“There’s a huge amount of wisdom that went into that object,” says Eames Demetrios, referring to the famous Shell Chair. It’s a landmark design that has been continually breaking new ground for 75 years, and it’s a microcosm illustrating so much about what drives Demetrios and indeed the wider Eames empire.
Demetrios has worked closely with Living Edge for many years, and he’s been back in the Asia-Pacific region as they celebrate their own 25-year milestone. Events included ‘Defining the Icon,’ intimate talks in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth focused on the Eames family’s extraordinary contribution to modern design. His busy itinerary also included stops in the Philippines and Japan.
“I have had a number of experiences [in Australia], almost always through Living Edge. It’s always a learning trip and I have a long relationship with them – they’re great ambassadors for our work,” says Demetrios.
Related: The Kengo Kuma interview
It’s difficult to know where to start with Demetrios’ resume. Perhaps most notably, he’s the inheritor of one of the 20th century’s most renowned design groupings. Grandson of Charles and Ray Eames, he’s now the Director of Eames Office. However, Demetrios is no mere businessman riding on the coattails of historic family success; he’s a bona fide creative himself. While his own writing and film-making are separate to Eames Office, he also steers the practice with a tireless sense of creativity. Instead of sitting back with complacency, the ethos of Eames is to continually innovate on the basis of its stellar design foundations.
“Art and design are related in certain ways, but they’re different,” explains Demetrios. “And one of the differences is that when the artist when the artist dies, there’s really no more new art. There can be discovered art, there can be certain kinds of limited editions, there certainly can be prints as ongoing – but there’s definitely a feeling of a window being closed. I’ve never heard of a designer who wanted their designs to stop being made when they die. I don’t think it’s really part of the idea of design.”
For Demetrios, then, the very idea of good design implies a never-ending refinement and improvement. The Shell Chair again provides the perfect demonstration, having been anything but static over its three-quarters of a century in production. In 2022, for example, its materiality was updated to 100 per cent post-industrial recycled plastic, with new colours to boot. Previous iterations introduced fibreglass and single-piece moulded wood, resulting in there being more than two million unique configurations available.
So, is the continued success of Eames Office simply down to an ability to keep things open to change? “I would love to say that that’s true, but it’s also the underlying excellence of the designs,” answers Demetrios, pointing to an ever-present – and healthy – tension between past and future. “I think that one of the things that we’ve been very good at is helping people also learn about the ideas behind the designs.”
“And it’s not about copying them,” he adds with clarity. This is design based on a philosophy of perpetual reinterpretation and iteration, rather than crude reinvention or imitation.
“Even in [Charles and Ray’s] lifetime, they were constantly improving the use of plastic – we really feel that what we’ve been doing is a continuity of what they did,” concludes Demetrios. “It’s not like a frozen time in their lifetime. This is how the Eames design process works and we’re really keeping that going, especially as it has to do with addressing particularly environmental issues around the chairs.”
