I had always believed that Jacob Jensen was responsible for the original BL/BM 5000 of the sixties.  All the literature I have read supports this.  But I was trawling around looking to see how much these things cost now and I came across David Lewis’s website.

I know Lewis joined Jensen’s team in the late 60s and that he appeared to be responsible for some of the televisions of the period, but his website clearly infers that he was responsible for the design of the BL/BM5000, and the BM3000 as well. 

Now I know that the design of complex electronic equipment is always a collaborative effort, and that when people talk of ‘design’ they often really mean ‘styling’  which are two subtly different  things. 

But can anybody tell me who was really responsible for the styling (the slide-rule idea for the controls, for example, or the array of switches on the BM3000}.  As far as I know, neither man has talked about who did what in their years of working together.  

Cleve

Jacob Jensen. David Lewis was his assistant then - but you will notice that Lewis commits a bit of cheekiness in identifying the two products you mention, as he writes "One of David Lewis' first works at Bang & Olufsen." Whereas on the other products, that he was responsible for, that sentence is missing. Beolab 5000/Beomaster 5000/and the Beovox speakers that went with them, including the 2500s, was actually Jensen's first design for B&O, and his sketches for these led to him being made lead designer, as I understand it.

This is what Jensen writes on his site.

Lewis' site is not that well researched - he also has the Beolink 7000 labelled as a 1000. I am sure that most designs are a collaboration but Jensen as head designer should take the credit for the 5000. He will have signed it off and it was his studio.

I believe the two gentlemen don't see eye to eye, and that's a shame. B&O should proudly feature both the contributions of Jensen and Lewis, but the former has tended to be absent from company communications in recent years.

Thanks Stein and Peter,

It is sad that the two people most responsible for the design credibility of B&O may not see eye to eye now - but then the creative world has been littered with such tensions.

Another thought.  Having only been a member of Beoworld for less than a year and therefore not around when the most recent Struer trip took place, are there any plans to organise another, perhaps with a visit to Frede as well?

Cleve