Cube Gallery: The Eames Special Collection 2023

With the Eames Special Collection 2023, Vitra – in close collaboration with the Eames Office – is now producing new versions of selected iconic pieces by Charles and Ray Eames. Now available from Cube Gallery.

This special collection includes La Chaise, the Eames Elephant, Eames Wool Blanket, Plywood Mobiles and the Eames House Bird, as well as the Organic Conference chair, which Charles Eames developed with Eero Saarinen. These are now being launched in a carefully chosen assortment of novel finishes, fabrics and colours.

In the world of Charles and Ray Eames, both the heart and mind were fully engaged. Iteration was key. Transforming industrial materials into beauty and function, they designed high-quality products for many audiences and markets. Every object had what Charles called a ‘way-it-should-be-ness’. They shared an impeccable intuition and understanding of what was needed in terms of form, colour and finishings.

Charles and Ray Eames saw their work with colour as not just having an aesthetic purpose but also as serving as a form of expression, a way of conveying information about objects, spaces and volumes – and thus a tool for communicating the right messages and captivating the eye and mind of the viewer. Having trained as an artist with an impeccable eye for colour, Ray once declared, ‘I never gave up painting, I just changed my palette’.

The Eames Special Collection is available worldwide at select dealers until the end of January 2024.

Eames House Bird

Charles and Ray Eames enriched the collage-like interior of their private home, the Eames House, with numerous objects and accessories that they brought back from their travels. For over seventy years, the figure of a wooden bird has stood in the centre of the living room – an artefact that was evidently highly treasured by the couple, since it also appeared frequently as an accessory in photographs taken by Charles and Ray.

Plywood Mobiles

The Plywood Mobiles, whose shapes are strongly reminiscent of Ray’s artwork and graphics, were hung from the ceiling of the Eameses’ apartment in Los Angeles.

Eames Wool Blanket

Like many other prominent twentieth-century architects and designers, Charles and Ray Eames also sought to implement their ideas about colours, shapes and materials in the design of textiles. The ‘Dot Pattern’ was created in 1947 in conjunction with an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The pattern is a large-scale graphic composition made up of crosses and dots, thereby referencing the abstract paintings by Ray Eames from the 1930s.

The Eames Wool Blankets are produced in a jacquard weave, which means that the colours of the ‘Dot Pattern’ are reversed on the front and back. Available in several hues, the wool blankets are made of 100% high-quality Merino lambswool, and are particularly light, fine and soft to the touch while also providing optimal warmth and thermal balance.

Eames Elephant (Plywood)

Charles and Ray Eames developed a toy elephant made of plywood in 1945; however, this piece never went into production. One prototype was shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1946 and still survives in the Eames family archives today. After issuing a first limited edition in 2007, Vitra commenced serial production of the Eames Elephant in plywood in 2018.

The Eames Elephant in plywood is available in cherry wood or – as a special numbered and labelled series – in grey-stained ash.

Organic Conference

The design of the Organic Chair was created by Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen in 1940 as part of their entry for a competition entitled ‘Organic Design in Home Furnishings’, which was organised by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. While all of the models in this group are extremely comfortable, Organic Conference is suited for table seating, unlike the versions Organic Chair and Organic Highback.