Dan Black & Martin Blum

Dan Black grew up discussing products and design with his family from an early age. His passion and skill for design was recognized in a first class honors degree from the respected Design for Industry course at the University of Northumbria (Newcastle).

He gained further professional foresight working at IDEO (London), Frog Design (California) and under Julian Brown at Studio Brown (Bath). Dan completed successful group projects with his friend Martin Blum whilst studying in Newcastle, sparking the idea for the creative partnership that is now black + blum.

Martin Blum was born and raised in Switzerland. An early apprenticeship as a commercial clerk with a product design company provided his first insight on the development and distribution of products. He then gained an industrial design degree from the highly respected course at the University of Northumbria (Newcastle).

Martin’s cultural and design reference is a juxtaposition of his Swiss youth and enduring love affair for all things British. His work has been acknowledged by internationally recognized design awards.