Who Designed “that” Chair?: Design Mysteries Series

The Nice Office Chair, 2017 / Eames Office Chair, 1954

It wasn’t THE EAMES OFFICE!

Have you noticed that one office chair is appearing in many, many TV shows and movies? Just saw it in the movie “Welcome To Me.” Did you ever wonder why that happens? Did you ever wonder who makes the decision to use a certain chair and why one chair in particular who appear more often?

The chair on the left has been appearing with great regularity recently in many TV shows and Movies. It is what I would call A BLATANT COPY OF The classic Eames chair on the right designed in 1954 by The Design Office of Charles & Ray Eames for Herman Miller. Originally designed with mesh seat and back.

I assume the “fake” chair on the left was designed to take advantage of the millennial’s love of Mid-Century Modern furniture.

Copying is bad for just about everyone involved especially the uninformed public who can’t see the differences. It clouds the issue and just makes everyone dumber about the history of design. Yes! Design history matters, because just like in politics, if you don’t history you are DOOMED to repeat it, which the illustrations below make perfectly clear. Or perhaps imperfectly clear!

So along with the images let’s count the ways the chairs are similar.

Similarities

Both use sling seats
Both have enclosed arms
Both have paddle-shaped height adjusters
Both seem to have similar “connections” at the top of the back & front of the seat.
Both use torsion bar tilt systems
Both use the contrast of chrome & material

The other side of the coin is the actual product placement, which is why we see some products and not others. It turns out that it that marketing products through product placement can be very cost effective for manufacturers to reach specific audiences. If someone in a movie drinks Dr. Pepper and you can read the label, Dr. Pepper probably paid for you to see it. All the Star Wars stuff that everyone buys is constantly being marketed every time you watch a Star Wars episode, so most of the products are not paid placements but agree to market Star Wars as part of the product placement. So back to The “Nice Office Chair” placement in ever office/conference room that I’ve seen in the last year. First I’m sure no one in Hollywood is paying for the “props” second I’m sure that certain scenes are shot so that the ‘product” is seen in the best ‘light.” I know no one says it’s The Eames Chair but as far as I’m concerned, THE DESIGN COMMUNITY has got to start educating Hollywood on what and what not is REAL DESIGN!

#DesignMysteriesSeries [#38]

Design Mysteries Series
Bruce Hannah 2018©