In search of a suitable name for their design studio, Gernot Bohmann, Harald Gründl and Martin Bergmann found what they were looking for in Ovid: While browsing through the ancient Roman poet’s Metamorphoses, the name Eoos caught the designers’ eye. The symmetry of the four letters and the two O’s immediately appealed, and so they named their studio, founded in 1995, after one of the four horses that pull the chariot of the sun god Helios.
In a way, the naming anticipates what will evolve into a creative method over time: Poetic Analysis is what the trio, who met while studying at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, calls their unconventional approach. The idea is to explore the past roots of a subject, which are deeply embedded in human consciousness in the form of images, myths and rituals.
“Our sympathies belong to error, paradox and immediate thought,” the three lateral thinkers say about themselves. Once an inspiring word, image or feeling is found, the project takes its initially unforeseen course. At the end of the design process there are always original designs that provide a poetic wow effect in everyday life and convince with intuitive functions.
The method, which is as creative as it is non-conformist, and the resulting products inspire manufacturers and expert juries alike. EOOS works with a wide range of renowned companies such as Bulthaup, Carl Hansen & Søn, Dedon, Duravit, Laufen, Poltrona Frau, Walter Knoll and Zumtobel. The designers have won numerous design awards for their work, including the coveted Compasso d’Oro in 2004. The trio received a special honor in 2015 when the MAK, Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, honored the work of EOOS with a major solo exhibition.
