The great designers

Marc Allum explores the life and legacy of Charles and Ray Eames

You have only to flick through the pages of any interiors magazine to encounter various iconic design items. Some, be they furniture, fabrics, lighting or ceramics, have become part and parcel of the language of our lives and often seem inescapable in their popularity. Yet many of these items have a much greater significance than their superficial abundance suggests. We must dig deeper into their development and explore their relationship with design history as well as the people who created them. The 20th century saw many famous collaborations, none arguably more important than that of American duo Charles and Ray Eames.

Moulding a future

Born in 1907, Charles initially studied architecture at Washington University in St. Louis, while also working for an architectural practice. He left university after two years, and in 1930 set up his own architectural practice with partner Charles Gray. He later moved to Michigan where, having received a fellowship at the Cranbrook Academy of Arts in 1936, he became a teacher and head of the Industrial Design Department. His colleagues at Cranbrook included some of the 20th century’s most influential designers; Harry Bertoia and Eero Saarinen were good friends, as was Eero’s father, Eliel Saarinen. It was here that Charles met Ray Kaiser, whom he married in 1941, and formed the legendary duo of Charles and Ray Eames.

Ray graduated from the May Friend Bennett School in Millbrook, New York, later studying Abstract Expressionist painting under Hans Hoffman. She exhibited successfully and in 1940 moved to Cranbrook Academy to study weaving. By this time, Charles was head of department ➤

and it was shortly after this that they were commissioned by the US Navy to design and produce plywood splints and stretchers, judged, in retrospect, to be an important influence in the development of their design careers. Although pioneered by Finnish designer and architect Alvar Aalto, the use of moulded ply in furniture production was taken to new heights by Charles and Ray, who developed a process for bending ply into complex curves over three planes.

collaborative creation

In 1940, in collaboration with Eero Saarinen, Eames designed the winning entry for the Museum of Modern Art’s ‘Organic Design in Home Furnishings’ competition. Their single-piece, moulded plywood designs were to become among some of the most important and innovative creations of the 20th century. It was here that the novel use of rubberweld ‘shock’ joints was introduced, enabling a mixture of material and components, such as ply seat shells and metal legs, to be joined strongly and ergonomically.

These early designs became the basis for what is arguably the most famous luxury seating design in the world: the No. 670 chair and No. 671 ottoman (1956), made Herman Miller and Vitra. The former company has become synonymous with the Eames name, but its early catalogues list only Charles as the designer. Typically, as history often shows, Ray was working in a man’s world and was far more influential than she was initially given credit for, a situation that seems to have been remedied in time. There is absolutely no doubt, however, that the couple had a close and multi-faceted collaborative relationship based on a varied skill-set, which included Ray’s highly artistic talents in painting, textiles and graphic design and their love of film making, toy design and architecture.

design direction

But what was their philosophy? The language of design means different things to different people. Some design is created and marketed as aspirational and exclusive, and by the very nature of its cost and exclusivity often becomes elitist. Some is created through an idealistic and egalitarian belief inspired by a philosophy developed with the best social intentions. Either can – on occasion – benefit everyone, because innovation through design is something that often filters through to all layers of society, not just those with deeper pockets and a thirst for perfection.

Yet, paradoxically, it is some of these ‘inexpensive’ social and commercial solutions that end up being expensive icons. Charles and Ray covered all angles, from the affordable to the luxury. Their design office in California operated for some 45 years and within it many other famous designers worked and cut their teeth, too. The couple continued throughout their careers to experiment and push boundaries with new materials, using plastics and fibreglass to great effect. From the complicated simplicity of the hard but organic form of the LCW (Lounge Chair Wood) of 1946, to the metal, birch and polyester reinforced RAR (Rocking Armchair Rod) of 1948-50, to the clever metal mesh creation of the DKW-2 (Dining Bikini Wood) of 1951, their designs spawned interesting derivatives of each other based on mixing materials and construction techniques.

Interestingly, their Aluminium Group designs of the late 1950s were originally intended for domestic use indoors and outdoors, but have since become synonymous with office interiors. It is easy to forget that their ranges were comprehensively cohesive, with tables, desks and storage units also being a trademark of their prodigious output. The stylish Eames Storage Unit (ESU) and Eames Desk Unit (EDU) were developed in 1949 and evolved in parallel with the iconic ‘Eames House’, built by Charles and Ray in Los Angeles. Borrowing from principles of industrial construction, these multifunctional pieces continue to be regarded as seminal designs.

Charles died in 1978 and Ray in 1988 – exactly 10 years later. Their legacy is large, and deservedly so. Among their many awards, their iconic impact on the 20th century is almost inconceivable in the breadth of its influence.

Copycat & copyright

The success of Their work has, however, highlighted one of the major problems with design and its relationship with the commercial markets. Cheap foreign reproductions of their furniture have flooded the market in recent decades, as is the case with many well-known designer items, mostly made in China. A lack of respect for copyright rules has meant that, until recently, it was possible to own look-a-like items such as the 670 and 671, for considerably less money than their real Herman Miller or Vitra counterparts (currently priced at about £5,500). However, in 2016 the Design and Patents Act 1956 was amended to protect the artistic copyright of such designs, which gave mass-produced 3D works full copyright protection for the life of the designer and 70 years thereafter. There are those, though, who argue that such works are not definable as ‘Artistic Craftsmanship’ as the act denotes.

If the price point of a Herman Miller chair is a little beyond your pocket, it is possible to buy Eames pieces at auction, and many salerooms run design sales that sell a good cross-section of secondhand material. There are also various platforms and dealers on the internet who offer alternatives to high-end retail prices.