Prize Designs for Modern Furniture

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Edgar Kaufmann Jr.

The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1950, English

Nonfiction, Product/Industrial Design

“Prize Designs for Modern Furniture from the International Competition for Low-Cost Furniture Design.”

From Modernism 101. Photographs and diagrams of the winning entries in the legendary 1949 MoMA International competition which introduced the experimental plastic furniture designs of Charles Eames to the world. In 1948, Eames and his co-workers partnered with the University of California (Los Angeles Campus) to develop a method of mass-producing plastic chairs, and the rest is history. Important early document of the partnership that eventually spawned the much-loved designs for Zenith/Herman Miller/Modernica.

A magnificent snapshot of the way the modern movement was blossoming in the days after World War II. Includes some nice insights into the postwar Chicago Industrial Design scene centered around the Institute of Design and the Armour Research Foundation.

On list of 9 Books from the Good Design Movement.

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