Olympic torch designers lose race to own piece of Olympic history "We're not allowed a torch, as all the runners get them and no one else," Barber says at a Condé Nast reception at the London Marriott Hotel, Grosvenor Square. It's like the Royal Mint. You design it, but you don't keep it. The gold-coloured aluminium torch, which is laser cut and weighs 1lb,12oz, has 8,000 perforations, representing the runners. "The original design, from the brief they gave us to when we had to hand it in, was 10 days," says Barber. In those 10 days, we didn't sleep much. After that, we got chosen to develop it, and that took another two years. It's great they're selling on eBay, in a way, as it shows they're in high demand The design has been well received. The Londoners won the commission to create the torch through a competition run by the London 2012 Organising Committee and the Design Council. Barber and Osgerby founded their eponymous studio in 1996 after graduating from the Royal College of Art. Their first design, the Loop Table, brought them to the attention of Guilio Cappellini, the renowned furniture producer, and they began a long working relationship with the Italian. Their work is held in permanent collections around the world including the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.