Eames: Mastery of Plywood and the DCW Chair
By Olivia Testa
The partnership of Charles and Ray Eames has long defined the mid century modern movement. As a team, they defied the norms of art, architecture, design, and filmmaking. Their scope and their expertise is vast, but more importantly, their influence on the world of design is far reaching. Despite having an irregular start to their design partnership, they soon found great success. During the 1940s, America was at war and coming out of a Great Depression. These uncertain times led to great uncertainty in the acquisition of materials and the stability of their practice. However, in designing for the war effort, Charles and Ray Eames were not only able to maintain practice of their craft, but learn valuable skills which served as the backbone of their design practice.
Many of Charles and Ray Eames’s designs during World War II were built out of plywood, due to the inexpensive and accessible nature of the material. They soon became masters of the material by creating multiple ergonomic designs for medical, transportation, and aviation purposes of WWII both abroad and within the United States. More importantly than the mastery of the material, Charles and Ray Eames became masters of ergonomics. They designed for use and feel, and not for aesthetics. This is the core principle that helped define Eames’ career, and is often referred to by Charles Eames’s idea that, “design flows from learning.” The Eames carried on this idea through their work in furniture design, particularly in the design of chairs.
In the late 1940s, Charles and Ray Eames began a longtime partnership with the furniture company HermanMiller. HermanMiller was creating furniture for the modern, young American. They advertised to the young postwar couples starting new lives together in the suburbs. By combining the mastery of the Eames with the accessibility and financing of HermanMiller, the partnership redefined the American furniture at the time. Their great success and ever present designs were based upon Charles Eames’s motto to design, “the best, for the most, for the least.” That is, they sought to create the very best at an accessible price for every American household. One such design that sought to achieve just this was the DCW Chair.
Pictured above, the DCW chair is one of the earliest models of an Eames Molded Plywood Chair. Following suit with the notion to design aesthetics only after mastering function, the DCW chair follows the ergonomic curve of the human form in a seamless plywood design. However, the Eames wanted to ensure that despite the DCW chair’s artistic aesthetic, it’s functionality was second to none. When the Museum of Modern Art displayed the DCW chair in their 1946 show titled New Furniture Design by Charles Eames, they incorporated a tumbling drum which flipped the chairs to and fro in order to demonstrate their extreme flexibility.
While the show at the MoMA, and many other publications at the time, only credited Charles as the designer, every design was carried out in true partnership with both Charles and Ray. However, this partnership was unheard of at the time. America has come a long way in recognizing the partnership of a married couple, nevertheless the artistic creation of women alone.
Together, Charles and Ray Eames combined their individual creative expertise to create an entirely original style and technique. Their designs are timeless, and their influence can be seen in furniture today.
