La Chaise, the Eames Elephant, Eames Wool Blanket, Plywood Mobiles, and the Eames House Bird, as well as the Organic Conference chair, which Charles Eames developed with Eero Saarinen, are now being launched in a carefully chosen assortment of novel finishes, fabrics, and colours.
In the world of Charles and Ray Eames, both the heart and mind were fully engaged. Iteration was key. Transforming industrial materials into beauty and function, they designed high-quality products for many audiences and markets. Every object had what Charles called a ‘way-it-should-be-ness’. They shared an impeccable intuition and understanding of what was needed in terms of form, colour and finishings.
Charles and Ray Eames saw their work with colour as not just having an aesthetic purpose but also as serving as a form of expression, a way of conveying information about objects, spaces, and volumes – and thus a tool for communicating the right messages and captivating the eye and mind of the viewer. Having trained as an artist with an impeccable eye for colour, Ray once declared, ‘I never gave up painting, I just changed my palette’.
Eames® Elephant (Plywood)
Eames Special Collection
In the early 1940s, Charles and Ray Eames spent several years developing and refining a technique for moulding plywood into three-dimensional shapes, creating a series of furniture items and sculptures in the process. Among these initial designs, the two-part elephant proved to be the most technically challenging due to its tight compound curves, and the piece never went into serial production. One prototype, which was given to Charles's 14-year-old daughter Lucia Eames, was loaned to the Museum of Modern Art in New York for a 1946 exhibition. It is still in the possession of the Eames family today.
After a limited edition in 2007, Vitra added a plywood version of the legendary Eames Elephant to its standard portfolio. The sculptural decorative figure with a high-quality face veneer in American cherry has been available since 2017. In 2023, Vitra launched a special edition of Eames Elephant in dark green stained plywood.
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Eames® Organic Chair
Eames Special Collection
Inspired by Ray’s passion for flower arranging and Charles’s eye for detail when it came to these compositions, the Organic Conference is offered in three versions of Kvadrat’s Ria fabric in the Eames Special Collection 2023. Ria evokes blooming fields and flowers and gives the Organic Conference chair a fresh floral look.
Drawing inspiration from Ray Eames’ passion for flower compositions, the Organic Conference will be available in three variants of the Ria fabric from Kvadrat as part of the Eames Special Collection 2023.
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Eames® Wool Blanket
Eames Special Collection
Like many other prominent twentieth-century architects and designers, Charles and Ray Eames also sought to implement their ideas about colours, shapes and materials in the design of textiles.
The 'Dot Pattern' was created in 1947 in conjunction with an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The pattern is a large-scale graphic composition made up of crosses and dots, thereby referencing the abstract paintings by Ray Eames from the 1930s. In 2023, Vitra launched a special edition of Eames Wool Blanket in the new colour Bordeaux.
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Eames® House Bird
Eames Special Collection
Charles and Ray Eames enriched the collage-like interior of their private home, the Eames House, with numerous objects and accessories that they brought back from their travels. For over fifty years, the figure of a wooden bird has stood in the centre of the living room – an artefact of American folk art that was evidently highly treasured by the couple, since it also appeared frequently as an accessory in photographs taken by Charles and Ray.
In 2023, Vitra launched a special edition of Eames House Bird in two stained wood variants dark green and pale rose.
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Eames® Plywood Mobiles
Eames Special Collection
In the early 1940s, Charles and Ray Eames conducted a series of experiments for the purpose of refining their plywood moulding techniques. These investigations led to the creation of two objects whose biomorphic shapes are strongly reminiscent of Ray's artwork and graphics. The Eameses hung them as mobiles from the ceiling of their Los Angeles apartment. Each Plywood Mobile consists of two abstract, organically shaped plywood elements that playfully revolve around one another.
In 2023, Vitra revisited the Plywood Mobiles in a bi-coloured version inspired by Ray Eames’ collages. Each Plywood Mobile consists of two abstract, organically shaped plywood elements that playfully revolve around one another.
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