There is something about the design of a molded plastic chair that makes it easy to miss, unobtrusive, humble. Perhaps it’s the unassuming simplicity of its form. Or perhaps it’s the functional, stackable architecture that reminds you it’s built to be one of many – a facsimile of itself and all the others like it. For some reason, as these familiar objects sit in the school assembly halls, dentist’s waiting rooms, and offices we inhabit every day, they find themselves taken for granted.
The reality is that, in 1948, something happened that would change the course of history. With the exhibition of their first molded plastic chair designs at the Museum of Modern Art, Charles and Ray Eames had created, in their words, furniture that gave, “the most of the best to the greatest number of people for the least.”