Takagi and Homstvedt

Hallgeir Holmstvedt and Jonah Takagi first met while exhibiting at Salone Satellite in 2011 and quickly bonded over design, biking and beer. By 2013, they each ran their own studios in Oslo and Washington DC respectively and began discussing potential for collaboration while lamenting the difficulties of managing and running their fledgling design studios. While they shared similar aesthetic ideas and thoughts on design more broadly, the collaboration sprang from a very practical consideration. At some point, they found themselves lamenting the fact that many of the American design labels as well as brands championing Nordic or Scandinavian were a bit insular. It was hard for an American designer to work with with brands in Northern Europe and equally hard for a Norwegian to work with American brands. Hallgeir and Jonah decided that by working together they could pitch ideas and proposals to both European and American brands through our respective contacts. In 2014, working remotely via Skype and Dropbox from from opposite corners of the world; they began soliciting briefs and submitting proposals.