Like many of his contemporaries Arne Jacobsen, Isamu Noguchi, Mies Van Der Rohe and George Nelson, Charles Eames was an architect as well as a designer. This care for for fabricate and chairs in particular was first developed on his honeymoon to Europe 1929 with his first wife Catherine. It was in there that Charles first saw the designs of Le Corbusier, Mies Van Der Rohe and Walter Gropius and it had a profound influence on him and his designs in the future.
10 years later while studying at the Cranbrook academy of arts Charles Eames collaborated with Eero Saarinen and designed his first chair using moulded plywood. Together they won the 1940 Museum of fresh Art's (MoMA) Organic Furniture Competition. It was these initial designs that subsequently lead to the range of chairs that shot Charles and Ray Eames into the limelight with their LCW (lounge chair wood) and DCW (dining chair wood) range. It was suited fortune that the head of obtain at the Herman Miller Corporation the US furniture retailer was another furniture designer non other than a determined George Nelson. It was Nelson who recognised Eames brilliance and persuaded the Miller Corporation to establish some of his and Eero's bentwood designs into production.
Eames continued to experiment with innovative materials and technologies including wire, fibreglass and aluminium. A subsequent collaboration with Harry Bertoia resulted in the DKR wire chair and the DSR chair for Eames, while Bertoia went onto produced the distinctive Bertoia collection for Knoll. Charles Eames next project was to gain a showroom for Herman Miller and a case house. Sponsored by the Arts and Architecture magazine the house was an example of gross cost, fast construction while collected keeping to the innovative style of Eames. Located upon a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean it was brilliant with brilliant colours, astronomical windows and extremely broad, the obtain was ahead of its time.
Charles and Ray Eames maintained there relationship with the Herman Miller Company and now Vitra in Europe, producing the comely Eames lounge chair and subsequently the aluminium series. Although constructed from plywood shells noteworthy the same as the outrageous cost mass manufactured LCW and DCW range, the Eames lounge chair was aloof of 3 opulent rosewood veneer shells and covered in soft aniline leather, a fade towards the higher kill consumer. Although all of Charles Eames furniture designs have stood the test of time perhaps this was his greatest. In the 60's and 70's no executive office or gawk was complete without one.
While originally designed for outdoor spend, American boardrooms became synonymous with the Eames EA119 and EA219 Aluminium group chairs. As post war American Corporations grew so did there desire for fresh designer furniture. There was also no shortage of interior make and exhibitions to indicate off their work with the Mathematica Exhibition by IBM probably his most distinguished. The MoMA in original York also helped to raise awareness of Charles and Ray's creations by exhibiting in there obedient fabricate shows. In all Over 70 years after wining the MoMA award with Eero Saarinen, Charles Eames aloof has more than 22 different pieces of furniture in production today with the Herman Miller Company. Let's hope in another 70 years they tranquil are.