Nevolution: Eamespunk'd

Todays lovely post title comes from Mr Sterling, one of the originators of steampunk (and a total genius and dare I say visionary). Jumping in on the Design Observer / Steampunk smackdown, he came up with this well served volley at all those turtle neck wearing, craft haters out there:

(((Maybe Randy Nakamura would like "steampunk" better if it was called "Eamespunk" and involved making computers out of bent plywood.)))

Now, while I implore you to go read his astutely insightful blog now, we must get on with things.

It would have been nice for me to have told everyone to head on down to the Gifted Eye of Charles Eames (Living Edge, 345 Bridge Road), 100 photographs taken by the man over the course of his life, but I didn't. While it's great to stare and pine at his furniture for hours on end, it's also important and just as intriguing to see the lens through which he saw the world.

The style and subject is most definitely Eames, and one can see the details that shaped the aesthetics and deep humanist philosophy behind his and Rays work. It's also evident in the subject matter that they carried these visual elements into other aspects of their works; the House of Cards and their short films are some notable examples.

While the exhibition might be over, it is still worth heading over there to look at the collection of Eames furniture they have in the show room. For all those Eamespunks out there, it's a sheer delight. I had the pleasure of sitting in one of their plywood 'sometime' chairs while looking at the exhibition, and I was stunned at the comfort afforded by the simplicity of the materials. They also have some storage units and desks to look at as well; they definitely stack up (sorry, couldn't help it).

It's also worth checking out the Eames love-in on the back wall as well.

Either through jealousy, admiration or a genuine desire to show it's worth, the Aeron chair just wouldn't get out of the way for the shot.

In other Eames news, celebrating the 100th anniversary of Charles' birth the US postal service issued these dead sexy stamps. They circled the blogosphere like crazy when they were released, but I might as well bring them up again.

Like I said, dead sexy. On a more personal note, I discovered plans for this modular cabinet system in an Eames book I have. The Case Goods system were never released or mass-produced, which only makes me want to build them even more.