The designers who made Bang & Olufsen famous

A surprising fact that very few people know is that a famous design company like Bang & Olufsen does not own a single designer. Famous designers all work with B&O as freelance designers. The advantage of freelance designers is that they see the world with a very different eye, their perspective always brings fresh, bold, and challenging ideas. They are the ones who made the longevity of this prestigious brand and now continue to write every day.

Beovision Eclipse & Beolab 50 photo

Jacob Jensen – minimalist design philosophy

Photo by Jacob Jensen – (1926-2015)

Jacob Jensen is a great Danish industrial designer who pursues the minimalist school. With 234 designs and 27 years of cooperation with B&O, it is not wrong to say that his name is associated with classic designs for the brand. Many of his designs are still on display at the MOMA Museum of Art and Design - New York, USA. His solo exhibition at MOMA in 1978, titled "Jacob Jensen and Sound Designs", brought together 28 of the best B&O products he designed. This exhibition is the dream of any industrial designer in the world and is also the recognition of the world's industrial design industry for both Jensen and the B&O brand.

Jensen is also the one who shaped the fundamental philosophy of the famous B&O branded products. These are products with Danish characteristics, harmoniously combining sound quality with minimalist design, emphasizing sophisticated style on high-quality materials. More than just an audio-visual product, for Jensen, each B&O creation carries the soul of Scandinavian people with a harmonious and balanced lifestyle. This philosophy has been and continues to inspire the next generations of B&O every day.

Jensen's most iconic products with B&O include the Beogram 4000 and Beocenter 9000 – a design he made with his son Timothy Jacob Jensen that is considered by many to be a masterpiece.

Beocenter 9000 products – (1986-1990)

David Lewis – product of the future

Photo by David Lewis – (1939-2001)

Following Jacob Jensen, David Lewis not only successfully inherited B&O's minimalist and sophisticated design philosophy but also developed it to a new level. He turned B&O products into classics and market-oriented designs, products of the future, not following the vortex of continuous technological competition like other brands, so the value of the product does not fade over time. In fact, many customers around the world continue to use B&O products that are up to 20-30 years old and cherish them as a favorite decor item in their home. The average product life cycle of B&O products in general is up to 10-15 years, which is a surprise, especially for technology products.

Among the many classic B&O products associated with the name David Lewis, we cannot help but mention Beolab 4000 and Beolab 5. The first difference in BeoLab 5 is the unique cone design. This is the effort of designer David Lewis to bring listeners a breakthrough experience with music. The company stopped producing this product in 2017 after nearly 15 years since its launch, but the cone design of Beolab 5 still retains its value from sound quality to top-notch design and materials. Instead of trying to hide it like conventional audio devices, you can completely proudly display Beolab 5 in the most prominent position in your room so that they blend in and enhance your home's interior space.

Photo 5: Beolab 5 Photo

Cecilie Manz – User-Centered Design

Designer Cecilie Manz - (1972)

Cecilie Manz is a talented young face accompanying B&O Play personal products, responding to the dynamic lifestyle and increasing experience trend of users, especially modern youth. Each BeoPlay A1, A2 or P2 portable speaker is not only a high-end audio device but also a stylish accessory that completes the user's style and is a companion on every journey and sublimates every emotional moment. For her, product quality and features are the purpose, and design must be a tool to honor and achieve that purpose. The B&O spirit has been perfectly expressed through the simple yet sophisticated style in her works.

There is an interesting story about the BeoPlay A1 product launch: Bang & Olufsen brand representatives played a song using a secret speaker covered by a velvet cloth. Everyone was amazed by the powerful, resonant and warm music coming from that speaker. The guests who were asked all guessed that this was a large and angular speaker. But everyone was completely surprised when the cloth was opened, and learned that the powerful music came from the BeoPlay A1 with an extremely small body, which can fit in the palm of the hand.

Beo Play A1 portable speaker designed by Cecilie Manz

Øivind Slaatto

As a designer inspired by nature, Øivind Slaatto always surprises connoisseurs when admiring his products because they are in harmony with any interior space and fully convey his design philosophy that "no one will know it is a speaker until the music plays".

The products created by this talented designer include the BeoPlay A9, which has captivated many customers, and most recently, the BeoSound Shape wireless speaker system. The design story of BeoSound Shape is also very interesting. One day, Øivind shared with the B&O R&D team that he wanted to create in a space filled with music but not too "noisy". The members of the R&D team and Oivind talked passionately about the idea of ​​a "quiet" music system. During a trip to a mountainous area, he saw the overlapping mountain ranges creating a majestic and vibrant 3D space. Immediately, Øivind thought about the speaker model he was cherishing and from there the Beosound Shape design was born, with a 3D block shape inspired by the mountain ranges. The speaker system consists of hexagonal blocks joined together, allowing customers to design their own speaker system by choosing the color, size and shape of the speaker system according to their preferences. This product has won many awards in the past year such as the "design of the year" award from Danish Design Awards and the "breakthrough product of the year" award from the prestigious technology magazine Whathifi.com

BeoPlay A9

BeoSound Shape

The journey of B&O's success would probably not be possible without the contributions of those talented designers. Maintaining the core values, while bringing those values ​​into harmony with the flow of time and contemporary rhythm, B&O promises to continue to be a fertile land to help nurture and give wings to many more designers of the future, those who will continue to tell the story of the famous B&O legend.

Bang & Olufsen store system:

Hanoi: Melia Hotel, 44B Ly Thuong Kiet, Hoan Kiem District (024.39460100)

HCMC: Sheraton Hotel, 88 Dong Khoi, District 1 (028.38222595)

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