06 April 2011Inside the Eames Office
The web is full of photographs of utopian, minimal design studios bathed in glorious white light. They always look very appealing at first glance, but their empty inactivity is a bit eery. The surfaces are always bare (save for the occasional gigantiMac display), the shelves are sparse and carefully ornamented with the correct monographs, and the only time you'll see humans messying up the place with their clumsy limbs and ill-considered fleshy colour schemes is if they're out of focus, blurred, in the background, or all three.
So it makes a nice change to see these old pics of the Eames Office (pinched from Co. Design and House Industries), full of stuff, with people doing stuff, using stuff. All lit by a multitude of Anglepoise lamps. Of course, if you do want to see it all empty-like, you can do so whilst feeling like a giant.
Reader Comments (2)
The thing is, I have never seen an uncluttered architectural office. I believe that clutter is simply a natural consequence of the creative process. Of course, one must maintain things organized in order not to drown under the avalanche of ideas, concept drawings, models, magazines, to-do lists and avoid the frenetic search for an important document etc., but I don't really believe in gloriously minimal design studios. They exist only in the realm of photography, inspiring unsuspecting students and perhaps creating this mild feeling of inadequacy in real studio owners all around.
I recently read An Eames Primer by their grandson Demetrious. It was filled with reminders along these same lines. Process is everything. In fact the Charles and Ray rarely used sketches, in favor of actually building models or full sized "sketches" of what their idea would become. It was incredibly inspiring considering the state of our world today and how much design gets created 100% through a computer.