M.C. Escher, Dutch graphic artist, birthday 17 June 1898
Charles Eames, Jr., American designer, birthday 17 June 1907
In connection with the opening of NeoCon World’s Trade Fair
opening this week in Chicago it seems almost fitting that Thomas Chippendale is
highlighted. Today it is seemingly child’s
play to get one’s goods to market compared to two hundred or even one hundred years
ago. In this day and age a simple
internet connection can have one distributing one’s designs worldwide. And yet, events like NeoCon are still essential
to the design market by not just bringing all these innovative items together
into one space for comparison and collaboration but also for offering an
opportunity to figuratively take the temperature of the design waters to gain a
perspective of where the industry is going as only seeing these items all
together in person could offer. In the
time of Thomas Chippendale, things were a bit more complicated. It could be said that Chippendale is the
inventor of the design book with the publication of The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker’s Director. 
When one sees what would be described as a “Chippendale”
chair, it does not mean that he actually built it, was built in his factory or
even really designed it. It just means
that the furniture maker used his catalogue of design as a guide with the
customer to create the piece; it is “in the style of” Chippendale. It was a brilliant communication method
between craftsman and customer. That’s
right, hard to believe but most furniture pieces before the Industrial
Revolution were made to order and the genius of Chippendale was that he didn't
even need to be present when it happened for his influence to be. This lead to other designers like Hepplewhite
and Sheraton to publish their own books.
Today the concept that you could have an item designed by someone in
Italy, manufactured in China and then delivered to the US within a matter of
weeks is commonplace. For Thomas
Chippendale, it was more lucrative to sell his book which was easier to ship
and established himself as the style of the era. 
It would make sense when looking at his work that Maurits
Cornelis Escher started out studying architecture.
Soon, due to poor grades and an inclination for drawing rather than
building he switched his study to the decorative arts. After marveling at the intricate tessellation
patterns that adorned the Alhambra he settled in Italy for a time and eventually
the back in the Netherlands. The fascination
of the impossibility of Escher’s images is what attracts most to his work. Staircases go in circles, inhabitants defy
gravity, inanimate drawings become alive and then back again. His engineer father may have been
disappointed he was not successful in architecture but today his work does
more to influence not just architecture but mathematics and science than if he
had. 
Another famous furniture
maker was Charles Eames. Along with his
wife Ray and their highly influential studio they essentially defined what
mid-century modern design is. It must be
said, with all the wonderful designs produced by this team, and most of which I
would like to own, there is just one that I never want to see in my house. That is the infamous lounge. I know most people disagree with me on this
but I just can’t stand the sight of the thing.
What is strange is that I don’t have this reaction to any other piece of
furniture. I marvel at the complexity of
their plywood manipulation. I adore the
Eiffel tower base. Who doesn’t want a
chair from the aluminum group in their office?
And the walnut stools…yes, I’ll take three. Not to mention, as a couple, they look like
they would be a hoot to hang with, just don’t ever ask me to sit in that awful
chair. 
Charles was smart enough to employ
a great team of designers whose mark on design is far reaching, not just in
furniture design. They conceptualized
the pre-fab house and examined scale on a universal and microscopic level in
film. The manner in which the office
operated was groundbreaking as well.
Unlike most design firms of the time, gone were the straight rows of
drafting tables. It looked more like controlled
chaos with large worktables which encouraged collaboration among the team. The clear genius of Charles is evident to
this day. So, I guess I can forgive one
small chair. 
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