A new retrospective at the Vitra Museum offers a deep dive into the influential designer's playful approach (until January 29, 2017).
Despite being an in-house designer at Herman Miller, a friend and collaborator with Ray and Charles Eames, and a master of colorful graphic design, Alexander Girard still seems like an artist at the margins, a lesser-known talent whose full body of work has yet to get its proper due. That hopefully will change with the new retrospective Alexander Girard: A Designer’s Universe, which opened at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany, last month. The kinetic, eye-poppingly bright display of Girard’s patterns, images, and interiors was the result of a deep dive into the archives painstakingly preserved by his family, and stands as the first-ever full appraisal of his career.
The resulting display, curated by curated by Jochen Eisenbrand and designed by London-based studio Raw Edges, features more than 700 items. Along with an exhaustive 500-page catalog, the exhibit chronicles the different phases of Girard's career, from his graphic work and office interiors to commissioned restaurants such as the glamorous La Fonda del Sol (with the Eameses), what could be described as an early branded space. In an age of streamlined, machine-made modernism, Girard's humanistic work and fascination with folk art pushed the craft aesthetic before it made a massive comeback later in the century.
In 1949, Charles and Ray Eames designed a coffee table as a unique furnishing for their own residence, in Pacific Palisades. Ever since, the table has contributed to the unique decor of this historic home interior. The rectangular table top, which gives a simultaneous impression of simplicity and luxury, was originally covered in gold leaf. Its dowel-leg base is a variation of the wooden base found on the Eames Plastic Chairs. In the following years, Charles and Ray Eames produced two more of these tables, but with a marble top.
The re-edition of the Eames Coffee Table, which was developed by Vitra in cooperation with the Eames Office, evokes the spirit of the early one-off pieces: fabricated in exquisite materials, this high-quality coffee table is both precious object and utilitarian furnishing. The square or rectangular table tops are made of palisander veneer, marble or solid American walnut. The base, combining black wooden legs with metal cross-struts, provides a stable understructure and emphasises the understated elegance of the Eames Coffee Table.
Will become available in August 2016.
Courtesy www.vitra.com
Midcentury modern design by Charles and Ray Eases are the subject of a fabulous new exhibit at the Nucleus art gallery in Los Angeles. To celebrate the Eames' far-ranging influence on everything from architecture and furniture to graphic design and film, the gallery commissioned more than 20 artists to develop work inspired by the pair. As you can see in the sample of exhibited pieces below, Nucleus chose artists whose styles tap into the Eames ethos of clean lines, bold colors, functionality, and simplicity. They include modernist dollhouse master Judson Beaumont and printmaker Chris Turnham, whose silkscreens of L.A.'s modernist icons were featured in another Nucleus show last spring. Take a closer look.
Iconic designs of the 20th century are being made reconfigured as souvenirs thanks to Thames & Hudson and graphic design studio Here Design. An era that harboured many of the 20th century's most irrefutable design titans – the Eames of course, Eileen Gray and Dieter Rams to name but several – has been playfully packed up into a small-and-smart celebratory gift set.
Comprising 100 postcards, a set of four concertina books and three notebooks, the "Mid-Century Modern 100 Postcard of Iconic Design"pays homage to classic models originally surveyed in Dominic Bradbury’s Mid-Century Modern Complete – here reconstituted as a travel-friendly selection of fun illustrations. Here Studio was inspired by the colours of the era for the design, with mustard yellows, monochromes, turquoises and bold reds prominently displayed across the cards and book jackets. The illustrations are often in black or white, the furniture and homewares rendered in simplistic outlines easily recognisable to the design savvy.
The four foldout concertinas work as reference books, with each illustration accompanied by descriptive text by Frances Amber, guest editor at MidCenturymagazine. Divided into 'Tables & Storage', 'Product & Industrial Design', 'Lighting' and 'Chairs', the books travel internationally across the modern era.
The matching postcards are equally as handsome, often depicting close details of the illustrated designs.
