GUBI Goes Global
Danish furniture company GUBI has recently experienced remarkable success in the U.S. The company manages to maintain an innovative edge by working with designers who are constantly testing aesthetic and technological boundaries.
When attempting to conquer a furniture market as demanding and competitive as the professional contract market in the U.S., there are a couple of references which will make things easier for you. One of them is MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Which is why it is very satisfying for Jacob Gubi Olsen, CEO of Danish furniture design company GUBI, that the GUBI Chair is now part of the museum’s permanent collection.
MoMA had originally singled out the chair for the museum’s new Café 2, but the curators grew so fond of it that they decided to make it part of the collection.
“It is the ultimate stamp of approval for our chair to be recognized alongside classics such as the Eames chair,” says Jacob Gubi Olsen.
The chair has already received numerous Danish and international awards since it was launched in 2003 and is a remarkable success for the small design company, founded in 1967 by Jacob’s parents, Lisbeth and Gubi, and now run by Jacob and his younger brother, Sebastian.
GUBI delivers furniture solutions for offices, conference and meeting rooms and lounges.
After having made a strategic change from the private towards the professional contract market in 1999, the brothers spent a long time looking for the right chair, the archetype of furniture design, to go with the rest of their furniture. GUBI was then approached by Komplot Design, who based their design on a new and innovative technique for the shape of the shell you sit in. Jacob took to the chair immediately, and so did the rest of the world, once the costly process of developing and producing it had been overcome.
The chair’s presence at MoMA serves as an excellent introduction to the U.S. market, and the excellent opportunity is not the only one of its kind. Another occurred when GUBI was approached by SOM Architects. The architects, recognized all over the world for projects such as the Empire State Building, Canary Wharf in London and Sears Tower in Chicago, are in charge of both building and furnishing one of the seven new buildings on Ground Zero. The building is called 7 and is, together with Freedom Tower by Daniel Libeskind, the first of the seven buildings planned for Ground Zero.
SOM Architects wanted to use GUBI’s furniture for the 25th floor of the building where they are creating a prototype for the office of the future.
“It was an explicit ambition for SOM Architects only to have innovative companies as partners. They are trying to create a culture of cooperation with companies who will add value to their brand. Our part of the world has a strong position when it comes to designing work spaces, which they appreciated, and it will be a great moment for us when the new building is taken into use,” says Jacob Gubi.
GUBI is so far the only European company chosen to contribute to 7 World Trade Center, Ground Zero’s new name. Although Jacob Gubi recognizes that news is never new for very long, he emphasizes how much it means for a company to have references such as MoMA and 7 World Trade Center when entering a new and competitive market.
“It provides us with opportunities for growth in the U.S., both short and long term,” he says.
Maintaining innovation
GUBI’s position as an innovative company was established a long time ago in Denmark through the work of Jacob’s parents, who did the design themselves while focusing the company on product development and design as well as collections of upholstery furniture and a famous furniture fabric.
Today, the company maintains its innovative profile by working with designers who use cutting edge technology in their work. The process is almost always purposefully reactive. The company is approached by designers who present ideas for new furniture. If the product is good enough, GUBI gets involved both in developing it further, if necessary, and in producing it.
“We enjoy the dynamics of being approached by designers. Our job, apart from evaluating the suggested products, is of course then to consider the profile of our existing portfolio and deciding whether it is the right product for us at that particular time,” says Jacob Gubi, who readily admits that the company is extremely selective.
The latest GUBI project is a chair also designed by Komplot Design. According to Jacob Gubi, the Komplot team has developed a thorough understanding of the philosophy behind GUBI, and so it is no wonder that they were chosen once again. The chair was launched at the Copenhagen International Furniture Fair in early May. It is made of felt, produced from recycled soda bottles and pressed into shape so that there is no supporting structure in the chair except the material itself.
The chair is a fine example of what GUBI is looking for in new design. It has a strong visual and conceptual identity and is both aesthetic and practical. Pressed felt is very popular in the automotive industry, because it is flexible, fireproof, sound absorbing, and very durable.
“When we decide to launch a new chair, it must have a history of its own and it must create new advantages for the consumers. These are the parameters we consider,” says Jacob Gubi, who stresses that it is a key issue to make sure that new products have the least possible environmental impact.
Spreading the wings
In 1989 Gubi Olsen saw a lamp in a shop window in Copenhagen and experienced love at first sight. He liked the lamp so much that he went on a trip to the United Kingdom and managed to negotiate the rights to sell and distribute the lamp in Scandinavia. The lamp, part of a larger collection under the same name, was BestLite, originally designed in 1930 by Robert Dudley Best and in production ever since. Certainly not an instant success, the lamp was initially used mainly in garages and repair shops because of its wide variety of applications. But when progressive architects began buying it, it came to be recognized for its quality and the integrity and purity of its design. When the production facilities closed in 2004, GUBI bought the rights to produce and sell the timeless Bauhaus-inspired classic, which has since only gained popularity, both in the U.S. market and elsewhere.
Also in 2004, GUBI bought the design company Cinal, whose collection of small furniture is now widely recognized.
In 2002 Cinal invented and patented a unique bending and layering technique and created a series of elegant storage modules. The products were an instant hit and are now sold in more than thirty countries.
“Cinal was a logical partner for us, because of their technological skills and innovative ambitions,” says Jacob Gubi.
And only recently another brilliant architect, Iraqi-British Zaha Hadid, came across the GUBI collections by coincidence and found them so inspiring that she had to use them for a new building. Also by coincidence, the building was in Denmark: an extension of Ordrupgaard, a famous museum north of Copenhagen that holds one of the most prominent collections in Northern Europe of paintings from the 19th and 20th century.
“This project is a darling of mine. The chairs look wonderful in bright wood, contrasted with the dark tone Zaha has chosen for the concrete,” says Jacob Gubi.
GUBI has only been exporting their products for three years. Their export business is now increasing rapidly, and the goal is to reach 50% of all production by 2007, with special emphasis on the U.S. market.
“Everything we do is about meeting the right people and figuring out how to work with them. Now we have found the right people in the U.S., people who are interested in architecture and have the right skills. We will develop that network step by step, and we’re very proud of recent developments,” says Jacob Gubi.
May 2006