Charles & Ray Eames

Charles and Ray Eames are among the most important American designers of this century.
Charles Eames studied architecture at Washington University before he received a fellowship to Cranbrook Academy of Art, where he eventually became head of the design department.
Ray Kaiser Eames studied painting with Hans Hofmann in New York before moving on to Cranbrook Academy where she met and assisted Charles and Eero Saarinen in preparing designs for the Museum of Modern Art’s “Organic Furniture Competition.” Charles and Eero’s designs, created by moulding plywood into complex curves, won them the two first prizes.
Charles and Ray married in 1941 and continued to design furniture, their plywood chair was called “the chair of the century” by architectural critic Esther McCoy.
In 1949, Charles and Ray designed and built their own home in California as part of the Case Study House Program. It is considered one of the most important post-war residences built anywhere in the world.