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The sheer design of these mid-century Philiform packages makes me want to tear up. The visual weights between the typography and shapes were beautifully combined. You just don’t get these combos any more. I remember seeing a similar box growing up—could have been Philiform—but unfortunately it was too long ago to recover the full memory.
Make sure to continue reading for more and also share this great design.
The 1963 Aarnio ball chair designed by Eero Aarnio is one of the most iconic and comfortable chairs. Not only do the inner cushions fit perfectly to your back, but when sitting in the chair the sound is dampened greatly. It feels as if you’ve extracted all those extra imposing noises. The chair is sometimes described as a “room within a room” because of this.
After spending a day sitting in one much alike pictured here, I’m sold—I would personally buy one in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, your hefty deposit of $6,860 won’t speed up the 8-12 week delivery.
Words from Aarnio about the chair:
The idea of the chair was very obvious. We had moved to our first home and I had started my free-lance career in 1962. We had a home but no proper big chair, so I decided to make one, but some way a really new one.
After some drawing I noticed that the shape of the chair had become so simple that it was merely a ball. I pinned the full scale drawing on the wall and sat in the chair to see how my head would move when sitting inside it. Being the taller one of us I sat in the chair and my wife drew the course of my head on the wall. This is how I determined the height of the chair. Since I aimed at a ball shape, the other lines were easy to draw, just remembering that the chair would have to fit through a doorway.
After this I made the first prototype myself using an inside mould, which has been made using the same principle as a glider fuselage or wing. I covered the plywood body mould with wet paper and laminated the surface with fiberglass, rubbed down the outside, removed the mould from inside, had it upholstered and added the leg. In the end I installed the red telephone on the inside wall of the chair. The naming part of the chair was easy, the BALL CHAIR was born.
Graphic Design seems like it’s harder to categorize into mid-century modern so I’ve included a few pieces that are mid-century but not absolutely modern. I’m particularly fond of the lightbulb packaging. The color and typography of it is great—these images came Flickr.
See Day 1: The Chairs
See Day 2: The Interiors
See Day 3: The Architecture
See Day 4: The Illustration
This is day 4 of Mid-Century Modern week. If you haven’t seen the previous sets you can catch those right below—what great collections they are. As I was sifting through architecture and interior design, I kept coming across illustrations via Flickr that were just magnificent. I’m sure the amount of time to create these is substantial. What I really enjoy about this illustration set is that each of them has a futuristic look and feel which is what really makes mid-century, modern. Check out more of Charles William Schridde’s work.
See Day 1: The Chairs
See Day 2: The Interiors
See Day 3: The Architecture
See Day 5: The Graphic Design
Day three of mid-century week and we have the architecture of mid-century. Some images here we’ve seen in a past post about Authur Erickson, but the rest come from this gem of a collection on Flickr.
The combination of wood throughout the interiors as we’ve seen and on the outside, was really the trademark of the MCM designs.
See Day 1: The Chairs
See Day 2: The Interiors
See Day 4: The Illustration
See Day 5: The Graphic Design
This second set of mid-century interiors also comes from a great collection via Flickr. Everyone of these interiors is just stunning. In the past I’ve said numerous times of how wonderful it feels to look back at this older design to see just how much of an influence it was on the present.
See Day 1: The Chairs
See Day 3: The Architecture
See Day 4: The Illustration
See Day 5: The Graphic Design
It’s a new year and along with it comes a remarkable collection via Flickr from one my most-favorable categories: Mid-century Modern. These chairs come from the 50s, 60s, and 70s; while some lived on, a number fell by the wayside for obvious reasons.
Some of my favorites in this collection include the iconic Eero Aarnio Ball chair, Eames Molded Plywood chair and of course the Eames Lounge chair.
See Day 2: The Interiors
See Day 3: The Architecture
See Day 4: The Illustration
See Day 5: The Graphic Design
For the next week (January 3rd through the 7th) I will be posting collections of mid-century design on the blog. Each of the posts will be archived here and added to each new post. Hope you enjoy the posts and can’t wait to share some of these images.
View each of the mid-century modern collections:
See Day 1: The Chairs
See Day 2: The Interiors
See Day 3: The Architecture
See Day 4: The Illustration
See Day 5: The Graphic Design
Display is a tightly curated collection of modern, mid century graphic design books, advertisements and other ephemera. Display was created by Kind Company, an independent design office in Brooklyn, New York. Kind Company were the creators of the Helvetica and the New York City Subway System book.
Prior to reading an article on Dwell about Los Angeles architect Ray Kappe, I was not aware of what I was missing out on. Ray designed this multilevel home for his family in 1965 and then built it in a canyon in Pacific Palisades. The central living space offers spacious views throughout the interior; into spaces such as Ray Kappe’s office and the upper family room. Each room is lit very well. The ambient light through skylights, corner windows or clerestories illuminates the rooms and really makes the interior feel spacious.
The whole house is built out of concrete and wood and in turn maintains the mid-century modern look we’ve all come to admire. Where the wood timbers meet with the glass panes and concrete is where the magic happens. Coming across such treasures is becoming more and more of a rarity it seems like. In the interview with Dwell, Shelly Kappe said that when the house was built, it “was so ahead of its time.” It was an encapsulation of Ray’s vision for the house to be a synthesis of the rational and the intuitive.
The Eames Lounge chair is perhaps one of the greatest chairs of all time. I’ve mentioned the chair quite a few times in the past when it appeared in some of the architecture posts. If you’re not familiar with the chair already, it was designed by the husband and wife team, Charles and Ray Eames. Originally the two designed the chair as a gift for a director by the name of Billy Wilder. There wasn’t much to the chair, but the goal was for the chair to feel lean and have a sense of playfulness and the sophistication of modern living.
During the team’s initial approach to projects, they asked themselves questions that every one of us should ask before and during projects:
Does the design truly interest and intrigue us or its viewers?
If you’re not doing something interesting, intriguing or innovative, then what is it that you’re doing, because those are a few of the keys to successful projects.
Can we make it better?
If you can make it better, don’t settle, just do it. Nike says it and, well, they just do it. I’m currently building a project that would normally take a team of oxen to do, but I’m just doing it.
Are we having fun while designing it?
It’s quite evident by the work of Charles and Ray Eames that they enjoyed what their work. Quite frankly every project we do, we should too. If you’re doing a project that isn’t enjoyable, don’t do it. Please don’t do it. More than once I’ve found myself on projects that weren’t enjoyable and I’ve made it a point to not do projects that aren’t enjoyable. You should too.
More stunning images of the chair after the jump.
Vintage design? Don’t mind if I do. These three pieces are collectables that were for sale on eBay not long ago. I actually think the clock and Braun T520 Radio (which I’d love to have) are still available. Check out the knobs and dials on them. The Braun radio and record player are definitely the must haves.
