Selected Works by OeO

Nakagawa Mokkougei is part of the Japan Handmade initiative who teamed up with OeO Design Studio to bring new revitalised life to their unique heritage products.

Kanaami-Tsuji is also part of the Japan Handmade initiative.

In 2006, Henrik Marstrand and OeO joined forces in developing an international home accessories brand with awe-inspiring, timeless design and with a clear ethical dimension and commitment to local crafts.

Hold on to your pants guys. Today I’m shedding a little light on one of the most talented design studio’s I’ve come across in years. Big call, right? Just wait! Established in 2003 OeO is the mythic offspring of super strategist and design-guru Anne-Marie Buemann and editorial maestro and creative demi-god Thomas Lykke. Bringing an unparalleled sense of honesty to each project, Copenhagen & Kyoto based OeO celebrates the bajeebies out of awe-inspiring design, by pedestaling their evolving perspectives to the world upon a truly global, multi-cultural scale.

Building upon an ever-expanding portfolio including work in product design, industrial design and interior architecture, OeO has been lapping up the accolades, recently being nominated for a 2016 German Design Council Award in Retail Architecture and winning the prestigious 2015 Iconic Award for Interior Design. Seeking collaborative projects with an increasingly varied spectrum of designers, businesses and crafts people like Japan Handmade, Dinesen, Bang and Olufsen, Wallpaper Handmade and Leica Optics, OeO strategically pushes traditional design fields beyond their respective niches, presenting them to a broader audience. Flipping exciting times! I can’t wait to see what comes next but until then here’s some of their past and present work. Take note, enjoy and get inspired. It doesn’t get much better than this!

Kakaido Objects Collection.

Kakaido Objects Collection – Tea please.

Designing a series of new products for Japanese tea-ware company Kakaido, OeO has delicately evolved traditional tea-ware crafts to compliment contemporary living. Taking inspiration from the Chazutsu tea caddy, originally designed by Kiyosuke in Kyoto in 1875 and widely celebrated for its sleek style and air-tight design; OeO has re-appropriated a traditional perspective of Japanese domesticity and directed it to a global audience of high design lovers. Staying true to the original product’s intentions – to imbue a sense of timelessness – OeO strategically directs the Kakaido business beyond the tea market by designing complimentary water pitchers, milk jugs, silver trays and precious boxes for the every person, regardless of how much they yearn for their next Japanese sencha green. Essentially meaning I don’t have to drink tea to warrant getting my hands on this collection. OeO? More like LOveO.

Dinesen Showroom.

Dinesen Showroom – Shiver me timbers!

Yellowtrace, being on the ball of current design news, covered this project a while back but I’m going to bring it up again. The Dinesen Showroom is a little timber heaven that celebrates the quality, variety and scope of products offered by the renowned Danish floorboard producer Dinesen. To celebrate their collection of timber products, Dinesen asked OeO to create a showcase exhibition in the form of a 600m2 show room. Given the size, OeO designed the showroom in two parts. Firstly an exhibit that stages the company’s awesome floorboards in the form of an apartment with ballroom, dining area, library, kitchen and wine cellar. Then secondly, to create a series of contexts that celebrates the applicative diversity of the traditional timber products. Moving beyond Dinesen’s traditional image as an insanely perfected floorboard manufacturer. OeO designed and overlooked every bespoke, handcrafted processes within the project, right down to the joint detailing of the stools. There is something kind of cruel about those timber stools, tables and bookcases and the perfected way they’ve been crafted into the space. Repurposing Dinesen products OeO asks its audience to reflect back on Dinesen’s products with renewed and fresh eyes. How else can we use this product? You couldn’t perfect the art of opening the market up with design anymore. Simply ace.

Leica Camera Case.

Leica Camera Case – Craft meets Technology

In collaboration with Leica and Hosoo, OeO delivers a new take on durable, camera protection technology by looking to Japan’s textile past for a new take on camera design. The Leica T Camera snap camera case has delicately sprung from the 1200 year old art of Nishjin textile craftsmanship. Re-interpreting the deeply varied Nishjin textile, three-dimensionally weaved in silk and historically used in kimono design, the Leica camera T snap case provides protection, increased grip traction and a beautiful new vision for future technologies. Marrying a centuries-old craft with camera technology, the stereotypical shine of the new-age fades into a highly textured yet beautifully refined materiality within this product. Hot to trot or what?

Reading and Writing.

Reading and Writing – A well-accessorised desk.

Invited by Wallpaper Handmade to put forth a bespoke design dedicated to the acts of reading and writing for its 2013 exhibition at Milan’s Salone del Mobile, OeO teamed up with Japan Handmade and Stellar Works to design and craft ‘a accessorised desk’. Inspired by traditional techniques practiced by Kyoto ceramicists, timber crafters, metal knitters and tea-ware makers OeO and their collaborators redesigned the classic Laval writing desk. Including a small writing tool tray fashioned from 200 year-old-lignified Japanese cedar, two precious boxes crafted from copper and timber, a Nishjin textile inlay, a writing matt in refined bamboo, an Ipad sleeve in bamboo and leather, a small encrier in black porcelain with exquisite colour glazing, a notebook with harlequin fabric, a magnifying glass and a letter opener with decorative brass knitting. Wouldn’t we all be so much happier if we read and wrote in the company of such incredible design?