It’s been an extraordinary year for a few of the designs Charles Eames created with his wife Ray. In the last year, we have seen the debut of the Molded Plastic Side Chair re-imagined in wood. Just recently, it was announced that Eames Molded Plastic Chairs will be produced in environmentally sustainable fiberglass with a spectrum of rich, vintage colors. Today would have been Charles’ 106th birthday — so here are six great ways to celebrate him.
Wishing you rest (and perhaps a little play) this Memorial Day holiday.
Image: LIFE Magazine
Take a look at what we’ve been bookmarking this week.
1. “Design Q&A with Charles Eames,” a short film from 1972, featured on Network Awesome.
2. A full tour of Jonathan Lo’s Solana Beach, CA, rental home at Old Brand New.
3. The Design and Architecture Crossword from the New York Times and Design Within Reach. (Here’s a hint for 95 Across.)
4. Speaking of married couples who design together (another hint for the crossword above), check out Design Is One, the documentary on Lella and Massimo Vignelli opening October 18 (via Very Short List).
5. The idea-filled chat about home offices with organizer Kacy Paide from the Washington Post.
6. Curbed’s look at the transformation of an NYC loft to accommodate a collection of Eames furniture.
7. 10 of Architizer’s favorite workspaces, including the Obscura Digital HQ in San Francisco, featuring our Setu Chairs (in the photo above).
8. This quick 1955 telegram from Alexander Girard to industrialist J. Irwin Miller at Documenting Modern Living.
9. Jaunted’s history lesson on Eames Tandem Sling Seating in airports.
10. The playfully inspiring design of this floating dreamscape made from hundreds of kites featured at Co.Design.
Photo: Obscura Digital / Architizer
Read up on some of our favorite posts from the last seven days.
1. Inspired by the pops of color — including one from a single green Magis Folding Air-Chair — in the Ty-Hedfan house in Wales at Contemporist.
2. Could you work from an Airstream office? (Via Businessweek).
3. “The Eames Chair and Charles’ Style” from WaxWane.
4. Co-Working and the Future of Office Design at Beyond Design.
5. These concrete, brass, and copper desktop accessories spotted by Ideas to Steal.
6. Business Insider’s 10 Tips for Working Effectively at Home.
7. Impressed by the H House, a modular modern farmhouse outside Budapest designed by Budapesti Műhely, featured on Design Milk.
8. “Inside the Latest Office-Design Craze: Hot Desking” from Inc.
9. This warm, club-like office, just nominated for a “Hot Office Award” in Sweden (via The Escapist).
10. A surprisingly inspiring dental office in Malaga, Spain, at Pursuitist.
Photo: Magis Chair First
Yesterday would have been Charles Eames’ 105th birthday. Let’s celebrate the man who, together with his wife Ray, gave the 20th century much of its distinctive shape and helped set the foundation of modern design. Happy birthday, Charles — here’s six ways to you. Read more
1. Bloomberg Businessweek for their piece on the SAYL chair.
2. Saltsurf.com‘s blog is beautiful. Even if you don’t surf or have never been to the beach this blog takes you away from your desk for a few minutes and lets you indulge in gorgeous shots of beach and ocean. Plus their new canvas totes would hold your laptop rather nicely. Enjoy!
3. Design Observer for Adam Harrison Levy’s review of A History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor. Sounds like a fascinating book.
4. Milo Paper for their cool notebooks. They’ve dubbed them “Men’s Collection” which is a shame because they really would be perfect for women too. So don’t be put off. Check them out – you can even personalize them.
5. SF Girl By Bay has revamped her site and now there’s even more great interiors for home office inspiration.
6. An Organized Nest for their 6 tips on dealing with mail – real snail mail not email.
7. Oki Ni for this awesome messenger bag/lap top carrier.
8. House Beautiful gives us a nice slideshow of 16 different home office styles.
9. Architizer for this amazing house by Blank Studio. It’s in a town called Superior at the base of the Superstition Mountain range in Arizona.
10. Brain Pickings for Maria Popova’s thoughtful post on Charles Eames (including a great link to an Eliot Noyes essay on Charles).
We’re excited about the release of the Jason Cohn and Bill Jersey‘s documentary EAMES: The Architect and The Painter. The film offers an in-depth look at the couple’s incredible design legacy. For a peek check out David Foster’s piece over on Discover where he’s posted a trailer from the PBS documentary. And yes, the narrator’s voice does sound familiar – it’s James Franco.
Here we continue our Eames Spotting series where we feature an image from the media that includes a piece of Eames design along with comments from Daniel Ostroff, the editor of EamesDesigns.com.
“The photographer who took this shot and the designer and homeowner who organized the room either deliberately or unconsciously recognized a connection between the work of Charles and Ray Eames and the work of Mies Van Der Rohe. On one side of the desk is the Eames Soft Pad Chair, introduced in 1969. On the other side of the desk is a Mies Van Der Rohe Brno chair, introduced in 1930. Both fit well in this very contemporary 2011 interior, because the designers worked with similar ideas in mind. One of the ideas was expressed by Charles Eames who liked to reference this Mies Van Der Rohe quote, ‘I don’t want to be interesting, I want to be good.’ Here’s to that kind of goodness.”
Daniel Ostroff, EamesDesigns.com
Charles Eames was born on June 17, 1907, which would make today his 104th birthday. He and his wife Ray were valued members of the Herman Miller family. You can read about our collaboration with them here. In 2009 Eames Demetrios celebrated his grandfather’s birthday with a TED talk. It’s a pleasure to share the talk with you today. Happy Birthday Charles!
Check out Discover for David Foster’s take on the Eames legacy.
Heather sent over this link to Lizzie Garrett‘s Design Watcher blog and her “down time” post. Yes, that is Charles Eames reclining on a molded plastic chair at Santa Monica beach.
Where we’ve been this week…
1. Creonomy I have no idea what Creonomy means (no entry found on the online dictionary). But it’s a very cool graphics/design/interesting and quirky stuff blog by Corrado Alesso and Nicolo Borghi. Creonomy is the name of their company. It’s a “small startup creating easy-to-use web-based collaboration software for the creative community. We love the work of web, graphic and logo designers and we want to develop software to make their life easier.” No idea what they actually do but I love their work! Where to start: The interview with publisher Charlotte and Peter Fiells, who we also interviewed today.
2. Matt: Unlucky in Cards A blog from the guy who was the founding developer of WordPress, the blogging software that runs millions of sites around the world – including this one. Where to start: A great link to plants in your home office.
3. Clouds 365 Project You’ve got to love this. Clouds. Lots and lots of clouds. Cloud 365 is the work of multimedia artist Kelly DeLay. He shoots clouds each day and posts them to this site. He did it for a year and now he’s doing it for another year. And all I can say is it is the perfect place to take a break from your work. Writer’s block? Check it out. It’s just lovely. Where to start: Today.
4. I Love Typography One man’s obsession becomes yours with this blog. Japan-based John Boardley shares his passion for type…yep, type. Check it out and you’ll get it. Where to start: The origins of abc.
5. GOOD What is GOOD? One of those slightly annoying media phenomenons that is hard to pin down. It describes itself as an “integrated media platform for people who want to live well and do good. We are a company and community for the people, businesses, and NGOs moving the world forward. GOOD’s mission is to provide content, experiences, and utilities to serve this community.” Sounds good, no? They’ve got a website and a magazine. Where to start: An excellent piece by Alissa Walker on women in industrial design.