Charles ‘n’ Ray Eames

Words cannot describe how much we admire the rockstar designer couple of mid-century modernism - Charles and Ray Eames - not just for their legacy, but for how they managed to live and work together so harmoniously.

Anyone familiar with the design industry knows what creative studios are really like: high-intensity environments of deadlines, stress, and opinionated egos. Not in a bad way. The profession, by definition, attracts strong, self-centred individuals, usually from similar backgrounds and comparable intelligence. Always highly sensitive. A cocktail for conflict.

Think of the rock and pop bands that split after their second album, once the hype of those first creative outbursts has faded and all that remains are their personal differences. Usually, the members go off to pursue their own careers.

So in a dinosaur business moving at a snail's pace - a craft of slow, steady progress rather than overnight success, where rewards come at the back end (Frank Lloyd Wright only gained steam after seventy!) - it's all the more astonishing that Charles and Ray built such a long-lasting, quintessential oeuvre, one that still looks young and fresh today. All while being life partners and handling the daily, mundane household tasks. Incredible.

They made modernist masterpieces the way we love them: sleek, elegant, and refined - but always warm, comfortable, colourful, and alive. No über-clean, porn-chic boxes, but truly lived-in interiors with an eclectic, well-chosen mix of carefully crafted pieces, either designed by themselves or found on their many travels. It was bohemian-chic, avant la lettre, half a century before the first tech billionaires came dining in flip-flops at Jondal.

Their understated eclecticism feels as authentic and fresh today as it did fifty years ago. Slender lines, elegant forms. Curvy plastic shells married to industrial steel - and some sexy plywood, moulded to its very limits. They pushed the envelope by experimenting, searching, and, most importantly, having fun while doing it.

Maybe that's the secret sauce?

"Take your pleasure seriously." - Charles Eames

Photo & Credits: Charles and Ray Eames Lounge Chair. Photography copyright of Herman Miller.