When was eames chair designed

The living room of this Connecticut cottage is decorated with iconic modernist pieces, like the Eames Lounge in white, the Saarinen Womb chair, and an Eileen Grey E side table.

The Dwell Home, a prefab house built for an invitational design competition, features the Eames Lounge and Ottoman. The set provides classic style and a comfortable seating option without blocking too much of the view. See the Best Homes of ! Employees at the Herman Miller factory polish the molded plywood shells in the seventies.

Production today continues in much the same way. Design Within Reach. Charles and Ray Eames had ideas about making a better world, one in which things were designed to bring greater pleasure to our lives. But unlike the struggles of the Evans company with the molded plywood, the chairs were initially being made and made well by Zenith Plastics, based in Los Angeles, California.

Miller was once again initially utilized as the distributor, creating the advertising, the marketing and exclusively selling the pieces through their network of stores country wide.

It made perfect sense, as Herman Miller was a specialist in utilizing wood in furniture design, to use Zenith plastics as an advocate of this new fiberglass material.

Herman Miller acquired the full manufacturing rights from Zenith following their sale to 3M in , providing for themselves the unlimited potential of realizing true mass production. This intervention was the single reason for the overwhelming success of the chair, production was multiplied by the thousands, new colors added to the range, fabrics and textiles would be available, new base types and installation possibilities brought in.

Time would catch up on the Fiberglass chairs in the end, seeing to their discontinuation in but demand never went away. Miller renewed production in for the design but instead used an injection molded Polypropylene, something that never sat quite right with the purists.

A welcome return however was made when Herman Miller announced in that they would once again make the chairs in a selection of colors from the original material, adding to the unknown quantities of vintage originals.

The third design that defined and created the very term 'Eames Chair' needs little introduction, it is the Eames Lounge Chair and matching Ottoman. It is also well worth pointing out that the finished Lounge Chair and Ottoman was a true collaboration within Eames Office personnel, with their go to guy Don Albinson a chief protagonist. The Eames Lounger is a visual masterpiece and more and the result of an unbelievably high amount of technical expertise.

The years thereafter are often spent solidifying their image and unique sound and working towards their very best material usually seen around the second or maybe third album. This is often followed by excellent albeit not reaching the heights of previous work new material, and in turn a latter career whereby they live off their earlier work.

The Eames Lounge chair was that peak, the best material and rest that followed though excellent of course was arguably never quite as good and the furniture designs all but vanished in the later stages as Charles pursued his other artistic interests.

It pays to remember that reality during the 's had women as 'homemakers' and men as 'breadwinners' and 'leaders'. Advertising reflected this and Lounge Chair ads were always aimed at 'the man of the house'. So just what was it about the Eames Lounger that thrust it into the limelight? It goes without saying that Herman Miller was once again involved, after all they made it and still do but this time there was no need for them to save the day. You could say it is once again the timing, the styling, and yes you could but it's not even that.

The single most important element of the success of this chair was desirability! The early sales forecasts were blown away and the design became an instant hit.

But what was it that created this desirability for a new design? This was achieved by the sheer luxury of the style, the crumpled high-quality leather and soft cushioning, all surrounded in the beautifully oiled Rosewood frame.

Either way, here was a chair you could place in your home or office and it literally beckoned you in and fed the subconscious with the belief that true comfort and relaxation await.

Here however was a chair meant for luxury and it was priced accordingly, after all it was not cheap to make with most elements being made by hand. This however is exactly what created that extra dimension of desirability in the design. And for those that could afford it, here was a status symbol, a new modernist statement of luxury to go alongside your motor car and expensive Swiss watch.

Herman Miller marketing would have course play a role, they were good at it! Adverts would appear all over the national press in various high-level publications and journals, but this was normal from a company well used to getting the word out there.

Big powerhouse firms such as Marlboro would employ the look and feel of the lounger to match with their own advertising. It is the perfect phrase too for the Eames Lounge Chair because the ripple effect on the industry would be far and wide.

Chairs modeled on the look and feel of the Lounger would begin appearing from furniture manufacturers the world over. Some would be loosely based on the design whilst others could be described as direct copies.

The Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman was the third and, in our opinion, greatest and last of the three designs that forged the reputation of the Eames Chair, no ordinary chairs indeed. What is an Eames Chair? Type keyword s to search. Today's Top Stories. Our Favorite Beautiful Bathroom Designs. Where to Buy Plants Online. Getty Images. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below. Herman Miller.

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