Description: Introducing . . . THE COLLECTION OF MOLDED PLYWOOD FURNITURE designed by CHARLES EAMES Original 1948 Evans / Herman Miller Sales Brochure 16-Panel Accordion-Folded Brochure Devoted to Molded Plywood Eames Office and Alfred Auerbach [Text], Charles and Ray Eames with Charles Kratka [Design]:”Introducing . . . THE COLLECTION OF MOLDED PLYWOOD FURNITURE designed by CHARLES EAMES”. Zeeland, MI: The Herman Miller Furniture Company, 1948. Original edition [the first of two variants; the second variant strips out the Evans manufacturing references to the front and rear panels]. Leporello. Sixteen panel accordion folded brochure printed in black and red and illustrated with halftone product shots. Unmarked from the library of James Prestini. Trivial rubbing to front and rear panels, but a fine uncirculated copy. 5.5 x 6.5-inch brochure that unfolds to a 6.5 x 44-inches trim size. Printed in black and “Herman Miller red” with a “manufactured by Evans Products Company,” “designed by Charles Eames,” and “national distributors: Herman Miller Furniture Company” credit to rear panel. Photography and artwork by the Eames Office: art direction by Ray Eames and Charles Kratka's uncredited graphic design and production. This brochure was the first piece of marketing material to promote the Charles Eames molded plywood furniture manufactured by the Herman Miller Furniture Company. Photographs and production specifications for the DCW, DCM4, LCW, LCM chairs, the Dining, Card and Incidental folding tables, FSW folding screens, and the CTW1, CTW3 and CTM1 coffee tables. A very unusual piece of original ephemera promoting the “most significant line of modern furniture ever produced” [Time magazine]. The second variant of this brochure — the the Evans references removed — was reproduced in full in EAMES DESIGN by John and Marilyn Neuhart and Ray Eames (page 89). Here is the Neuhart/Eames background on the production of this brochure: 1948: Herman Miller Furniture Company Graphics “As Herman Miller's marketing campaigns for the Eames plywood chairs developed, the Eames office gradually assumed the creation of graphics and advertisements featuring their furniture (although no formal plan or contract for the work was ever drawn up). The office designed and wrote the copy with the help of Alfred Auerbach, Herman Miller's marketing consultant. The first ads, designed by Ray with Charles Kratka, featured the plywood chairs, the round-top table, the folding table with rod legs, and the folding screen.The ads were published in such trade journals as Retailing Daily and in consumer periodicals, including Arts & Architecture, Interiors, and Architectural Forum .” “Herman Miller's advertising budget was small; the ads were printed in black and white or in two colors (black and ‘Herman Miller red’) and featured images of plywood furniture photographed in the Eames Office, combined on occasion with drawings that emphasized and dramatized the organic quality of the furniture. Photographs of Eames displays in Herman Miller showrooms were also used. The informal, almost playful graphics conveyed the same energy and liveliness that was inherent in the approach to the design of the furniture itself.” "What you make is important. Design is an integral part of business. The product must be honest. You decide what you want to make. There is a market for good design." -- George Nelson In a characteristically wry 1944 correspondence with Herman Miller founder, D. J. De Pree, George Nelson wrote that “your reservations on my suitability as a designer for Herman Miller Co., impressed me very much for they seem to be well founded… the question of lack of experience in the commercial furniture field is also important, but here, I am afraid, you and your associates will have to make the decision on your own.” Fast forward four years later, and Nelson once again found himself reflecting on the integrity of the Herman Miller Co., but this time, not as a potential hire but rather as Herman Miller’s founding creative director. In the 1948 introduction to the catalogue for his first ever collection for the company, he writes, “From the viewpoint of the designer, which is the only viewpoint I can assume with any degree of propriety, the Herman Miller Furniture Company is a rather remarkable institution.” Whatever leap of faith was required of De Pree to hire Nelson, the affinity and mutual respect shared between the two was undeniably fruitful. Nelson credits Herman Miller’s singularity as a result of a “philosophy” or “attitude” compounded of a set of principles—that what you make is important; that design is integral to business; that products must be honest; that only we can decide what we make, and that there is a market for good design—that allow for a degree of autonomy and innovation unavailable to companies driven by the shallow demands of the market or sales. “There is no attempt to conform to the so-called norms of ‘public taste,’ nor any special faith in the methods used to evaluate the ‘buying public.’ The reason many people are struck by the freshness of Herman Miller designs is that the company is not playing follow-the-leader.” George Nelson (1908 – 1986) became director of design at Herman Miller in 1946, a position he held until 1972. While there, Nelson recruited other seminal modern designers, including Charles Eames and Isamu Noguchi. He also developed his own designs, including the Marshmallow Sofa, the Nelson Platform Bench and the first L-shaped desk, a precursor to the present-day workstation. He also created a series of boldly graphic wall clocks and a series of bubble lamps made of self-webbing plastic. “The real asset of Herman Miller at that time,” Nelson wrote, “were items one never found on a balance sheet: faith, a cheerful indifference to what the rest of the industry might be up to, lots of nerve, and a mysterious interaction that had everyone functioning at top capacity while always having a very good time.” Nelson felt that designers must be “aware of the consequences of their actions on people and society and thus cultivate a broad base of knowledge and understanding.” He was an early environmentalist, one of the first designers to take an interest in new communications technology and a powerful writer and teacher. Perhaps influenced by his friend, Buckminster Fuller, Nelson’s ultimate goal as a designer was “to do much more with much less.” ”Eventually everything connects – people, ideas, objects, etc., . . . the quality of the connections is the key to quality per se.” — Charles Eames Charles (1907 – 1978) and Ray Eames (1912 – 1988) created more than a look with their bent plywood chairs or molded fiberglass seating. They had ideas about making a better world, one in which things were designed to fulfill the practical needs of ordinary people and bring greater simplicity and pleasure to our lives. ”. . . everything hangs on something else.” — Ray Eames The Eameses adventurously pursued new ideas and forms with a sense of serious fun. Yet, it was rigorous discipline that allowed them to achieve perfection of form and mastery over materials. As Charles noted about the molded plywood chair, “Yes, it was a flash of inspiration,” he said, “a kind of 30-year flash.” Combining imagination and thought, art and science, Charles and Ray Eames created some of the most influential expressions of 20th century design – furniture that remains stylish, fresh and functional today. And they didn't stop with furniture. The Eameses also created a highly innovative “case study” house in response to a magazine contest. They made films, including a seven-screen installation at the 1959 Moscow World's Fair, presented in a dome designed by Buckminster Fuller. They designed showrooms, invented toys and generally made the world a more interesting place to be. As the most important exponents of organic design, Charles and Ray Eames demonstrated how good design can improve quality of life and human understanding and knowledge. Please visit my Ebay store for an excellent and ever-changing selection of rare and out-of-print design books and periodicals covering all aspects of 20th-century visual culture. I offer shipping discounts for multiple purchases. Please contact me for details. Payment due within 3 days of purchase.
Price: 2499.99 USD
Location: Shreveport, Louisiana
End Time: 2024-11-30T15:45:54.000Z
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