The Development of the Furniture Market in the US During the Mid-Century and Its Designers

Written by Mark Jennings Friday, 20 May 2011 06:36

The most remarkable furnishings from the mid-century at the time represented simply 5 percent among all furnishings offered. Even though the furniture industry was decentralized throughout the country, a high percentage came out of the main furniture production area, the Grand Rapids, Michigan.The sales of modern home furniture were mainly concentrated in the Northeastern havens of sophistication, but as California developed in the 1950s modern furnishings had immediate, widespread fortune there.

The most remarkable furnishings from the mid-century at the time represented simply 5 percent among all furnishings offered. Even though the furniture industry was decentralized throughout the country, a high percentage came out of the main furniture production area, the Grand Rapids, Michigan.The sales of modern home furniture were mainly concentrated in the Northeastern havens of sophistication, but as California developed in the 1950s modern furnishings had immediate, widespread fortune there.

In 1957, furnishings sales in California led the ones of New York for the first time. Californian contribution to the good design movement was substantive, from hallowed name of Eames to Paul Laszlo, Paul Tuttle, Kipp Stuart and many others. In addition to the level of popularity of mass-manufactured items in California and the New York area, unique customers helped their favored designers, bringing into existence quite a few one-of-a-kind items, appealing not only for their rarity but for the impressive nonconformity of their designs.

CHARLES AND RAY EAMES Charles Eames is the undisputed protagonist of twentieth-century American furniture and interior decor design scene. His wife, Ray Kaiser Eames, and collaborator was always his shadow. Not that she ever minded: "Charles was a genius" (...) "I could never have done it myself." However neither, most likely, could he. The two were a couple in life and at work from 1940 until his death in 1978, from the first molded plywood chairs to the last work for Herman Miller, a sofa that has not been produced untill 1984.

The beginning of lots of of their designs was often a friend's voicing a desire for a peculiar piece of furniture. 'That's the way things usually happened' Ray Eames said 'Someone be would having a baby and needed a rocking chair, so we would design one. The aluminium group come about as a result of a friend's request for indoor/outdoor furniture. There was never a chance to think, what shall we do next? One thing lead to another. There was always something that needed doing, a hole that needed filling'.

From the needs of the few, come home furniture for the many. The Eameses' end view was at all times to build an object that could be mass-produced with efficiency. Says Ray Eames: 'We wanted to get as much quality as possible into mass production so that more people could live with well-made things'. The result of their beliefs had an incredible influence not purely on the the mid-century style but on the ages beyond.

GEORGE NELSON George Nelson was the design department director of Heman Milller, the furniture company who manufactured the all Eameses' products during the mid-century. He started his career writing about architecture -he was an architect himself- moving later to the furniture manufacturing business in Herman Miller. One of his most important and famous products come in late 1940s when he invented the Storagewall; a flexible system of case pieces mounted on aluminium poles to assuage the pet peeve of the home front: lack of closet space. Next come the Basic Cabinet Series, introduced in 1947, with rectilinear components arrayed on supporting benches. After a decade of refinements, the BCS involved more complex units, which were available in four finishes with satin chrome or porcelain pulls, and triangular aluminium or 7-inch legs.