Charles & Ray Eames

Description	Furniture and industrial designers, Architects, interior designers, filmmakers
Dates	Ray Eames 1912-1988, Charles Eames 1907-1978
Lived/Worked	Los Angeles, California

Best known for...

The Eames’ are best known for their work in architecture and furniture design, often pioneering innovative technologies. They are most famous for their groundbreaking work in industrial, and among these are their chair designs such as the and plastic resin chairs, the wire mesh chairs, and the famous lounge chair and ottoman, which were all designed for Herman Miller. Besides this work, Charles also channelled his interest in photography into the production of short films, From their first one, the unfinished Travelling Boy (1950), to the extraordinary Powers of Ten (1977) their cinematic work was an outlet for ideas, a vehicle for experimentation and education.

The importance of Charles and Ray Eames...

The work of husband and wife design team Charles and Ray Eames established a new identity for American interior and graphic design, and conceived an arena for the development of multi-media and corporate design strategy. Perennial admirers of the details of everyday life, the Eames collected hundreds of photographic images and outfitted both their home and their office with an array of folk art and objects from around the world. Their house, made from prefabricated elements, and their office, remain today as examples of an astonishingly unique and fertile breeding ground for some of the classic mid-century modern designs.

In the early 1940's the Eames received the chance to experiment with new methods of bending plywood on the work they did for the Navy wartime effort. They produced plywood airplane parts and moulded leg splints. They applied these techniques to their furniture design and began turning out series like the "Dining Chair Wood," known as the "DCW," the "Lounge Chair Wood" and "Lounge Chair Metal," known as "LCW" and "LCM" respectively. The Eames' approach to chair design was to work off of the idea of a shell as the seat, shaped to fit the body so that upholstery was unnecessary. In the late 1940's they came out with a series of reinforced moulded fiberglass shells that could be attached to a number of different bases like the "Eiffel Tower," "Cat's Cradle," and one that would make it a rocking chair. Around 1950 they also released the Eames Storage Unit, a modular system of shelving that had brightly coloured panels and was adorned with sliding and pull down doors in fiberglass and with their signature dimpled wood front. They also came out with a series of wire chairs that were mesh shells on wire rod bases. In 1956, a famous present for their friend, film director Billy Wilder, was a leather upholstered lounge chair and ottoman, which was released as one of their most luxurious and expensive pieces, This chair is also featured prominently in many photographs of the Eames' house, and constructed entirely of pre-fabricated steel parts intended for industrial construction, the house remains a milestone of modern architecture. The late fifties and sixties saw the release of their "Aluminum Group" of indoor/outdoor furniture, as well as the popular "Tandem Shell Seating" and "Tandem Sling Seating" designed for airports. The Eames worked with the company Herman Miller, a collaboration that included the furniture designs as well as advertising and showroom design.

Like many modernists, the Eames believed that affordable, mass produced, well-designed furniture and objects for the home were tools that could bring about an environment ripe for social change and betterment. Over several decades in which they were almost constantly working, the Eames took on the roles of decorators, entertainers, educators and artists. Their work, and expansive work philosophy, helped define an American style, summed up by Ray as, "what works is better than what looks good. The 'looks good' can change, but what works, works."

Historical context

At the time when modernism was getting to grips with the world, Charles Eames was studying Architecture at Washington University, he later went on to meet one of his greatest influences, the Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen, who’s son Eero Saarinen, also an architect, would later become a partner and friend. At this time, his wife to be, Ray, was studying abstract painting with Hans Hoffman in New York in 1936, here she helped start the radical American Abstract Artists group. Both Charles and Ray later went on to study Architecture and design at the Cranbrook Academy of Art where they met and married in 1941 and moved to Los Angeles where they opened their office. At this office they worked with a number of remarkable designers, like Don Albinson and Deborah Sussman, the Eames’ office functioned for four decades, from 1943 -1988 when Ray died ten years after Charles.

How to see their work

The Eames collaboration resulted in an immense body of work including Architecture, Furniture design , Film, and Exhibitions. Some of their work can be seen at the Eames office Gallery Santa Monica in California, their Mathematica exhibition in Boston, and the MOMA museum of modern art in New York. most of their furniture designs have been bought for private collections and are rare.

Charles and Ray on the web

Eames Office Resources- Official website, an extensive collection of their designs and design processes.