At the start of this year, I had the chance to take a tour of the Eames Institute, consisting of the archives of Ray and Charles Eames, in Richmond, California. Our walk through the archives, directed by the chief curator and granddaughter of the Eames, Llisa Demetrios, was nothing short of remarkable. Here are some of my notes on design, craft, and intention from this visit.
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Main Takeaways
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You need to be able to use every tool in your studio as well if not better than the person you hire, or you won’t know if they’re doing a good job. The best founders and generalists don’t cut a single corner.
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Preservation isn’t going backwards. When you preserve something, it implies that it’s of value going forwards in time.
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Power of 10 Film Project in the 70s — because there was so much more intentional effort required to create artifacts and media, the inherent thought behind designing an experience is so much more apparent. We might be able to make something like this now in ten seconds with AI, but the craft is lost. We create things for the sake of creating them now. But this film, regardless of its simplicity, conveys more than just factual information about scale (e.g. the decision to showcase scale through orbits / planets versus through a simple direct zoom out). There’s a narrative behind the physics that’s shown. The idea of scale becomes an emotional experience, and there’s a new level of structure to the idea of a scene.
- Zooming out from a picnic in Chicago to the vastness of space, highlighting the sparse reality of the universe compared to our Earthly complexity: “This emptiness is normal— the richness of our own neighborhood is the exception.”
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The Powers of 10 film alternates between great activity and little activity when zooming back in — perspectives like these and new ways to think about what we’re viewing is something that feels so lost in today’s media.
- In older films, creating a visual, emotional, viewable piece of art was a privilege and honor. It was never a way to make a quick living, but rather a way to showcase skill and ability.
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Core intention of designing for simplicity, affordability, and allure: “Make the best, for the most, for the least.”
- Part of a vanguard of modern industrial design, mass produced materials with artistic nature to what they were producing.
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If the Eameses had an idea, they would explore any medium necessary to communicate it, including furniture, architecture, film, toys, or exhibitions. They were true multimedia pioneers.
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Charles Eames, USC Lecture on Design (1949): “I can think of no phases of the aesthetics of design that are not a continuation of your own processes or attitudes”
- “Science, in the role of studying and measuring behavior characteristics of man and the influence of man’s environment, makes it increasingly possible to pinpoint these needs. Let’s take, for example, a chair. There are many things to be considered before the problem can be adequately states. First, the general function; it is to be used for activities and at a table for dining. We have already made the arbitrary assumption that sitting at a flat surface, 29 inches from the ground, is the best way to dine. We must determine what optimum height is needed to give the best relationship between the average human being and the dining surface. We must determine what the best tactile surface will be so that it will not be an unpleasant thing for the skin to come in contact with, or for garments to catch on. To determine surface materials, we must know what the physical conditions must be so that the material will stand up. We must study the actions of the body as one leans forward as part of the eating process, and as one relaxes momentarily and leans backwards. We must face the fact that the chair may be slid backward and forward during the process of a meal…”
- “We cannot allow ourselves to dwell on any preconceived idea of what a dining chair should be. In such a category of needs, there is no place for a preconceived idea, nor is there a place for a desire to create something new and different. We can only be concerned with the best possible object to fill these needs.”
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Background Understanding
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Ray was largely an artist and painter, studied under German abstract expressionist Hans Hofmann. Charles always wanted to be architect. kicked out after two years because he was a modernist, and started practicing with Robert Walsh during the Great Depression, designing churches and homes in Missouri and Arkansas
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Architect Eliel Saarinen (Eero Saarinen’s dad) invites Charles Eames to join the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Charles became the first director of industrial design. Meets Ray Kaiser here, gets into Plywood. At the time, plywood was more high tech than it was now but also turning it into functional design was a groundbreaking concept.
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Early plywood experiments in the 1940s: covered plywood with fabric during the molding process to help it bend without splitting, added keyhole-shaped slits like design elements that also allowed wood to mold better. In early to mid 40s, mastered art of molding plywood into 3D forms. John Entenza (editor of Arts & Architecture magazine) becomes major supporter, Charles designs 26 covers over 5 years.
