Charles and Ray Eames, perhaps the most famous design partnership of 20th-century America, did pioneering work in furniture, film, architecture, and exhibition design. Now Pat Kirkham interprets their work in depth, probing the lives behind the designs and the nature of the collaboration. 221 illustrations, 16 in color.
Presents the work of Charles and Ray Eames whose design revolutinized the look of postwar American society. Includes every product produced by the Eameses and their office from 1941 to 1978. Over 3,500 illustrations.
Charles (1907-1978) and Ray (1912-1988) Eames are among the most important designers of the 20th century, and the story of the Eames Office is that of visual and material culture in the post-war, modern period. The World of Charles and Ray Eames charts the history of their inspiring and prolific world and brings together key works and ideas explored at the Eames Office throughout its extraordinary history.This definitive monograph explores the era-defining work of the Eames Office, a 'laboratory' active for over four decades, where the Eameses and their collaborators produced a vast array of pioneering and influential projects - from architecture, furniture and product design to film, photography, multi-media installation and exhibitions, as well as new models for arts education. Themes include 'The Eames Office: Life in Work', 'At Home with the Eameses', 'Information Machines', 'The Seeing Eye', 'Office USA: Communicating "America" at Home and Abroad', and 'The Art of Living'. Alongside newly commissioned texts by leading design experts, The World of Charles and Ray Eames will include contemporaneous reviews and magazine articles, writings by Charles and Ray Eames themselves, personal correspondence and a comprehensive reference section.
"This massive monograph celebrates Ray's centennial anniversary and the Eameses incredibly diverse interdisciplinary work in depth, including many never-before-published images. Additionally, the book is authored by three generations of the Eames family, including quotes and essays by: Charles and Ray, daughter Lucia Eames, and all five of her children. This very intimate and loving tribute to the Eameses includes personal letters, family photos, and images that document the poetic ephemera of their everyday life, making this book the definitive Eames monograph."--Publishers' description.
An Eames Anthology collects for the first time the writings of the esteemed American architects and designers Charles and Ray Eames, illuminating their marriage and professional partnership of fifty years. More than 120 primary-source documents and 200 illustrations highlight iconic projects such as the Case Study Houses and the molded plywood chair, as well as their work for major corporations as both designers (Herman Miller, Vitra) and consultants (IBM, Polaroid). Previously unpublished materials appear alongside published writings by and about the Eameses and their work, lending new insight into their creative process. Correspondence with such luminaries as Richard Neutra and Eero Saarinen provides a personal glimpse into the advance of modernity in mid-century America.
Charles and Ray Eames are counted among the leading designers of the twentieth century. Perhaps best known for their furniture designs, the Eameses also made pioneering contributions to the fields of architecture (Eames House, Los Angeles), film (Powers of Ten), exhibitions ("Mathematica"), toys (House of Cards), graphics, and much more. Underlying all this work was a robust and compelling philosophy of design. "Essential Eames: Words and Pictures" draws from their lifetimes of speeches and writings, as well as an archive of nearly one million photographs taken by Charles and Ray Eames and their office staff over the course of four decades of work.
Charles and Ray Eames were a highly influential couple whose work included classic pieces of furniture and architecture during the 1940s and 1950s. An essay and an illustrated appreciation of their life and work are included in this text.
An in-depth look at Charles and Ray Eames's prolific legacy—one that has placed them among the most important American designers of the twentieth century and at the forefront of modernism. Charles and Ray Eames's expansive and monumental career in furniture design ran from 1941 to 1978. This comprehensive and illustrated text serves as a guidebook to their most important pieces and themes. As beloved figures in design, art, and architecture who emerged from the optimism of the 1950s, the couple’s egalitarian and humanistic furniture designs made them household names. Most famous for their chairs, they also created seminal works of architecture and film. Written by their grandson, Eames Demetrios, An Eames Primer is an easy-to-read and informational book to the world's most famous and influential furniture designers.