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Friday Five with Anderssen & Voll

Norwegian design duo Torbjørn Anderssen and Espen Voll formed Anderssen & Voll in 2009, after ten years of collaboration at the Oslo-based design company, Norway Says. The recipient of numerous awards, including several from Wallpaper, their furniture and accessories are starkly clean, and often executed in bright, clear colors. They’ve worked on a diverse range of products, including furniture, fabrics, lamps, consumer electronics, cast iron ovens, and restaurant interiors. This week, for Friday Five, we’re privy to a richly personal side of the team’s motivators.

1. Surfing
Some say “Work is for people that don’t surf.” Luckily for us, we discovered working before we discovered surfing ;-) Pictured above is Espen and his new 7’10” Michel Junod Egg. Espen started started surfing some years ago when his fiancée moved to Santa Cruz, California to finish her PhD. During five years of commuting to Santa Cruz, Espen has discovered the bliss of surfing. The ocean is an amazing place to hang out. Last year we started  the “sketch and surf” project—the whole office goes away for 14 days and does just that. Last fall everybody stayed in surf town Santa Cruz. We think Portugal is next.

2. Rival Sons
Pure, high-voltage blues infused rock’n’roll. Play loud at work. This is the new album coming out this September.

3. Coffee
Our office would not work well without large amounts of good coffee. Within walking distance from our office we have some of the best coffee shops around. Tim Wendelboe is next door and makes world class espresso. Fuglen is another favorite. They also make great cocktails at night. Plus, its bar is decorated with classic Norwegian furniture and artifacts. Fuglen has just opened a second bar in Tokyo and we’re excited to work together with them on our forthcoming exhibition “Food Work” in Tokyo this fall.

4. Marimekko
Right now our favorite brand is Marimekko. In the last few years, our office has started to work with fabrics, and the classic, timeless, and vivid products from Marimekko are an endless inspiration. We have lived with these products most of our lives. Espen still wears one of his dad’s old Marimekko t-shirts. They are truly unique Scandinavian products with a broad appeal.

5. Bi-Rite
Creating community through food. This is something we hope will soon be of concern in Oslo. The big food chains have reigned for too long in Norway, and a lot of them focus on low price as the only driving sales argument. We want the neighborhood store back with a focus on quality, local produce, and sustainably raised products. The farmer should be the next rock star. We wish we could have stores like Bi-Rite in San Francisco next to our office; we hope we will see one soon.

Photo 1 by Lars Petter Pettersen; Photos 2 and 5 by Espen Voll.

Marni Elyse Katz is a Contributing Editor at Design Milk. She lives in Boston where she contributes regularly to local publications and writes her own interior design blog, StyleCarrot.