Why Won't Midcentury Die?
Here's an interesting, if brief, article from the New York Times on the lasting appeal of midcentury design. While confessing a weakness for some of the motifs of the time, my most significant appreciation of it has more to do with the midcentury approach toward design. One of Charles and Ray Eames's most beautiful artifacts was the splint they designed in the 1940s.
This molded plywood splint was designed to fit the contours of the leg, and its details serve this function, giving beauty to use.
Sit in an Eames chair and you know instantly that it was made for sitting. This may sound trivial, but how many chairs have you sat in that just make you want to stand up and move away? In my experience the latter happens much more often than the former.
Here's an interesting, if brief, article from the New York Times on the lasting appeal of midcentury design. While confessing a weakness for some of the motifs of the time, my most significant appreciation of it has more to do with the midcentury approach toward design. One of Charles and Ray Eames's most beautiful artifacts was the splint they designed in the 1940s.
This molded plywood splint was designed to fit the contours of the leg, and its details serve this function, giving beauty to use.
Sit in an Eames chair and you know instantly that it was made for sitting. This may sound trivial, but how many chairs have you sat in that just make you want to stand up and move away? In my experience the latter happens much more often than the former.
