Christmas Cards sent to Charles and Ray Eames

These Christmas cards are from the Library's nearly 1,000,000-item collection of photographs drawings, films, slides and manuscripts from Charles and Ray. The Eameses saved hundreds of cards (see here) from friends, family and colleagues -- some among the greatest artists and designers of our time. 

Harry Weese

Robert Osborn

Toshihiro Katayama

     Sister Corita Kent

Christmas Card 1942

Christmas card from Charles and Ray Eames to Harry Weese, 1942

Industrial designer recreates the Eames shell chair in wood

Tasked by Wisconsin furniture manufacturer Wooda with creating a chair, industrial designer Tucker Viemeister recreated Charles and Ray Eames 1950s Molded Fiberglass Side Chair in a log. This combination of a traditional raw material with new technology and CNC-machining challenges the notion that a design must be unique. “All designers feel challenged to create a great chair—but why? There are so many good ones already. What can the designer offer? What is new?” asked Viemeister in a statement.
When Viemeister responded to Wooda’s request for a new chair design with a photoshopped photo of a log with an Eames chair carved into it, founder Terry Sweeney was intrigued. He collected three eight-foot oak logs from a nearby forest and input the surface mesh metrics into a CNC-milling machine. The machines ground the end of the logs to a 21-inch-diameter, 17-inch-high seat using a process similar to a pencil sharpener. The rest of the log was left natural to further jar the eye as it tries to reconcile the iconic design in a wholly new medium. “The form is so engraved in our cultural memory that the slightest violation of line or curve stands out like fingernails on a chalkboard,” said Viemeister, whose clients include Corning glass, the National Zoo, Coca-Cola, Cuisinart, Apple, OXO, Toshiba, and many others. Wooda had initially reached out to the industrial designer because it wanted to connect its abundant access to raw materials, space, and technology with innovative ideas and fresh aesthetics.

Read all at archpaper.com (thanks for sharing).

Ph: courtesy Tucker Viemeister

A Lost Snippet of Eames'"Think", Found in a Home Movie Shot in 1964

Robert Anen, a second-year graduate student in New York University's Moving Image Archiving and Preservation (MIAP) MA program, made a discovery during his summer 2016 internship at Indiana University (IU) Libraries that will help the Library of Congress restore a landmark multimedia production.
"Think" (1964) by Ray and Charles Eames was shown across 22 multi-sized screens at the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair. According to the Eames' website, "visitors were lifted 53 feet" into the IBM Pavilion's Ovoid Theater to view Think, which "explored problem-solving techniques for issues both commonplace and complex."
The New York World’s Fair introduced computer technology to millions of visitors, particularly at the IBM Pavilion. Rachael Stoeltje, director of IU Libraries’ Moving Image Archive, describes what these pavilion visitors might have experienced. "Think was more than innovative, it was historic. It intermixed motion pictures and slide projections with a live emcee.”
Now, more than 50 years later, a newly discovered home movie in the Edward and Naomi Feil Collection at IU Libraries’ Moving Image Archive is helping the Library of Congress bring Think back to life.

Read all at: nytimes.com

The multi-sized screens at the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair (ph.credits: EamesOffice).

Herman Miller unveils its New York flagship full of midcentury silhouettes

For more than 80 years, Michigan-based manufacturer Herman Miller has been one of, if not the most prominent purveyors of modernist design. Thanks to its collaborations with the biggest designers of the time - Ray and Charles Eames, Isamu Noguchi, Alexander Girard, and the like - the company’s name has become all but synonymous with midcentury modern furniture, which has grown ever more popular since its 1950s and ’60s heyday.
Despite that, there has never been a brick-and-mortar Herman Miller store in the United States, where Eames obsessives could go to see those iconic recliners or the couple’s space-age accessories in person. The company operates a downright massive factory in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and its products are available online and in showrooms, but a true flagship store hasn’t been part of the company’s plan - until now.Last week, Herman Miller opened in New York City its first North American retail hub in a historic Park Avenue building (251 Park Avenue South) that also houses its offices, along with Design Within Reach (which the company acquired in 2014). The bi-level space is bright, open, and inviting, with different spaces dedicated to the different functions of everyday life: sleeping, dining, working, and so on. The idea, according to Linda Choong, Herman Miller’s vice president of consumer business, is to expand the brand’s fanbase beyond its core audience.

