Rive Roshan is a design studio specializing in graphic, interior, and product design. The studio explores innovative uses of materials to design tactile, adaptable, and engaging products for a mobile generation. Rive Roshan was founded in London in 2012 by designers Ruben de la Rive Box (born in Naarden, The Netherlands in 1981) and Golnar Roshan (born in Sydney, Australia in 1986). Rive Roshan’s design philosophy depends heavily on a strong sense of purpose; citing the words of poet Kahlil Gibran, the pair believes “work is love made visible.”
The duo first met in 2011 while working at the Amsterdam studio of Dutch designer Marcel Wanders (b. 1963). They collaborated on projects ranging from hotel interiors to print and upholstery designs before formally establishing their own studio. The collective had humble beginnings, making its first home in an old, unheated brick warehouse in Bricklane. One year later, the pair relocated to the Truman Brewery for half a year, before moving again to the iconic Bussey Building in Peckham. The studio currently resides in a former furniture factory in Seven Sisters, North London, where they moved in 2014. In 2017, the pair opened a second studio location in Amsterdam.
In addition to self-directed work, Rive Roshan takes on collaborative and commission-based projects, such as bespoke rugs and wallpapers for hotels and interior installations for various brands. In 2013, de la Rive Box and Roshan co-founded the design collective Form&Seek with Bilge Nur Saltik. Form&Seek organizes yearly exhibitions in London and Milan and occasional shows in other cities. In 2016, the trio also collaborated on Through the Looking Glass, a series of fine printed silk scarves and glass sartorial objects that debuted at Istanbul Design Week 2016 as part of the No Borders exhibition. In 2015, Rive Roshan was selected by Tom Dixon (b. 1959) to partake in Multiplex—London’s first pop-up department store in the Old Selfridges Hotel. Their “Solar Lab” used UV light and photosensitive chemicals to capture the transient nature of light and shadow on fine textiles. The studio also caught the attention of Israeli architect-designer Ron Arad (b. 1951), which led to a 2016 collaboration called Rocks, for which Arad cast fabric from Through the Looking Glass in silicone to create jewelry that further explored pattern distortion. The collection was shown in Louisa Guinness Gallery in London that same year.
Golnar and Ruben are also founders and creative directors of the London-based graphic design studio Design & Practice (2014). Clients include Wedgwood Home and Tom Dixon, among others.
To date, Rive Roshan’s work has been displayed at a number of exhibitions, including Trichroic Tapestries (2015) at Musée des Arts Decoratifs Paris, Love Lace (2011-2013) at the Powerhouse Museum Sydney, and Keep it Glassy (2015) at the Shanghai Museum of Glass. They have also participated in a number of design fairs including, as of this writing, Milan Design Week, Maison & Objet, Istanbul Design Week, Northmodern, and London Design Festival.
Dutch designer de la Rive Box studied interaction design at the Utrecht School of the Arts (HKU), earning his Master’s degree in 2004. He worked with Marcel Wanders for three years between 2010 and 2013, one of which he spent in the studio in Amsterdam, and the other two working from his own studio in London. During this time, he designed large interior graphics for the Andaz Hotel in Amsterdam and collaborated on multiple projects with Wanders. In London, de la Rive Box worked for two years (2014-2015) as the graphic design manager for British industrial designer Tom Dixon, where he redesigned Dixon’s brand identity and designed packaging, identities and surface graphics for several exhibitions and trade fair shows.
Iranian-Australian designer Roshan graduated with two Bachelors’ degrees from the University of Technology in Sydney in 2010—one in visual communications and one in international studies. In 2011, she worked with Marcel Wanders in Amsterdam. In 2012, Roshan relocated to London. From 2012 to 2015, she joined the studio of Tord Boontje (b. 1968), working on product packaging and interior commissions for clients including Perrier Jouet, Shiseido, and Swarovski.
The pair divides their time between London and Amsterdam.
