Charles and Ray Eames U.S. Stamps

2nd\NW Quadrant The Approval Matrix

Charles Eames would have turned 100 on June 17. To commemorate his birthday, the United States Postal Service is issuing 42-cent stamps featuring the collaborative work of the influential designer and his wife, Ray.

To reflect the couple’s rich body of work in furniture and toy design, architecture, and film, Derry Noyes, one of six art directors employed by USPS, has created a colorful pane of 16 different stamps featuring some of their iconic designs, including the Low Chair Wood, or LCW, (1945), House of Cards (1952), Hang-It-All coat rack (1953), Eames Lounge and Ottoman (1956), and Eames Storage Unit (1950). Also included is a photograph of the Eames House in Southern California, one of 25 homes built as part of the Case Study House Program. The couple moved into the house in 1949 and stayed there for the remainder of their lives. Charles died of a brain aneurysm in 1978; Ray passed away in 1988, ten years to the day after her husband’s death.

Noyes says “the stamps give a real sense of the history and richness of the duo,” adding that it is unusual for the Postal Service to issue such a diverse collection of stamps on a single subject.
-- Arch Record