Concepts

Charles and Ray Eames are arguably the greatest furniture designers of all time. The concepts they created, the radical materials they pioneered, and the enduring furniture they built have all withstood the test of time, and are on display in museums as often as they are for sale. The Eames' were pioneers, and while the trail they blazed is often followed, they've never been bested in brilliance and quality. Eames furniture is superlative.

Charles Ray Eames built their career on this statement. Everything about a design, no matter how simple, became important to them. And every detail, beyond being cared for and pored over, had to be right. Physicist and Eames collaborator Philip Morrison: "They would be working together on something...trying to mold it, put it in place. That's the image that I have all the time. The shared task of making something which is both new and conforming, that's the thing. I guess adding a piece of paint to a painting, it's the same thing. It has to be new; it wasn't there before . . . it's no good, no use. But not just on paint, or not just on curve, but on everything: words, music, image, idea, need, everything. And that's the design element that they are talking about."

The Eames furniture bore these concepts out in their design. They were meant to reflect something of the natural beauty of the earth, and yet the Eames' almost never used natural, organic materials. Their most famous creation, the Eames Chair, was a gently curving and expertly contoured side chair in a natural mode and color; yet it was made from an unheard of material called molded plywood, which at the time was reviled but has now become a staple of modern design. Eames furniture is about complimentary contradiction, modern design, and great pieces.

Radical Materials

Enduring Furniture

Resources