SERIOUS FUN!

For the Eameses, work and play went hand in hand.

Husband-and-wife industrial design team Charles and Ray Eames were renowned for their hands-on methods. Giving equal time to both members of the pair, starting with their youth (when each lost a father), Hale notes the curiosity, discipline, and zeal for life that influenced their later careers. Teaming up as young adults, they aimed to solve problems, whatever the field, producing colorful, ingeniously engineered designs for toys, furniture, buildings, textiles, graphics, and exhibitions. They also collaborated on films, photographs, and animation. Hale focuses mainly on the couple’s use of wood and their goal of affordable modern mass production. Together they invented a method of bending plywood into perhaps their most famous creations, the various Eames chairs. Hale never mentions the later productions of their furniture designs in wire, fiberglass, and molded plastic, though she applauds their solar-powered “Do-Nothing Machine” toy, made for an aluminum company. Stressing the duo’s philosophy of “learning by doing” and the sense of playfulness that permeated their work, Hale’s story is as streamlined, inviting, and balanced as the Eameses’ famous designs. The clean, midcentury-influenced illustrations effectively convey the designs (the Eames House interior is especially appealing). A clever final spread summarizes some of their achievements, set against a backdrop comprised of an outline of one of their products.

A winning celebration of a power couple’s versatility, innovation, and collaborative spirit.