Tag: Ray Eames

Design Object Series N. 004

The Shell Chair, Oneida Flatware + the Dishwasher

In our Design Object Series we highlight iconic objects designed by women. Thousands of objects that you use and appreciate everyday…surprise! Women designed them! Many of the contributions of women to design have been obscured if not erased throughout history. We want to do our part to counteract this effect by celebrating the women behind a range of objects that you’re sure to recognize. In this issue we salute three design objects that have revolutionized how we live in our homes; critical tools that were designed to be affordable and to make our daily lives easier. We’ll share the story of the Shell chair, designed by Ray Eames, Oneida Flatware, designed by Ellen Manderfield for decades, and the precursor to the modern day dishwasher, designed by Josephine Cochrane.

The Shell Chair

The shell chair is an iconic design form, recognized not only by industry professionals but by non-designers as well. The chair is really a chair system, and a powerful example of modular design. A series of chair bodies and bases can be mixed and matched to suit a range of uses, from bar stools and task chairs to outdoor and lounge chairs. The ergonomic, carefully plotted curves make it comfortable for a wide range of users. Diverse material and upholstery options create still more options for customization, creating over 2 million possible combinations. 

Designed in 1948, the chair eventually became the world’s first mass-produced plastic chair. Initially, though, it was created in fiberglass, designed by renaissance designer Ray Eames and her equally multi-disciplinary designer husband, Charles Eames. During World War II the team worked on strategies for bending plywood to create light, ergonomic leg splints for injured soldiers. After the war they kept playing with the technique, creating furniture concepts with the new manufacturing method. They experimented further, working on chair shapes in steel, which was low cost but rusted over time. They collaborated with a boat-builder to create prototypes in fiberglass, a hazardous material to handle but sleek and colorful. In the years after introducing the fiberglass model they created bent wire options and switched from fiberglass to polypropylene, then a brand new material. Because they could be mass-produced the chairs were affordable to produce and to purchase, and aligned with the goal of the Eames to create ‘design for everyone’.

The thoughtful curves of the shell chair make it comfortable for a wide range of users. Image courtesy of Miss Anthropology.

Today the 1948 design is offered in polypropylene as well as polyester resin reinforced with glass fiber. The shell chair serves as a perfect representation of the clean simplicity and versatile functionality that the Eames became known for as a design team. The significance of the design is proven by its inclusion in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection in New York.

Oneida Flatware

Sitting down to dinner in your shell chair is great, though you won’t get far without flatware. The utopian Oneida Community in Oneida, NY began producing silver flatware and hollowware (hollow and concave objects made of silver) in 1899, becoming Onieda Ltd. in 1935. While the company had been designing flatware for decades before Ellen Manderfield came on board in 1956, no designer before her had designed so many designs, nor so many successful ones. Manderfield designed over 200 stainless steel and silver flatware patterns for Onieda, retiring in 1986 as a Senior Industrial Designer. 

By the 1980s Oneida manufactured over half of US flatware, and the brand is still one we recognize and can purchase today. They are known for practical and affordable flatware in an astonishing array of patterns ranging from sleek and contemporary to traditional and ornate, hundreds of which were designed by Ellen Manderfield. Several of those won accolades and design awards in addition to becoming best-selling patterns. Her ‘Omni’ line, created in 1979, was chosen for MoMA’s Design Study Collection. Her 1956 ‘Evening Star’ line was chosen for use in American Airlines’ first class in-flight service.

Manderfield had a rigorous process for creating these patterns. She would develop over 20 versions of a single teaspoon to get the balance and form just right. A 250% scale model was developed in clay and then in plaster to create the incredible details of the swirling, baroque patterns Oneida was known for. The tooling for the master molds was made with these oversized models. 

An early promotional image from the Oneida Community. Image courtesy of Silver Season.

