Ray Of Light
Hi there fancy friends! Thank you so much for tuning in today! When it comes to interior design, there can be a lot of names that get thrown around and seem to carry a lot of weight. Le Corbusier, Eileen Gray, Stickley, Tiffany, even Frank Lloyd Wright. Unless you’re a history or design nerd, it’s not always apparent why these names should matter to us, and frankly in some cases, they shouldn’t. Especially if one designer’s principles do not align with your own values around design. So often designer’s names are tossed into the ether the same way luxury fashion brands are - to make the unobtainable feel like necessities, and the things we do have feel inadequate. But all that can change when we understand what these names mean or don’t mean to us. So, today marks the first in a series of exploring historically significant interior designers, architects, and artists. We are going to check out the people attached to these names, what made them rise to fame, and how you can utilize their unique design attitude, if you so choose, simply by shifting the way you look at your home. We are kicking off this series with a design collaborative that is responsible for so much American modern furniture, there is a 100% chance you’ve seen a piece of their work- whether you know it or not. Ray and Charles Eames set out to change the way we see furniture forever, and did exactly that. We are going to look at how they did it, and how you too can bring the spirit of the Eames into any space you inhabit.
But first, let’s talk about the color of the week. We’ve been going through a little bit of a spring collection for Color of The Week and one of the final signs of spring to celebrate, one that we would be totally remiss to skip, is the almighty dogwood blossom. These trees bloom in all shades of white and pink, but my favorite are the deep peachy petals of the Cherokee Chief dogwood. Sherwin Williams 6614 Quiet Coral embodies this electric mix of pink and orange and will never leave you feeling bored. Try painting the wall behind your bathroom vanity in this shade for a flattering light filter that will make everyone look sun kissed and carefree.
The Eames were a duo plus the merry band of designers that made up their California studio. They were endlessly prolific in the world of furniture design, in particular. Their list of legendary pieces is too long to go through, but if you’ve ever been in an airport, office, school, a mid-century home, or a Design Within Reach store- you’ll recognize their look immediately. Check out the show notes for some direct links to their iconic eye candy.
They also produced a wide variety of art and design media - they dabbled in graphic design, textiles, architecture, film, and even advertising. So who are these people? When I first heard the names Ray and Charles, I though they were two brothers. When in fact Ray was the familial nick name of Bernice Kaiser. She couldn’t have stood more than 5’-2”, even with her hair piled into a bun on top of her head. Often wearing crisp white short sleeve collared shirts under a pinafore dress, she was contrasted by her 6 foot tall, bow-tie wearing husband Charles, and they were a charismatic pair.
Charles was a rogue architecture school drop out, who had left his classical training at Washington University in St. Louis because he was far too interested in modern design methods. Charles had to have been very charming, or from what I can tell of his younger pictures, super handsome, or both; because with only two years of school under his belt, he was able to get a position teaching at the legendary Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, which was being led by one of history’s parents of modern architecture, Eliel Saarinen. Saarinen had built a massive portfolio in Finland during the beginning of the 20th century, and help nurture the aesthetic seedlings that became midcentury modern design. He also fathered and mentored his son Aero Saarinen, who designed iconic structures including the St Louis Gateway Arch and the TWA terminal (now the TWA Hotel) here in New York City.
Charles and Eliel were colleagues and friends, and they collaborated to create a chair from a single piece of bend plywood for the 1941 Organic Design for Home Furnishings competition at the Museum of Modern Art. This was radial at the time, and their goal was to change everything about the status quo of a chair. It was to be affordable, easily mass produced, and highly ergonomic. Ultimately, the beautiful design they came up with could not be mass produced, and so while they didn’t accomplish everything they set out to do, Charles carried with him an obsession with plywood that would kick start his career.
They worked on the plywood chair with a team of students, one of them being Ray. Ray and Charles were pretty much smitten at first site, as evident by the well documented love letters between them. Charles was also more than willing to blow up his whole life for Ray. They were only a few years apart in age but there was the teacher/student boundaries to consider. More critically, Charles was married with a child at the time. And spoiler alert, this was a pattern for Charles. Despite later putting together decades worth of collaborations with Ray, he strayed from their marriage once he got bored. This fact often gets glossed over in lieu of a more simplistic love story, but the lives of historical architects tend to be a little on the messy side. If you've ever looked into Frank Lloyd Wright or Stamford White's personal lives, you know this is par for the course.
Ultimately, Charles quit teaching at Cranbrook, left his wife, and proposed to Ray. From there, they left the midwest and set up shop in sunny Los Angeles, with an insatiable hunger for modern design and pushing the bounds of plywood.
