This blog is supposed to be about food and design as well as cycling. Thanks to the idiots in charge of the Masterchef application judging this year, I haven’t got an awful lot of exciting foodie stories to tell at the moment (to the extend that I’m actually LOSING WEIGHT), but I’ve got no excuses as far as design is concerned, immersed in it as I am every day.
There is a book called 1000 Chairs. It features a lot of worthy designs but, given the scope required by the title, it also includes a load of rubbish. I have thus taken it upon myself to offer my own online version, featuring 50 chairs that I think are fucking great. Hopefully Taschen will be in touch soon to talk about a printed version. “50 Fucking Great Chairs” might even be in the shops for xmas…
So, here we go…
Charles and Ray Eames were invited to design the lobby furnishings for the Time-Life Corporation’s building (which was part of the Rockefeller Center Extension) in 1961. The Lobby Chair they designed thus came to be known as the Time-Life chair. The chair combines the sculptural aluminium castings of earlier their earlier work, but with a heavier silhouette and a much deeper soft sit. In 1972 Bobby Fischer demanded a Time-Life chair for the World Chess Championships, claiming it helped him concentrate. When his opponent Boris Spaasky saw it he refused to play until they got him one as well. The chair is still in production, manufactured for the American market by Herman Miller, and by Vitra in Europe.
Whilst the classic Lounge chair is being knocked off right left and centre, and the Aluminium and Soft Pad groups have become similarly ubiquitous, the Time-Life chair remains (for me anyway) the most alluring and thoughtful Eames design. It is an awesome piece of furniture.