Omer Arbel – Canadian designer and founder of Bocci

Omer Arbel 1976

Omer Arbel was born in 1976 in Jerusalem, Israel and grew up in Vancouver, Canada. He interned with architect Enric Miralles in Barcelona before moving to Vancouver to complete his studies. Arbel went on to work for Patkau Architects before founding the Omer Arbel Office (OAO) in 2003.

Arbel's background in architecture is evident in his furniture and lighting designs, not only in their intrinsic qualities but also in the way they affect the spaces around them. His designs have received some of the finest accolades in modern industrial design and have been widely produced. One of Arbel's first projects with his distinctive style was the chair 2.4. He designed it through a process where he poured 50 layers of coloured resin to produce the mould. The production took about 175 hours, which meant that 2.4 never went into production and only 20 copies were produced. It was at this early stage that Arbel developed his philosophy of exploring materials and began to number his projects chronologically. Whether experimenting with glass blowers or sand blowers, Arbel leads his team to showcase the unique qualities of a material.

In 2005, Omer Arbel exhibited an early version of the 14 series at New York Design Week. There he met Randy Bishop and together they founded Bocci. The launch of 14 was an immediate success and today is one of their bestsellers. After the 14 series came commercial successes with series 21, 28, 38 and 57.