Charles, 1907 – 1978 / Ray, 1912-1988 The prolific body of work of Charles and Ray Eames, which spanned from 1941 to 1978, extended well beyond their major achievements in furniture design, graphic design, architecture and film. Their influence on the aesthetic and social aspects of design made them two of the greatest industrial designers of our time. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Charles Eames grew up in America’s industrial heartland. As a young man he worked for engineers and manufacturers, anticipating his lifelong interest in mechanics and the complex working of things. Ray Kaiser, born in Sacramento, California, spent her formative years in New York’s modern art movements and participated in the first wave of American-born abstract artists. They met at the Cranbrook Academy of Art near Detroit in 1940. Cranbrook’s creed of better living through better design shaped their sensibilities and their shared agenda. They married in 1941 and moved to Los Angeles as the city was gearing up for World War II.
Wartime experiments with new materials and technologies inspired the Eames’ low-cost furniture for Herman Miller and expanded ways for designers to work with industry. In LA, they conducted plywood experiments in their apartment. The US Navy order enabled the Eames to rent an office on Santa Monica Boulevard in 1942 and to gather a group of collaborators including Harry Bertoia. They produced sculpture, chairs, screens, and tables in plywood. Herman Miller, the US furniture group, was persuaded to put some of these pieces into production by George Nelson, its head of design. All the Eames’ plywood furniture combined an elegant organic aesthetic with a love of materials and technical ingenuity. After the success of the plywood pieces, the Eames focused on other materials, creating furniture in fiberglass, plastic, aluminum and, for the 1956 lounge chair, leather and rosewood. The Lounge Chair became an icon of the 1960s and 1970s, becoming a must-have for all hip executives. Their collaboration with Herman Miller continued and extended to Vitra, its European partner.
Charles and Ray were equally influential at making respectable the then-neglected folk crafts not only in the US but also in India. These concerns dominated their later work in the 1970s when, able to live comfortably on their Herman Miller and Vitra royalties, they concentrated their creative energy on propagating their ideas in exhibitions, books and films. Charles died in 1978 and Ray worked hard to complete any unfinished projects but having done so, did not seek new ones. She devoted the rest of her life to communicating their ideas through talks and writing. Ray Eames died in 1988, ten years to the day after Charles.View More by: Charles & Ray Eames Eero Saarinen, was born in 1910 in Finland and in 1923 the family emigrated to the US. He studied architecture at Yale, graduating in 1934. A Yale scholarship enabled Saarinen to travel to Europe but he returned to the US in 1936 to work in his father’s architectural practice. When his father died in 1950, Eero Saarinen took over the practice.
Saarinen taught at Cranbrook Academy where he met Charles Eames in the late 1930s. Experimenting with Eames, Eero Saarinen co-developed new furniture forms and the first designs for furniture made of molded, laminated wood. In 1940 Saarinen and Eames took part in the “Organic Design in Home Furnishings” competition mounted by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. For Knoll International Saarinen designed a great many pieces of furniture, including the 1948 Womb Chair, which was designed to make those seated in it feel as secure and cozy as a fetus in the womb. The Pedestal Group, dating from 1955-56, is collection of chairs and tables made of plastic and featuring only one central leg ending organically in a round disc on the floor. The very successful Tulip Chair belonged to this group. Eero Saarinen says he wanted to abolish the “miserable maze of legs.” In 1951 he designed the Saarinen Collection for Knoll, consisting of the still popular line of Executive Chairs. These chairs transformed the notion of what executive seating could be with its sculptural form and modern finishings.
View More by: Eero Saarinen Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter.You will receive an email asking you to confirm your subscription. Sign up to our newsletter for a chance to win a Hay About a Chair AAC22Design speelt de hoofdrol Het Zwitserse familiebedrijf Vitra staat al jaren bekend om zijn inspirerende, duurzame designontwerpen van onder andere kantoren en openbare ruimtes. Vitra staat garant voor oogstrelende kwaliteit. Bedrijven als Apple, Nike, Sony, Google en Shell lieten hun inrichting graag aan Vitra over. Om design ook bij mensen thuis te brengen, heeft Vitra een nieuwe meubellijn geïntroduceerd: Vitra at home. Deze excellente lijn bestaat uit designklassiekers van onder andere topontwerpers Charles en Ray Eames, George Nelson, Verner Panton, Jean Prouvé, Isamu Noguchi. De collectie is compleet gemaakt met gloednieuwe meubels en accessoires van ontwerpers Jasper Morrison en de Bouroulecc-broers. Naast de Vitra DSR, Vitra DAW en de Vitra DAR, mogen natuurlijk de Vitra Lounge Chair en de Vitra Panton Chair niet ontbreken in onze webshop.
Vitra heeft onder de naam "Vitra at home" een meubellijn speciaal voor particulieren op de markt gebracht. "Vitra at home" bestaat uit een selectie re-edities van Vitra's designklassiekers van ontwerpers Charles Ray Eames, George Nelson, Verner Panton, Jean Prouvé, Isamu Noguchi en anderen. Daarnaast is samen met de ontwerpers Jasper Morrison en de Bouroulecc-broers een gloednieuwe lijn Vitra meubels en accessoires ontwikkeld. Neemt u gerust een kijkje bij de Vitra stoelen en Vitra relaxfauteuils in onze Vitra at home collectie. Of u nou voor legendarisch gaat, of voor de nieuwe generatie design, met Vitra kunt u van uw huis een thuis maken.in Weil am Rhein Weil am Rhein is misschien geen voor de hand liggend reisdoel, echte liefhebbers van design en architectuur moeten er toch minstens één keer in hun leven naar toe. Daar, in het kleine plaatsje iets ten noorden van Basel ligt de hoofdvestiging van het befaamde meubelbedrijf Vitra, fabrikant van legendarische designklassiekers van vroeger en van baanbrekend meubeldesign van hedendaagse topontwerpers.
De beroemde Amerikaanse ontwerpers Charles en Ray Eames waren regelmatig in Weil am Rhein te vinden. Vitra heeft sinds de jaren vijftig nauw met hen samengewerkt en ze raakten bevriend met de familie Fehlbaum, eigenaars van het bedrijf. Eames visie op modern meubeldesign heeft grote invloed gehad en de Eames-nalatenschap wordt nog steeds met liefde en eerbied gekoesterd door Vitra. Ook de beroemde Panton Chair komt bij Vitra vandaan, die werd ontwikkeld in de jaren zestig, samen met de ontwerper Verner Panton. Vitra heeft diverse klassiekers in hun collectie. Enkelen bekende hiervan zijn de Vitra Lounge Chair, Vitra DSR, Vitra DAR, Vitra Eames 124. Uiteraard zijn er nog vele meer, maar dit zijn binnen de Vitra collectie de toppers! Eames in de Maaspoort, Venlo gefotografeerd voor Berden! Berden officieel Vitra dealer Berden is officieel dealer van Vitra. We kunnen alle stoelen, tafels, accessoires en lampen leveren. Ben je op zoek naar een goede prijs of staan er Vitra producten niet online die jij zoekt, bel dan met onze klantenservice 077 – 358 0668 (ma-za 9:00–18.00) .