Eames: The Architect & The Painter Page #3

Ray certainly felt uncomfortable

enough to leave Cranbrook

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and go away and think about

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what she was going to do

thereafter.

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DEMETRIOS:
Catherine was

a very impressive person.

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Knowing them both, as I did,

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you can see why

they didn't stay together.

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He really thought he had

something to offer the world,

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and this was going to be

a journey

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with a lot

of unexpectedness.

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This was ajourney that might

not lead to, uh, success.

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And I think that maybe

at that point in her life,

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this was not necessarily

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the place that Catherine

wanted to go.

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But I think that maybe

in Charles's mind

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that he had wanted a life

where love and work

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and life and work

were all blended together.

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FRANCO:
Charles quit hisjob

at Cranbrook,

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and, in one last letterto Ray,

asked for her hand in marriage.

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His future with his new bride

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now depended

on making the chairwork.

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Broke and short on options,

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Charles and Ray

headed from Michigan to L.A.

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To finish what he had started.

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DEMETRIOS:
Part of this journey

to California was

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they were both

going to figure out

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how to mass-produce molded

plywood and compound curves...

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which sounds very unromantic,

but I think it probably

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was pretty romantic,

under the circumstances.

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FRANCO:
In their two-bedroom

apartment in Westwood Village,

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Charles and Ray set up

a makeshift workshop.

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RAY EAMES:
The...

the first to...

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that did the molding,

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which was so magic,

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we called it by a magic name.

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So we called it "Kazam!"

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FRANCO:
The "Kazam!" machine was

a jury-rigged molding device

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made out of heating coils

and a bicycle pump.

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But in 1942,

with the nation at war,

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raw materials were scarce,

and the "Kazam!" lay silent.

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But with the setback,

there was also opportunity.

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The U.S. Military

needed better splints.

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DEMETRIOS:
The standard-issue

splint was metallic,

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and so the vibration of

the two people carrying them

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actually would make

the wound worse.

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They would actually be

better off

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if you grabbed a stick

off the ground and tied it to it

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than with this

amplification.

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So Charles and Ray said,

"Well, you know,

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we're experimenting

with molded plywood.

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Why don't we try

and design a new splint?"

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They're trying to make

a three-dimensional curve,

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kind of a bowl, you might say.

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They can't quite do it yet.

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So they need holes

in the plywood

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in order to release the tension,

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'cause otherwise

it's going to splinter

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where they try to do it.

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But working within

the constraints,

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what's nice is that this is

exactly what you need

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for a splint, 'cause you need

a place for the bandages to go.

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FRANCO:
In a rented warehouse

space,

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their team of skilled designers

and craftspeople

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made 150,000 splints.

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With peace approaching,

Charles and Ray

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had one thing on their minds...

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applying the lessons

of the splints

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to the failed

plywood chairs.

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This time, they wouldn't design

the look of the chair first.

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DEMETRIOS:
They would never make

that mistake again.

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They would let the design flow

from the learning.

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FRANCO:
That meant

knowing who they were serving.

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In Charles's words,

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it was always about being

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a good host to their guests.

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CHARLES EAMES:
The people we

wanted to serve were varied,

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and to begin with we studied

the shape and postures

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of many types...

averages and extremes.

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FRANCO:
But it was more

than just a search

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for the best chair design.

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It was the beginning

of the Eames design process,

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a process of learning by doing.

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CHARLES EAMES:
In the design

of any structure,

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it is often the connection

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that provides the key

to the solution.

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FRANCO:
"Never delegate

understanding," Charles said.

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It would become a hallmark

of Eames design,

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their secret ingredient.

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MAN:
Charles said,

yeah, there's a secret.

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First you have an idea,

then you discard the idea,

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then you have 50 other ideas

and you discard them,

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