KiBiSi: A New Danish Product-Design Supergroup

Three of Denmark's best-known designers join forces, to tackle headphones and chairs (among other other things).

The three high-cheekboned lads above aren't in a Danish pop group. They're all big-nameproduct designers, and they've joined to form the new firm KiBiSi.

In the picture, from left to right, are: Jens Martin Skibsted, founder of Biomega, which makes some of the most beautiful bikes in the world; Bjarke Ingels, founder of BIG architects, a firm that's had a meteoric rise in the last couple years; and finally, Lars Holme Larsen, founder of Kilo Design.

All three have known each other for years--the Danish design scene is still pretty small, after all. It makes sense that they'd form a joint venture: We've seen for some time that clients are eager to get a suite of services, surrounding a single project. For example, when Coke rolls out a new soda machine, it incorporates graphics, product design, and environmental design (kiosks, show booths, etc). Some design firms have begun offering services to suit those sprawling projects--but the results have usually been hackneyed. (Here's a free tip: DO NOT hire advertising agencies to do architecture--I'm looking at you, Microsoft and Coke.) Hopefully, these three genuine talents from disparate fields will be able to produce something better.

Naturally, the three of them have excellent Rolodexes, which they capitalized on for a series of products launching in 2010:

Headphones with leather-covered ear pieces:

Bespoke chairs for a new housing development in Copenhagen that BIG is designing, called8 House:

Another set of headphones launching in 2010, and produced by AIAIAI:

A series of bikes, designed for Puma, and continuing on Biomega's brilliant early design forbike with an integrated cable lock (visible in the second row, on the left): 

Chairs that will feature prominently in the Danish Pavilion that BIG designed for the Shanghai World Expo in 2010:

We look forward to the day when American product designers are treated like rock stars too. In the meantime, you can be a groupie over at the official KiBiSi site.