Charles and Ray Eames were famous American designers that married in 1941. Together they made many major contribuitions in the fields of architecture, industrial design, furniture design, art, graphic design, and even film. They became so influential that the time period from which their work was created has become known as the “Eames Era”.

Charles Ormond Eames, Jr., born in St. Louis, Missouri, first learned about architecture, design, and engineering when he was 14 years old working at the Laclede Steel Company as a part-time laborer. No doubt, this is where his dream of an architect was born. Charles studied architecture at Washington University in St. Louis on an architectural scholarship for a short time. Drawn to modern architecture, such as Frank Lloyd Wright, he was quickly dimissed from the very traditional school bacause his views were too modern. Before leaving Washington University, he met his first wife, Catherine Woermann, and they eventually married in 1929. They had a daughter, whom they named Lucia. After leaving Washington University, Eames and partners Charles Gray and later Walter Pauley started up their own practice.

In 1938 Charles Eames moved his family to Michigan so that he could study architecture at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. He eventually become a teacher and head of the industrial design department. As a student, he and Eero Saarinen designed prize-winning furniture for New York's Museum of Modern Art "Organic Design" competition. In 1941, Charles and Catherine divorced, and he married a colleague Ray Kaiser, who was born in Sacramento, California. Ray too, was a designer and architect, as well as a film maker. Together they moved to Los Angeles, California, where they would work and live for the rest of their lives. The couple designed their home as part of a case study for the Arts & Architecture magazine. Their design is known as the Eames House, Case Study House #8. The home, located upon a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, was constructed soley out of pre-fabricated steel parts intended for industrial construction and is considered a beacon of modern architecture.

Eames Lounge Chair

The Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman were released in 1956 after years of development by designers Charles and Ray Eames. It was the first chair the Eames designed for a high-end market. These furnishings are made of molded plywood and leather. Examples of these furnishings are part of the permanent collection of New York's Museum of Modern Art.

The Eames Lounge Chair first appeared on the Arlene Francis 'Home" show broadcast on the NBC television network in the USA in 1956. The chair has become iconic with Modern style design although when it was first made Ray Eames remarked in a letter to Charles that the chair looked "comfortable and un-designy". Charles's vision was for a chair with "the warm, receptive look of a well-used first baseman's mitt". Immediately following the début Herman Miller launched an advertising campaign that highlighted the versatility of the chair. Print ads depicted the chair in a Victorian parlor, occupied by a grandmother shelling peas on the front porch of an American Gothic style house, and in the middle of a sunny field of hay.

Eames Lounge Chair Debut in 1956 on NBC [1/2]

Arlene Francis introduces Charles and Ray Eames on the 'Home" show. Ray Eames desribes how she helps Charles by being a critical viewpoint of her husband's work. Charles describes how the Eames chairs were developed. The molded plywood chairs were a result of working with a mass production technique. The object of the plastic chairs was to take a high-performance material that was made during the war and make it available to householders at non-military prices.

Eames Lounge Chair Debut in 1956 on NBC [2/2]

Charles Eames talks about his designs in a broader sense. Charles Eames explains his basic theory of design how he designed his famous house. The couple discusses design decisions, other projects they worked on—including other chairs, toys, and houses—and their partnership. Arlene Francis and Charles Eames preview of the Eames Lounge Chair featured in rosewood plywood and black leather. Charles discusses the finer points of the chair and then a demonstration is included on how to assemble the chair.