Walnut Stool, 412

This is one of several walnut stools that the Eameses designed in 1960 for the Time & Life Building in New York, and together the stools formed a furniture system. Such systems generally involve a series of related furniture designs, all of which utilize an array of standardized elements that can be combined in various ways. This allows consumers to select the combination of parts that best suits their taste and needs. It also reduces manufacturing costs, a savings that can be passed along to the consumer. In the case of the Eameses' walnut stools, they each consisted of a flared base, short pedestal, and shallow bowl-shaped top. The bases and tops were the same in all cases, but the pedestal was produced in multiple forms. It is the pedestals’ angles and curves that bring visual interest to the stools, but Ray claimed that the most challenging part of producing them was designing the standardized top. This was because it had to achieve a tricky balance: be deep enough to make for a comfortable seat, but not so deep that you couldn’t safely set a cup of coffee on it.