Charles and Ray Eames are two of the most synonymous names with design. Charles Eames, the architect, and Ray Eames, the painter, were a husband and wife team that revolutionized modern furniture design. They also made extremely important contributions to the realms of architecture, fine art, graphic design, film making, and photography.

First Run Features has created a new documentary, narrated by James Franco, about the iconic duo. The film will have a limited release in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Music Hall beginning November 18th. The list of releases in other cities can be viewed here. Below is the recently released trailor.

Los Angeles is the home to a significant amount of Eames artifacts including the Eames house, located in the Pacific Palisades area just north of Santa Monica, and the former Eames studio in Venice Beach. The Eames studio served as the creative epicenter for Charles and Ray for several decades and now houses the Los Angeles design office for Continuum. I attended a design mixer at this office several months ago. Additional images and information about the event can be viewed here.

Front door of Eames house. Photograph by John Morse, June 2003. Taken with a Canon Powershot S-110 digital camera in natural light. Perspective corrected using Adobe Photoshop software. Former Eames studio. Now the location of the Los Angeles branch of Continuum Design Innovation.

To keep with the recent theme of designs by Yves Behar, I'd like to speak about his new chair for Herman Miller. From the very iconic Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman to the more recent Aeron Chair, Herman Miller has been a staple in high end office furniture design for decades.

Aligning with this tradition, Yves Behar has brought us a very affordable, forward thinking, and eco friendly chair with the Herman Miller name badge.

The chair sports a frameless back with a flexible and airy web of material making it up. This back is inspired by suspension bridges and features flexibility and tension in key areas for optimal support. This forward thinking ideology also makes for less material and reduced shipping cost.

The $399 price tag makes me want to throw away the busted chair I have at work and pick one up. Check out the website for more details.