Peter Bowles founded Original BTC in 1990. In his lighting designs, Bowles focuses on industrial styling, and the relaxed, familiar look of traditional pieces. Bowles was trained as a carpenter and had close interaction with Minty Furniture of Oxford where his grandfather was chairman and Cosmo Designs, a lighting company launched in 1960 by his father. This experience led Bowles to ultimately found his own lighting company in 1990, designing lights with distinctive inspirations, from antique lamps used to keep chicks warm to searchlights on the back of a toy truck.