How did they make ends meet when they were first starting out? This is something I am always looking into with any art or design darling. There has often been the anecdote that people who come from wealth have the luxury of being well-fed artists, as opposed to the starving variety, but there is research to confirm this. A study based on the 2010 US census noted that “for every $10,000 in additional income a family makes per year, there’s a 2 percent increase in the chances that a child of that family will go on to identify their profession in the census as an artist, actor, musician, author, or similar creative professional.” So that means if your family income was a million dollars, you’re 180% more likely to become an artist than someone whose family income was 100,000 dollars.
When I started digging into the Eames background, I was determined to find documentation of trust funds, oil empires, or a connection to the Ford family. Instead, I found that Charles came from a working class background, and he ignited an interest in the built environment when he was working for a steel company in high school to help bring in extra cash for his family. Ray seemed to come from slightly more comfortable means, how comfortable, I can’t tell. But most importantly she came from a family of art lovers. Her father owned and operated a vaudeville theater in Sacramento, CA; and both of her parents shared a love of performance with her. This materialized in the 125 short films that Ray made with Charles over the course of their career. The films often documented their lives, projects, and studio; while others explored deeper esoteric concepts related to their work; and their later films were corporate commissions pushing new ideas and products. Powers of Ten is by far their most well known film, but aside from that its kind of like they were creating social media posts before social media existed. Ray understood the power of process and that the journey was just as important as the destination. Ray had already lived a life as a painter in New York City prior to studying at Cranbrook, and said she never felt like she stopped painting, she just switch media - whether it was wood, metal, flowers, or film.
When Ray and Charles first moved to California, they used the a spare room in their apartment as a studio. They didn’t just start getting big name clients to create legendary pieces of furniture, they started with a very practical and necessary project. At this point, we are right in the middle of World War II. And as the Eames were studying different methods of bending and working with plywood, the US government approached them to manufacturer leg splints for injured soldiers. These were being made of metal at the time, but it was found that the metal was too heavy, and the design was causing loss of circulation, which could actually make an injury worse; and the idea was to switch to wood. The bent plywood offered a smooth, light-weight option with no sharp corners. Charles ended up using his own leg as a model, and with a team they manufacturer 150,000 leg splints in a warehouse over the next year.
From there, the Eames were hired by the major furniture corporation Herman Miller to design for the next several decades, capitalizing on the country’s post-war optimism, and a general desire to differentiate from traditional aesthetics of the past. Their style was bold and new, not your mother’s furniture. They focused on American wartime values- efficiently made and affordability; and mixed in the hallmark of modern design - research and query. They questioned the need and use of everything. Their studio’s design process was based on trial, error, interviews, reviews, field tests, ergonomics, and good old fashioned curiosity. What grew out of this was a distinctive style that was simple without being cold. Every element in their designs had a rhyme and reason, but nothing was done without the spirit of playfulness. Their entire studio felt more like a lab or workshop, with prototypes, mock-ups, and models.
Unsurprisingly, Charles was offered much of the credit of the studio’s work, and he took it. He was offered solo shows and television interviews. This was a disservice, not only to Ray, but to the entire studio of designers that were taking care of all the day-to-day and detail focused tasks. Not to mention, alumni of the studio testify that they were working constantly. There was no such thing as time off in the land of Eames. Slowly but surely, Charles began bringing Ray into the PR fold because, let’s be honest - she was the one who was breathing life into everything they did. Charles wouldn’t touch anything to do with color, texture, or styling. He left that all to Ray. Ray’s process was very idiosyncratic. She was known for making notes and sketches on the backs of business cards, and her personal office was jammed packed with artifacts and items that inspired her.
In the later years of the studio, the focus was less on furniture and more on experiential design - creating exhibits and branding products for major clients like IBM, polaroid, and the US government. Charles passed away in 1978 and Ray follow him ten years later, to the day. Before she passed, Ray achieve their work in the library of congress and set up a legacy foundation. Their furniture can still be purchased today.
80 years after the Eames got their start, their style is more of a movement or an era than simply a portfolio. There are so many designers who were directly influenced by the Eames, and even more who copy them without credit. I work with some clients who get excited by the idea of finding an “authentic” piece of designer furniture. They’ll flip the piece over and look for the appropriate logo or signature in the corresponding location that they’ve heard constitutes an original. Sometimes it’s big names like the Eames and other times its more obscure designers that they’ve been turned on to by neighbors or friends who’ve insisted an original Schemechklmeyer is the ONLY chaise lounge to have in your living room. Personally, I get a little turned off by this gate keeping style of materialism, and I think the Eames would too. I don’t necessarily think knock-offs are a good thing, and if you find an original of a piece you love at price you like, by all means, invest and enjoy. But particularly with modernists like the Eames, the idea of coveting high ticket, vintage furniture seems completely out of step with their design values. The Eames wanted their pieces to be enjoyed by the masses, not to be a elite, luxury experience.
They valued playfulness, joy, affordability, and ease. If you’ve incorporated these ideas into your home, you’ve got an original Eames piece living amongst you.
