George
Nelson-Modernism
George Nelson was an architect,
author, an all round designer (furniture, graphic, exhibition) and
photographer, to name a few of his many talents. George Nelson changed American
design constantly over 40 years. He is well known as the designer of the Coconut
Chair, Marshmallow Sofa and the Ball Clock. He was an expert on Modernism and a
great defender of Modernist principles. During Nelson's working period, he
developed modern office furniture, which is still beautiful, functional and
popular till this day. Nelson had a sense of fun and colour which is reflected
in many of his designs, his most notorious being the Marshmallow Sofa.
The Marshmallow Sofa
The Marshmallow Sofa was produced
in 1956 at a time when, after the second world war, the world was branching into
a new modern era. Society in America at the time was turning into a motorised
society. Recovering from after the second world war, society was scrapping the
old and looking for the new and modern equivalent. The public had more leisure
and material comforts so the design of the Marshmallow sofa fitted in perfectly
with what the new modern, American society was looking for. Even though the cost of manufacturing the
sofa was higher than expected and sales were below expectations, it still
achieved the status of being a modern classic.
Nelson completely changed the way many
designers approach their work as he believed that one should design an object,
not by looking at the importance, but the way in which it has been emotionally
explored and expressed.
Charles and Ray Eames- Organic Design
Charles and Ray Eames also left
their mark as being in the list of America's most important designers. They
have produced designs in architecture, furniture, industrial and photographic.
They were part of the International style during the Organic Design period.
Their first commission was during
the second world war when the navy had asked them to design a splint for
wounded soldiers. This is where they worked on the technique of molding and
bending plywood to create a one piece wooden design. This early technique was
refined over the next ten years to allow the Eameses to create wooden molded
pieces.
Society at the time had an open
market for quality mass produced office furniture. The Eamses were capable of
producing a single piece chair that would fit the natural contour of the body
and could be mass produced. This chair (The Eames chair) was later developed in
the 50s as the Eames Lounge chair. It was one of the most comfortable chairs
for the office and is still produced till this day.
The Eames Chair
When producing the Eames Lounge
chair, they tried to keep as much as the hand-craftmanship as possible, but
still be able to mass produce it and all throughout their era,they came closer
than anybody else to producing that.
The Eames Lounge Chair
Bibliography:
Blogger.
2009. The Modern Designs of George Nelson!. [ONLINE] Available at:
http://swanklighting.blogspot.com/2009/08/modern-designs-of-george-nelson.html.
[Accessed 26 January 14].
bonluxat.
no date. George Nelson Marshmallow Sofa. [ONLINE] Available at:
http://www.bonluxat.com/a/George_Nelson_Marshmallow_Sofa.html. [Accessed 26
January 14].
georgenelsonfoundation.
2012. The Foundation's Mission. [ONLINE] Available at:
http://www.georgenelsonfoundation.org/mission/index.html. [Accessed 26 January
14].
justcreative. 2012. 4 Lessons to
Learn from Charles and Ray Eames. [ONLINE] Available at:
http://justcreative.com/2012/11/27/charles-ray-eames-lessons/. [Accessed 26
January 14].
Eames. no date. The Eames Chair.
[ONLINE] Available at: http://www.eames.biz/. [Accessed 26 January 14].
WANKEN. 2010. APPROACHING DESIGN:
EAMES LOUNGE CHAIR. [ONLINE] Available at: http://blog.wanken.com/6516/approaching-design-eames-lounge-chair/.
[Accessed 26 January 14].
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