Charles and Ray Eames for President(s)

Charles and Ray Eames

When we began discussing Henri Lefebvre's Critique of Everyday Life and how it is no longer authentic or original; it immediately made me think of Charles and Ray Eames' photoshoot of their everyday life with their designs and in their home. The Eames showed how their ordinary authentic everyday life could still be beautiful without having to put up a facade to make their life seem picture-perfect in order to sell their work. These two different outlooks from Lefebvre and the Eames are almost incomparable but their use of similar terminology to describe their perspective is very intriguing to me. It is also very interesting to acknowledge that both the Eames and Lefebvre existed during similar time frames but in very different political climates on different continents.

While on the topic of the Eames, I believe this can also tie back into the discussion by Margaret Crawford's Everyday Urbanism of how user experience and functionality aren't considered as heavily when designing. This typically leaves both the designer and the user confused and displeased rather than just asking this user what they would want to see or experience. The Eames were known for solving problems while still creating art. Their motto stated: what works well is better than what looks good because work lasts. They designed things that would benefit users and solve everyday problems instead of just making something pretty because they could.

This is definitely just a pro-Eames post but I wouldn't have it any other way.