Read all here. Thanks ny.curbed.com for sharing text and photos. 

Vitra covers Eames Lounge Chair in fabric to celebrate 60th anniversary

Swiss furniture brand Vitra is launching a limited-edition version of Charles and Ray Eames' Lounge Chair to commemorate its 60 years in production.
Vitra's update of the chair is upholstered in black twill fabric from the company's materials library instead of the traditional black leather.
The Lounge Chair Twill and matching Ottoman will be available for a limited period of three months between November 2016 and January 2017.
The company hopes the black fabric – which is complemented by warm reddish tones of palisander wood in the frame – creates a "cosy softness and inviting warmth".
While the armchair has been released with a few variations in the past, Vitra has always produced it exclusively in leather.
The newly upholstered models will also come with a corresponding label acknowledging the anniversary, along with a celebratory "60 years in Production" certificate.

Designed in 1956, the chair was originally conceived by Charles and Ray as a simple, practical and comfortable piece of furniture.

Thanks for sharing dezeen.com

Read all text here 

The top becomes an object of refined industrial production

Charles Eames would become fascinated: the top becomes an object of refined industrial production. This is the story of ForeverSpin: a Canadian independent manufacturer founded in February 2014 by Ruben Gonzalez, Viktor Grabovskyy, and Cristobal Uribe, headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. It manufactures and sells tops that are CNC-machined to a metal finish. They have funded the tops through a series of three successful Kickstartercampaigns, along with additional funding through Indiegogo. As of June 2016, they have received over $1.5 million in sales and have sold their tops to over 70 countries.
The ForeverSpin top is the only and exclusive toy manufactured by the company. It is available in 15 different finishes, and can be ordered in a bundled collection.
The tops are CNC-machined by the company at its headquarters. It goes through inspection and, if passed, is branded with a serial number and then shipped to customers. Overall, from sideways, it is 1.125 in wide.
Unlike other tops, it can spin upside-down from its spindle as well.

More info at: foreverspin.com

News: Grey Malin shoots iconic pieces by Eameses in French Polynesia

Photographer Gray Malin is reconsidering the way we traditionally experience design objects through his latest series ‘art of living’. in the pristine turquoise waters of french polynesia, malin has conceptualized an iconic selection of mid-century modern furniture set atop a reflective mirrored platform — refracting an abstract tableau of both the pieces, and the surrounding landscape.
Malin has situated archetypal mid-century modern designs by charles and ray eames atop a floating 15 foot square mirrored platform handcrafted with the help of local engineers. emphasizing the form of the furniture, ‘art of living‘ was photographed from a vantage point where the colossal mount otemanu presents a symmetrical and stunning backdrop. by situating stylized interior design elements in an unexpected outdoor setting, the series places natural and manmade beauty side-by-side, asking viewers to interpret the art of design in a new way.

Courtesy for sharing: www.designboom.com

How Should We Live: A New Exhibition Of Modernist Design 1925-1950 at MoMA

As modernist design becomes canonized, spurred by the recent enthusiasm for midcentury furniture, it’s easy to forget that an aesthetic we now take for granted was, in fact, a product of radical experimentation guided by political and philosophical thinking as much as by artistic vision.
An appropriately spare new exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York called How Should We Live? puts that thinking on display, with original pieces by Charles and Ray Eames, as well as ones by figures known more for their architecture, like Le Corbusier.

