Apple may have the electronics market all stitched up in 2010, but the company owes a debt of gratitude to Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen – a Danish pair who revolutionised audio technology and lifestyle marketing.
Long before Steve Jobs was shouting at people about industrial design and making factory workers jump out of buildings, Bang and Olufsen were producing some of the best looking tech gear in history. Starting out in 1925, the pair created an empire based around superior audio and aesthetics.
While the company had early success with radio transistors and some lucrative audio patents, they really hit their stride in the '70s and '80s. Rather than employing in-house designers, Bang and Olufsen hired outside designers to oversee their product lines. When they drafted in Jacob Jensen it was a match made in hi-tech heaven. Several decades on, Jensen’s work with CD players, turntables and phones remains in a class of its own – and with price tags to match.
Like a certain turtle-neck rocking CEO, Jensen was just as interested in the aesthetics of the products as their technical specs and the end result saw Bang and Olufsen in every Patrick Bateman wannabes New York loft. That’s still the case in 2010 – nothing says ‘I earn too much money’ like a Bang and Olufsen stereo set-up, no matter which decade it’s from.
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bang-olufsen.com.