The Eames Design Process

“We don’t do art - we solve problems” – Charles Eames

It all started with a chair. Time Magazine called the Eames Lounge Chair Wood the greatest design of the 20th Century. However, it began as a failure. Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen, two unknown young architects, wanted to reinvent the idea of the chair. The goal was to create an inexpensive, mass-produced chair which was well-designed and which is molded to the body as it doesn’t need a lot of upholstery.

They thought they could mold plywood into two directions at once to make a comfortable form fitting shell. However, the glues weren’t good enough and the chair splinters, so they were forced to upholster it, failing at their goal of creating a single piece plywood chair. But even with the upholstery to cover the crack surface, no existing machine could successfully mold the plywood into the shape of the chair.

“It couldn’t be made in the way they claimed it could be made. They designed the look of it without designing the substance of it.” – Eames Demetrios, Charles’ grandson

After many unsuccessful attempts, Eero scrapped the project but Charles refused to give up and continued working on the design with Ray. However, due to the war, raw materials were scarce, and the development was paused.

The US military needed better splints than the metal ones they had. Charles designed plywood splints, using curves to mimic the shape of the human leg. They needed to introduce holes in the plywood to release the tension, as otherwise it would splinter. Doing these splints allowed him to learn a lot about the manufacturing process.

When the war was over, Charles and Ray decided to apply the lessons of the splints to the failed plywood chairs. This time, they would not design the look of the chair first. “Let the design flow from the learning.” This was the beginning of the Eames design process. A process of learning by doing.

Every aspect of this story fascinates me. Their design, their perseverance, learning from their mistakes and from the difficult situations, using these as an opportunity instead of looking at them in a pessimistic way, applying what they learnt from it and expanding their knowledge. But it is their design process what I find most interesting.

It is very important not to be tied down to a design. Design is important, but so is functionality. You need to be open to new, different ways of thinking. Do. Over and over again. It is the best way of learning. And then design and ideas will follow.