More info at: www.moma.org
Thanks for sharing: www.forbes.com/

Experimental Lounge Chair, Charles and Ray Eames, 1944

Prototype for "La Chaise", Charles and Ray Eames, 1948

How a Leg Splint Shaped the Eames Chair

Before Charles and Ray Eames sculpted plywood into undulating furniture, they refined their techniques on medical devices. During World War II, the United States Navy engaged the American design duo in creating a new leg splint. The result was an object both beautiful and practical, with its biomorphic curves that delicately protected a wounded leg.
"The Body Extended: Sculpture and Prosthetics" at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, England, includes one of the Eames leg splints in its exploration of prosthetics and modern art. Nearby is Louise Bourgeois’s 1985 “Henriette” bronze disembodied leg sculpture, a tribute to her sister’s disability, as well Martin Boyce’s “Phantom and Fall” that uses pieces of an Eames leg splint in an Alexander Calder-like mobile. It responds to the brutality and playfulness of the 1930s and 40s, as well as the uncomfortable dissociation of form from function in our appreciation of postwar design. 

Read all at hyperallergic.com (thanks for sharing)

Installation view of ‘The Body Extended: Sculpture and Prosthetics’ (courtesy Henry Moore Institute)

Remember "India Report" in London Design Biennale

Biennales—from Venice to Chicago—have become ubiquitous events for the art and architecture worlds. And now with the inaugural London Design Biennale (LDB) at Somerset House, the rest of the design spectrum, from graphic and industrial design to furniture and virtual reality, have their own global platform.
This month’s LDB brought in installations, prototypes, and designs from 37 countries and featured 30+ talks with over 100 leading designers, design critics, and practitioners to explore the theme of ‘Utopia by Design.’ These (often whimsical) installations used design to reconcile each country’s past, present, and future, exploring issues as diverse as smart cities, the environment, global migration and the refugee crisis, postcolonial legacies, and food systems.
Below are a few of the highlights from the event, which ends today. And read our review of the Biennale here.
The London Design Biennale also marks the first time India has put forward an installation in a major international design event. India Design Forum Founder Rajshree Pathy made sure that their presence at the event would be as dramatic as the country itself.
The design of 'Chakraview’ employs the chakra system—a philosophical journey that begins with desire and consumption, moves to emotion, then speech, and finally to enlightenment—as a metaphor for India’s cultural, spiritual, social, and economic progress since independence. Six colorful silk tapestries hang above a mirrored floor, bathing attendees in the color and chaos of the space. A separate, blue, womb-like audiovisual room connects attendees to the seventh, most spiritual, chakra.
The installation also references imagery from the Eames’ 1958 India Report, produced after the three months Charles and Ray Eames spent touring the country, looking at the potential and importance of design in postcolonial India. The exhibit asserts that design is not just about developing aesthetic solutions, but indeed solutions to social problems facing India today.

Thank for sharing: metropolismag.com

Vintage Home: Using 20th-century Design in the Contemporary Home

Vintage Home, by Judith Miller, Firefly Books, 288 pages, $50.

Vintage furniture offers the best of both worlds. It brings a sense of the past and a degree of craftsmanship so often absent in today’s furnishings. A well-placed piece can become the focal point in a room and create a sense of style that you can decorate around. Vintage items can be found in a wide variety of places and it pays to know what to look for so you can spot those treasures.
Judith Miller provides a guide to 20th century designs and their origins so you can tell the difference between an Eileen Gray-designed glass and chrome table and something created by the Charles and Ray Eames Aluminum group. Filled with colour photos and detailed background information on the designers and the importance of their creations, this is a valuable resource book for anyone wanting to bring vintage style into their home.

See more at: fireflybooks.com

Kinfolk #21: Introducing the Home Issue

Kinfolk Issue Twenty-One: Within the pages of the fall edition of Kinfolk, the home becomes more than the sum of its walls and floors, chairs and wallpaper—more than a collection of objects. We delve deeply into the very nature of home, exploring what’s hidden, unseen, mysterious and sensual asking, “What have we forgotten, or overlooked, in the rituals of our daily lives?” In turn, the home and everything it contains are not merely ends in themselves, but the complex elements of each person’s evolving and deeply personal narrative—the foundations of a well-lived life.

