ECS Brochure Mock-up

This miniature mock-up envisions a brochure detailing Eames Contract Storage, or ECS, a modular furniture system for small living spaces that was introduced in 1961. As a tool for investigating layout, the mock-up provides insight into Ray’s design process. It depicts the brochure as it would appear when fully unfolded, with the square at upper left representing the cover. A combination of drawing and collage represents its contents—hastily dashed lines stand in for text, blue paper shows where blue-tinted photos or backgrounds will appear, and snippets of magazine pages are used to indicate additional photographs. While most of the cut-and-pasted images seem to have little connection to the brochure’s final photographs, it is notable that the well-known logo of LIFE magazine appears twice. It can be seen in the upper left corner, where it stands in for the collection’s name, ECS, in the final design. At center-bottom, it is recognizable even without the “I” in the middle of the word. This logo’s presence in the mock-up not only provides a clue as to the source of the collaged pages, it also makes a (perhaps unintentional) claim for the way in which daily “life” is fundamentally shaped by the discipline of design.