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Develop Kazam! machine to mold plywood (uses heating coils), stole electricity to power it, brought industrial materials home to experiment.
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WW2, defense manufacturing becomes big in Socal, military need for lightweight, bendable materials. Wendell Scott (old friend of Charles, became a Navy doctor) saw Kazam! machine. Metal leg splints ineffective in way, extremely heavy, and military needs to use metal for weaponry while also better protecting soldiers.
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Charles recruited friend from MGM (Margaret Harris), helps produce molded plywood leg splints for US Navy: have strategic holes for drainage and reducing weight, stackable, mobile, mass producible. Navy orders 5,000 at $10/unit (about $1 million today), Eames can form the Plyformed Wood Company, eventually sell to Evans Products in Michigan, made lots of contacts and business experience to become legitimate furniture designers with office.
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Then, open famous 901 Washington Office in Venice. becomes a crazy wonderland. Designers said it was like working at disneyland. no rules or traditional routines. In the early 40s, offices weren’t like this. Also ventured into toys, Charles famous quote about how “play is serious business,” creates learning through toys concepts, doesn’t want to be known as just a “chair guy” even though chairs were so iconic
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Eames Chair is now called LCW (Lounge Chair Wood)
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Eameses were obsessed with function. Realized if you can mold the chair just right it’s so comfortable without any padding at all on it. What works is better than what looks good.
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Partnership with Herman Miller begins in ‘46 from Michigan. George Nelson, known for creating lots of very funky 50s clocks (Nelson Clocks, Bubble Lamps) recruited A+ people like Eameses. Eameses sent designs to Herman Miller to be produced. Match made in heaven because HM had resources to pump out great designs. Simple, stylish, and practical designs; things that would end up going in schools, bus stations, and airports. Eameses designed the chairs we sit in when waiting at gate! Called Tandem Sling seating. Very ubiquitous designs; similar chairs today are either an Eames original or a knockoff.
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Ray was great artist and painter. Added fun and design elements to what happened, extraordinary attention to detail. Kept company on rails, color, textural detail, but had to take a backseat due to gender norms in this era.
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Expanded catalog — collapsible sofas, molded fiberglass shell chairs (one of their most famous), Herman Miller Storage Units (ESU)
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Designed stackable chairs, easy for clearing school cafeteria. Generally affordable breakthrough. Went all through on fiberglass and plastic versus plywood. Time Magazine “Chair of the Century” before century was even over.
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Most iconic chair is Eames Lounge Chair, made of molded plywood, came with ottoman. Chair meant to be exceedingly comfortable, shockingly comfortable when you remind yourself you’re sitting on plywood.
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Architecture
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Charles was “outlaw architect”; not licensed, but still designed buildings. Friends with Eero Saarinen, designed Case Study House #9 with him, and also designed Case Study House #8 (beautiful, iconic home where Eameses lived; “Eames House”).
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Case Study House Program: commissioned 36 designs over 21 years, 18 still as build, handful destroyed, and handful renovated beyond recognition.
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Case Study House #8 in Pacific Palisades. Took meadow and made it into big front yard. Square house with two giant rectangles and colored panels where you might have windows. Modernist masterpiece. Ray decorated to the hilt, counter to trend of modernism is minimalism. Pioneered with idea that modernism doesn’t have to be minimalism, greatest individual contribution is considered how she designed house.
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Case Study House #9 belongs to John Entenza, next door, flat roof and boxy design surrounded by eucalyptus trees all around it.
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Toys
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“The Toy”: giant house of cards; set of vinyl panels connected to dowels, point is to build all sorts of structures with it using your imagination. Toy designed for all ages.
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House of Cards: building cards that can be assembled into houses and whimsical geometric structures, original pack sells for $3200
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Musical Towers: vertical xylophone and ball bounces down hitting different notes
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Multimedia
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Created quarter of a million slides over career, found a lot of fulfillment in presentations, movies, and exhibition design
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Hired by corporations like IBM to make industrial films & educational projects
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