News: Designers still at risk under new UK copyright law, warns intellectual property lawyer

Recent changes to UK copyright law might not give furniture designers the protections they expect.
The changes – which extend copyright for industrial design from 25 years after an item is first marketed to 70 years from the death of the creator – were considered a win for UK designers and brands whose products were replicated.
To qualify, designers will need to prove their product is "a work of artistic craftsmanship", a criteria for which there is no statutory definition. It is up to courts to decide individual cases based on past precedent.
This means pieces like the widely copied DSW Plastic Chair by Charles and Ray Eames – advocates for democratic, affordable design – might not be protected from copying.
The UK government has repealed section 52 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This brings the country – once derided as "a Trojan Horse for the importation of copies into Europe" – into line with the rest of the EU, which has longer-lasting copyright protections.
While the future of the laws may be uncertain following June's Brexit vote, for the time being UK copyright protections for industrial design have been broadened.
Section 52 previously exempted industrially manufactured pieces from the protections afforded to artistic works. Now designers are not explicitly exempt but instead need to prove their work actually is "artistic".
Where there is a real prospect the design would qualify as a work of artistic craftsmanship.
In addition, in light of the relevance of what may have been in the mind of the designer when they created the design, it would be prudent for designers and businesses to prepare such statements now for future use in the fight against copyists.

Read all at dezeen.com

The Eames DWS chair by Charles and Ray Eames (1950) is one of the most widely copied furniture designs.

A maker of miniature midcentury furniture talks all things tiny

Chicago-based designer Michael Yurkovic combines two of Curbed’s favorite things: Midcentury modern furniture, and tiny things. Yurkovic handcrafts 1/12-scale replicas of iconic designs like Charles and Ray Eames’ shell chair and Eero Saarinen’s tulip chair—as well as staged room boxes—that are so detailed and faithful to the original that it’s hard to believe, at least when seen in photographs, that they’re miniature.
Yurkovic, like many children, got his start building model airplanes and cars with his father. This led him to a career in industrial design, where he worked on consumer electronic products like telephones, then a stint in toy consultancy, both of which required a lot of model-making.
Then about two and a half years ago, after having dabbled in midcentury modern furniture restoring and further developing his hand skills, he walked into his first miniature show and noticed that there was an incredible void in the market for midcentury modern design. Everything was Victorian or otherwise traditional. “I didn't quite know exactly how I would do it, but I knew I could,” Yurkovic recalled. “So I walked out of that show and dove straight into miniature, just full time midcentury modeling.”

Curbed.com spokes to Yurkovic about his design process, why he thinks people are gaga for everything tiny (and midcentury modern), and how it all might fit within the context of the tiny house movement.
Why were you drawn to midcentury modern design?
I naturally gravitated towards the midcentury modern era because I thought it was all so exciting. There was new technology and new materials and processes, and just a whole new optimistic culture was going on then, bringing a whole fresh perspective to what furniture, as well as other things, could be. The furniture also really made it's way into pop culture in a big way. I like the clean lines, the purity of form. And because it's non decorative and so minimal, usually, the real devil is in the details. There's not all this spare ornamentation, so you can see how an arm is attached to a side of a chair, or the exact curvature of a molded shell. All those things were really carefully considered and that really appealed to me, and I think really challenged designers at the time /.../.

Read all at: curbed.com

Thanks curbed.com for sharing.

San Francisco International Airport hosts new exhibition "A Modern Approach: Mid-Century Design"

"A Modern Approach: Mid-Century Design" is an exhibition located in the International Terminal Main Hall Departures Lobby, San Francisco International Airport. The exhibition is accessible to all airport visitors from August 27, 2016 to April 9, 2017.

The online version of the exhibition is viewable at: www.flysfo.com/museum/exhibitions/modern-approach-mid-century-design.