Ellen Manderfield was the first woman to be accepted into the Industrial Design Society of America (then the American Society of Industrial Designers) in 1957. While she is best-known for her work at Oneida, she had worked in industrial design for years before transitioning there, designing packaging and graphics at Meyercord Company, televisions and radios at Sylvania Electric, household goods and appliances at Ann Swainson’s Bureau of Design, and radio and television cabinets at General Electric. She was ambitious and seemingly indefatigable. Even at Oneida, as she churned out hundreds of flatware patterns, she developed jewelry and metal sculptures over her lunch break, and went home to do weaving and painting. Her dedicated renaissance approach makes her an incredible industrial design role model.

The Dishwasher

For many the dishwasher is a critical home appliance, preventing hundreds of hours of manual washing that, while meditative for some, is tedious and time-consuming for most. Those of us who benefit from this kitchen staple owe our gratitude to Josephine Cochrane, a socialite in Ohio in the late 1800s who tired of her fine china being damaged by hand-washing. 

Cochrane and her husband enjoyed entertaining, and she was accustomed to servants doing most of her housework. She realized that her fine china was often chipped when scrubbed by hand, and when she tried doing the dishes herself she discovered how tiresome and labor intensive the process was. She was determined to create a more efficient strategy for safely cleaning her china, and proceeded to work on a design that used strong jets of water to clean dishes suspended in a rack. After beginning the work her husband passed away and left her with debt that spurred her to create a machine that would be a success. While other dish washing machines had been invented, none were commercially viable and therefore none were available to her to purchase. She was sure she could create a functional solution. 

The 1886 patent for Josephine Cochrane’s “Dish Washing Machine”. Image via the US Patent and Trademark Office.

The design process Cochrane followed looked much like the process of a contemporary industrial designer. She measured her plates and cups and developed compartments that would hold them safely. A motor powered wheel spun inside a copper boiler and forced hot, soapy water up around the dishes. She patented her design as the “Cochrane Dishwasher” in 1886 and began selling to industrial clients like restaurants and hotels. While developed to help with residential housework, the houses at the time weren’t ready to support the appliance. Small hot water heaters couldn’t provide the necessary volume of hot water and, at the time, hand-washing dishes was considered a pleasant chore by many. 

The dishwasher wasn’t widely adopted until the 1950s when several cultural forces came together to make Cochrane’s dishwasher the perfect fit: women’s attitudes toward housework were shifting as they joined the workforce, technology improved to support the appliance, and dishwashing detergent improved. Cochrane’s company eventually became another company you probably recognize: KitchenAid. The first dishwasher available from KitchenAid was released in 1949, and was based on Cochrane’s patent, the ancestor of the modern dishwasher.

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Celebrating Women Design Pioneers

Celebrating Women Design Pioneers, Thought Leaders and Activists

For centuries, women have been the pioneers and drivers of design. You see it in architecture, interior design, fashion, advertising, furniture and product design: women working behind the scenes, receiving little to no credit for their pioneering work. Fortunately, that’s all starting to change.

The early twentieth century saw the beginnings of a transformation in America. The number of design product patents held by women began to rise. Universities granted more and more design degrees to women. Companies hired women into design leadership roles. Today, more than half of all working designers are women—yet women remain underrepresented in design leadership positions. 

At Interwoven, we’re working to change that. Starting in early 2020, we began our Women Design Heroes Instagram series, celebrating women designers who have made an awe-inspiring imprint on the world.

Design Pioneers

Some of the most inspirational designers were cross-disciplinary trailblazers. Ray Eames started out as a painter in the early 1930s and 40s, making her mark on the New York abstract expressionist scene along with her friend and fellow artist, Lee Krasner. After a move to the West Coast, Eames took up architecture and industrial design, working closely with her husband, Charles Eames, and well-known architect Eero Saarinen. In Eames’ now-famous home and artists’ haven, the Eames House, you can see the influences of abstract art on the multi-colored facade.

“I never gave up painting, I just changed my palette.”

