few three-legged models and is still Matégot’s best-known piece and is included in the permanent exhibition at the Vitra Design Museum.

 The Stokke Chair.

The Stokke Chair by Jens Quistgaard.

Jens Quistgaard was an original thinker, an entrepreneur, an innovator and a prolific designer. Through his collaboration with Ted Nierenberg, Quistgaard designed more than 4,500 products before his death in 2008. One of his most successful furniture designs is the distinctive Stokke chair, designed in 1965. The Stokke Chair is one of a kind and today is considered an international design classic.

The Masculo Collection. 

The Masculo Collection by GamFratesi.

When design connoisseurs try to predict who is going to be the next Arne Jacobsen or Hans Wegner, GamFratesi comes high on the list and since the parnership formed in 2006 GamFratesi has received a long list of design awards. With GamFratesi’s Masculo lounge, designed in 2008, and Masculo chair, designed in 2011, we see the emergence of a new, potentially classic furniture series from Gubi.

The Leroy Collection.

The Leroy Collection by Paul Leroy.

The Leroy Collection features two quasi-sculptural designs: the Aoyama Table and the A3 stool. Aoyama, a district in Tokyo famous for its fashion houses, restaurants and interesting shops is where Danish-French architect and designer, Paul Leroy found his inspiration for the Aoyama table. Consequently this piece is Danish-French by design with a hint of Japanese style. The inspiration for the stool frame is the letter ‘A’ whilst the seat dimensions match a sheet of A3 paper.

Dear furniture and lighting companies – I hope you are paying attention here. This is precisely how a product catalogue needs to be art directed, styled and photographed. If you do this, your clients, designers and specifiers will actually pay attention. I promise you this.

Extremely extreme love!

[Images via GUBI.]