This exhibit presents a sampling of modern design from the 1930s to the 1960s through examples of mid-century studio art, graphic design, and manufactured goods.

Mid-twentieth-century modern design balanced expression with efficiency and utility. Geared towards everyday living, modern design redefined housewares, furniture, and decorative arts. The form of each object followed its function, with innovative construction methods finished in natural tones and bold colors. Working in the spirit of their time, mid-century designers created items that lent style and comfort to the necessities of modern life. By the early 1950s, the most distinctive American furniture and decorative arts expressed a refined modern design, celebrated by "Arts & Architecture" magazine and in museum exhibitions.
Mid-century designers announced the modern era through the clear and concise use of new materials such as plastic, aluminum, and molded plywood. Charles and Ray Eames implemented the brilliance of good design on the greatest scale, with more than two million of their fiberglass chairs sold through Herman Miller by 1966. On the other end of the spectrum, art and design converged in unique artisan and craft items to personalize modern interiors. Overall, mid-century designers introduced a multitude of new products for modern living, and their best designs stood effortlessly on their own or harmoniously within a group. 

Source www.flysfo.com with thanks.

Blast from the past: a look inside Polaroid’s SX-70 instant film camera

In 1972, Polaroid shared with the world its latest creation — the Polaroid SX–70 instant film camera. Designed by Polaroid co-founder and inventor Edwin Land, the SX–70 at that time received quite the introduction with a wonderfully produced video created by none other than Charles and Ray Eames.
At roughly eleven minutes long, the film breaks down every detail of the camera, using footage and animated graphics to show how the iconic single lens reflex Land camera was meant to be used.
Unlike the vague teaser videos we’re used to seeing nowadays for products, this commissioned video breaks down everything the SX–70 is capable of and does so with impressive video production values that echoes the mid-century aesthetic associated with Charles and Ray.
From the simple steps it takes to open the camera to the ingenious design that enabled it to collapse down into the size of a few deck of cards, the video manages to simplify the impressive engineering feats that made instant images possible.
The film was originally shown at a Polaroid stockholders meeting and later used as a marketing tool. It was the first of four films Charles and Ray Eames made in collaboration with Polaroid and it went on to win a Bronze Plaque at the Columbus International Film Festival in 1975.
As brilliant as the film is, it now only serves as a sad reminder of what once was. Once on the bleeding edge of photographic technology, Polaroid has now been turned into little more than a name and logo that anyone can slap on a product if they’re willing to shell out enough money in hopes of making a little profit off a brand name that has long since left its glory days behind.

Source www.digitaltrends.com/ with thanks.

Eamesiana on the Beach

Happy holidays to everybody: eamesiana will return on September  5. Stay Tuned ! 
(Andrea + Raffaela)

Fake Replicas of Eames' Chairs Banned Under New Copyright Ruling in U.K.

A change to copyright law means that fake versions of classic design icons such as Ray and Charles Eames’ chairs will stop being sold from January 2017 onwards.

The repeal of section 52 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 came into effect last 28 July, and means that iconic design products will now be protected for 70 years after a designer dies.
This includes products such Charles and Ray Eames’ chairs.
The ruling states that no replica products can be sold after 28 January 2017, which will mark six months after it was put in place. Additionally, no new replica products can be manufactured between now and January, unless the company gains rights from the original copyright holder.
To be granted this right, 3D designs must qualify as “works of artistic craftsmanship”, according to the Intellectual Property Office – this means they have required special training and skill to make, they are seen as a “piece of art”, and the designer purposefully intended to create a work of art.
For any designs created after the year 1988, designers are also protected by registered and unregistered design rights, says Dids Macdonald, founder at Anti-Copying in Design (ACID) and communications chairman at The Furniture Makers’ Company.
Designers can fall back on registered design rights if they choose to register their designs, and unregistered design rights if they don’t. Registered rights last for 25 years, and unregistered rights last for 15 years after production.
Macdonald advises: “Designers should register their designs as a priority, and if they’re relying on unregistered rights, then they should keep signed and dated records.”
ACID has a database, where people can send their designs for free. The organisation will note the time and date the work was submitted with a unique number, so that designers have evidence of when a design was first created.
“Become intellectual property-savvy and understand the rights that protect you,” Macdonald says. “Design rights are still valid in Europe and the UK until Brexit comes into force.”

