Collection: Jehs+Laub
Markus Jehs (b.1965, Stuttgart) and Jürgen Laub (b.1964, Ulm) met at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Schwäbisch in Gmünd while attending the Industrial Design course. After their first collaboration during an internship in New York in 1990, they graduated in 1992 and established jehs+laub in Stuttgart in 1994. Right from the start, they designed lamps and furniture for well-known international manufacturers in a sober and functional style that always takes into account the aesthetic component. According to Jehs and Laub, "the appearance of design should not deviate from its function". Indeed, their work lies within the tradition of the Ulm School of Design, where function is a fundamental principle. The German designers develop products by avoiding stylistic elaborations and eliminating the inessential. "Function brings its own aesthetics," they say. One such example is the Pillow hot water bag designed for Authentics, fusing function and aesthetics, giving a new image to an everyday object (they won the German Design Plus Award in 2013 for this object).
They do not pursue the market and trends and use both traditional and innovative materials. While their studies in Germany fostered their sensibilities in designing methodically, their personal experiences with other cultures (such as their stay in New York) shaped their aesthetics and pursuit of the beautiful/functional. They have collaborated with international companies and brands, including Cassina, COR, Fritz Hansen, Knoll International, Renz, Stelton, Davis, Wilkhahn and Schönbuch and Thonet. They also collaborated with Mercedes-Benz, for whom they have designed countless concepts for showrooms, exhibits and interior design projects.
Markus Jehs and Jürgen Laub have won numerous awards, including the Compasso d'Oro for the Bend chair by MDF Italia (2012); NeoCon for the Ginko (2011), Tre (2012), A-Chair (2014) and Zen (2016) chairs by Davis Forniture and the Helm table by Halcon (2022); the Interior Innovation Best of the Best for Bend (2012); the iF Product award for the Graph office chair by Wilkhahn (2014), which also won the German Design Award in 2013 and Red Dot Design Award in 2014 together with the A-Chair. They also won the German Design Award for the Stelton Time clock by Stelton (2014), Banc modular seating system for Brunner (2016), and the Alvo upholstered seat for COR (2020).
