The Genius of Eames

"The details are not the details, they make the design."

- Charles Eames


Designers and architects Charles and Ray Eames (Ray was his second wife, and partner) revolutionized furniture design with their pioneering work in molded plywood. While both had tallied significant improvements priot to this, their debut of the Eames lounge chair in 1956 was the real beginning of their massive influence on the public consciousness. They put industrial techniques to work for home furnishing, and so put the "modern" in the Midcentury.

Eames Lounge Chair Debut on NBC in 1956



The Definitive Eames Lounge Chair



Of course, the Eames' were not just influential furniture designers, but ground-breaking architects in their own right. Perhaps the most striking example of the revolutionary nature of their architectural thinking remains The Eames House, located at 203 North Chautauqua Boulevard in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles. Constructed in 1949, Charles and Ray built it to serve as their home and studio.



They even moved beyond traditional design and into purer forms of fine art, as can be seen in the following video, which showcases some of their lesser known pursuits, such as photography.



Finally, even film was within their grasp, with fourteen films being created between 1950 and 1972, with perhaps the most famous being the celebrated film, The Powers of Ten.

Video: The Powers of Ten