Eames Hang-It-All: Playful Originality

Designed as a device for hanging things, the Eames Hang-It-All is an example of an object that appears simple but upon closer look reveals playful originality.

The design—short rods on a wire frame, each capped with a wooden ball— leveraged the Eameses’ understanding of resistance-welding, a mass-production technique of simultaneous welding wire. It was a technique they used in other designs such as the wire chair and wire-base table. By designing with the manufacturing process in mind, the Hang-It-All was easy to produce and affordably priced.

Wanting to make it a place for a child’s belongings, Charles and Ray chose white for the frame and painted each ball a bright color—red, yellow, pink, blue, magenta, ocher, green, and violet. They imagined it the prefect place for a jacket, mittens, scarves, as well as doll clothes, or a slingshot.

Originally distributed by Tigrett by direct mail, production ended in 1961. Herman Miller obtained permission from the Eames Office and began making the Hang-It-All again in 1993, and in 2010 released a limited-edition version with a black frame and walnut balls.