Read all at: www.designweek.co.uk/

Vote for Eamesiana !

Great news dear friends!
Voting for #IBA16 (International Blog Amara Award 2016) is now open! 
Personalised voting page is now live: http://www.interiorblogawards.com/vote/eamesiana/ 
To be shortlisted and invited to the awards night, Eamesiana needs to gain the top 5 amount of votes within its category. 
Our best advice would be to get share happy with all of your friends, family, colleagues and avid readers of our blog to help us gain the most votes! 
Voting will close on 9th September so encourage votes up until this date. 

Thanks to everybody! 
Raffaela + Andrea

An Eamesian Twist in Marc Venot's Last Creation (soon available)

Ph. Courtesy: Marc Venot
More info at: http://www.marc-venot.com/

New Book Soon Available: "100 Midcentury Chairs: And Their Stories", by Lucy Ryder Richardson

This is a stylish and informative guide to the best of Midcentury Modern chair design. These are the top 100 most interesting, most controversial, or simply most beautiful chairs from the period spanning 1930-1970. Compiled by Lucy Ryder Richardson and Petra Curtis, the expert curators behind Modern Shows, this is a stylish and informative guide to the best of Modern chair design. Get to know the designers of the Modern era, and find out about the controversies, drama, gossip and intrigue that accompanied these fascinating figures. Featuring a range of international designers, including Robin Day, Charles and Ray Eames, Ernest Race, Arne Jacobsen , Pierre Paulin, Finn Juhl, Harry Bertoia, Eero Saarinen and Norman Cherner. There is also an exploration into materials, manufacturing processes and lots of information about the manufacturers that brought chair designs to the masses, such as Knoll, Herman Miller, Fritz Hansen. Packed full of design details, historical facts, quotes and anecdotes - you can even find out the position in which the designers intended you to sit in their chairs. With a 'chair timeline', showcasing the very best of European, Scandinavian, Japanese and American design, this is the perfect book for collectors, enthusiasts and design junkies alike.

Buy at: www.amazon.co.uk/ (from september 8, 2016) 

Eames' Vibe in Jewelry Designer’s Los Angeles Studio

Architect-turned-designer, Los Angeles based, Elena Howell's jewelry line, TomTom, is marked by impeccably clean lines, deceptively simple silhouettes, and a minimalist approach to luxury. 

It's no surprise that her keen eye extends beyond her collections to inform her interior design aesthetic, and the small studio she keeps in L.A., is as modern and clean as her accessories.
Loved by Jessica Alba, Leandra Medine, Ashley Greene, and Alicia Keys, TomTom's ever-increasing celebrity following is a testament to Elena's clear vision and Type A approach. She runs every aspect of her business, directs all her manufacturing, balances her own books, and imbues her designs with a uniquely accessible and covet-worthy vibe.

Elena Howell says: "I am constantly looking to architecture for design inspiration. I specifically tend to look toward mid-century modernist architects like Charles and Ray Eames for inspiration. I often find myself trying to translate the geometric details, architectural lines and broad gestural movements of their works into my jewelry".

Read all at: la.racked.com

Ph. courtesy Tom Tom Jewelry

When a Big Design Brand meets Eameses: the Mosa Example

Mosa is a Dutch tile manufacturer established in 1883 by Louis Regout: the scion of a famous Maastricht family of industrialists. Over the course of its more than 130-year history, the company developed into an innovative producer of high-quality products. 

Attention to innovation and design are important values for Mosa: it shows the attention in its own advertising for the historical pieces of Eames, as you see:

Ph. courtesy: mosa.com