– Ray Eames

Textile designer and weaving innovator, Anni Albers changed the way textiles were perceived, using the medium as art and a breeding ground for experimentation. She trained at the Bauhaus and embraced its learning-through-experimentation methodology to explore composition and color through weaving. She often worked in grid patterns and was influenced by her husband’s work in optical illusion color theories. She taught for many years at both the Bauhaus and, after immigrating to the U.S., at Black Mountain College. Her seminal book, “On Weaving” (1965) is a must for your library.⁠ 

Designer Anni Albers weaves at a loom
Textile Designer Anni Albers
Architect Zaha Hadid. Photos courtesy of Forgemind ArchiMedia and Alena Graff.

Other design pioneers—Elsa Schiaparelli, Rowena Reed Kostellow, Ellen Manderfield, Coco Chanel, and many more—have not only left their mark on design itself, but have also paved the way for a future generation of designers. 

Thought Leaders and Inspiration

Some design thought leaders are not designers in the way you might think. Take a look at Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, whose impact on women’s rights in the U.S. still resonates. She may seem like an unlikely Woman Design Hero, but her life and legacy are a testament to perseverance and focus. We should learn from her example and remain true to our vision and stay focused on the long game. 
Other Women Design Heroes serve as a source of unending inspiration and creativity. Take architect and inventor Neri Oxman, head of the Mediated Matter research group at MIT. Oxman’s work is category-defying; her 3D-printed “skins” and art pieces explore concepts in materials science, product design, and Material Ecology, a new field defined by Oxman which regards biological processes and Nature as inseparable parts of product design and architecture.

Ayse Birsel is another design thought leader and a true font of creativity. Voted by Fast Company as One of the Most Creative People in Business, she has designed hundreds of award-winning products and systems for Fortune 500 brands including Amazon, Colgate-Palmolive, Herman Miller, GE, IKEA, The Scan Foundation, Staples and Toyota, among others. Her recent book, “Design the Life You Love,” uses design thinking as a scaffold for creating the life you want. 

“Life, just like a design problem, is full of constraints — time, money, age, location, and circumstances. You can’t have everything, so you have to be creative to make what you want and what you need co-exist.”

– Ayse Birsel

Social & Political Statements

Other Women Design Heroes have used their work to elevate political and social platforms. The concept is not new; the visual and visceral elements of design can captivate the human imagination and mind in ways that other media cannot. Consider the images of Barbara Kruger, whose bold text laid over collaged photos has become an iconic format in American political history. Her striking poster for the 1989 Women’s March on Washington–”Your body is a battleground”–challenges our assumptions on gender, identity, and politics.


Like Kruger, Katharine Hamnett uses bold, direct text to get her message across. Her oversized T-shirts feature huge slogans in block text; her “CANCEL BREXIT” T-shirt is sold out on her website. Alongside being the “inventor” of slogan t-shirts, she is also a pioneer of sustainability in the fashion industry. Over the course of her decades-long career, Hamnett has campaigned endlessly to change the fashion industry, both with her designs and sustainable production. She has been involved in numerous eco-friendly initiatives, and has given lectures on sustainability around the world.

“I am committed to changing the way it works, only making clothes ethically and as environmentally as possible, preserving traditional skills, and showing how it can be done.”

– Katharine Hamnett
Designer Katherine Hamnett black and white portrait
Fashion Designer Katherine Hamnett. Photos courtesy of Katherine Hamnett.
Ruth Carter with the Black Panther poster
Costume Designer Ruth Carter. Photos courtesy of Gage Skidmore and AntMan3001.

Carter’s design process may be one of the most fascinating elements of her work. She does intensive and deep research into each character she is creating a costume for, which adds depth and nuance to the costumes she designs. She brings her characters to life, adding to the complex narratives of the films she works on. 

These designers represent only a fraction of the Women Design Heroes celebrated in our Instagram series. See Part Two of our Women in Design blog series and follow us on Instagram to learn more about women in the industry.