«Recognizing the need is the primary condition for design»
Reebok remembers Charles and Ray Eames with the Club C 85 "Monotone" pack
Join us on a journey to learn about the creative processes of the Eameses and how they relate to Reebok’s first collaboration with their studio. We’ll let their own words guide us all the way through.
After their marriage in 1941, architecture student Charles and painter Ray founded Eames Office, a studio and a lab that brought about a new vision of design, where what is essential to its development is “recognizing the need”, not satisfying the ego.
«The role of designer is basically that of a good host—anticipating the needs of the guest»
The design process was fundamental to the Eameses and should evaluate the client's need in order to find the solution that would benefit the greatest number of people possible, rather than embody the expression of the creator's personality.
«Innovate as a last resort»
Charles and Ray had a deep respect for the effort made by other designers. The danger of any innovation was to lose the wisdom invested in the development of the idea up to that point. As they both said, “innovate as a last resort”, not as the ultimate goal. Quite an unusual comment coming from a family name that has contributed great innovations to 20th century design.
«What works good is better than what looks good, because what works will always work»
The Eameses approach to design allowed them to work in different contexts such as architecture, furniture, toys, movies and even medical splints. Eight decades after its foundation, Eames Office teams up with Reebok to design their first joint sneaker collection, one that stays true to the designer couple's principles.
«The details are not the details. They make the design»
Committing to an accessible design, the first Club C 85 pack fits into any closet. It retains its classic lines and details like vintage labels, adapting the materials and manufacturing processes and letting the insole provide a pop of color through a triangle print that symbolizes the partnership between Reebok and Eames Office.
The box is based on the Eames House, also called Case Study House #8—the eighth project to emerge from an initiative of the Arts & Architecture magazine that aimed to develop cost-effective, modern and experimental building models after World War II. The family home and studio-workshop where Eames Office was located from its inception is today an example of sustainable construction that keeps the architecture, interior design and exterior landscape intact as a tribute to the Eameses.
«Who ever said that pleasure wasn't functional?»
