Charles and Ray Eames are among the most important American designers of this century. They are best known for their contributions to architecture, furniture design, industrial and manufacturing design and photographic arts.
Charles Eames was born in 1907 in St. Louis, Missouri. While at school he developed an interest in engineering and architecture. In 1930, he started his own achitectural office and later received a fellowship to Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, where he became head of design department. Here he met Ray Kaiser who assisted him and Eero Saarien in preparing designs for Museum of Modern Arts' 'Organic Furniture Competition'. Their designs, created by molding plywood into complex curves won them the two first prizes.
Charles and Ray got married and continued their furniture design work with molding plywood. Their molded plywood chair was called 'the chair of the century'. The use of new materials and technologies, transformed the way Americans furnished their homes, introducing functional, affordable, and often highly sculptural objects and furnishings to many middle-class Americans.
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