Charles Eames

b. 1907, Saint Louis, d. 1978

Ray Eames

b. 1912 Sacramento, d. 1988

Married in 1941, this team of an architect and a painter would go on to have a profound impact on design following World War II, both in the US and abroad. Some of their most influential designs include Fiberglass Chair (1950), Wire Chair (1951), Lounge Chair and Ottoman (1956), the Plywood Group (1964), and the Sofapad Chair (1969). In all of their work, they sought to give “the most of the best to the greatest number of people for the least”, a philosophy borne out in their desire to work with large organizations (including IBM, Herman Miller and Vitra) in order to share design solutions as widely as possible. As designers, the Eameses occupied a key moment in history when the US government and top businesses were expressing a shared objective: to modernize postwar America.