Charles And Ray Eames Classic Chair Designers

The husband and wife team of Charles and Ray Eames is probably one of the most famous associated with the design of Office Chairs.

Charles and Ray were Americans and are probably best known for some of their later work with cast aluminium framed chairs for Herman Miller, some of which are still sold today by companies such as Vitra.

Some of their earlier successes though were in developing fibreglass and plywood chairs in the 1940s for the office furniture company Herman Miller.

Bending and forming plywood into tight curves and angles tends to cause the wood to splinter, by experimenting and cutting out holes and patterns in the chair shell they were able to relieve theses stresses and solve the problem.

The function of the Office Chair’s design was always Charles Eames’ primary consideration. It had to work first and foremost, and then the design details could be fine tuned.

Here are some great resources where you can explore the work of these famous designers in more detail.

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/eames/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Eames
http://www.eamesgallery.com/

Next week, I’ll consider the work of another famous chair designer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.