The people behind the designs You probably know all about Ray and Charles Eames? famous designs?but how much do you know about the designers themselves" A new exhibition at the Oakland Museum of California is aiming to draw a link between the design power couple?s chairs and toys, and their life in the Golden State.

© Eames Office LLC. courtesy of OMCA
Installation view of experimental molded plywood chairs. Barbican Art Gallery, London, October 21, 2015 ? February 14, 2016.

?The World of Charles and Ray Eames? is an in-depth and personal look at the designers as told through more than 380 items. The exhibition is split into four sections that range from a survey of the couple?s early life in California to their models and material experiments to multimedia projects like the iconic short film Powers of Ten.
Photograph: Antonia Mulas © Eames Office LLC. courtesy of OMCA
The Eames? living room

© 2018 Eames Office LLC. courtesy of OMCA.
Eames Office staff wearing prototype toy masks, 1950.

For true Eames fanatics, it?s probably a lot of what you already know. There will be chairs and videos and plenty of sketches. What makes Oakland?s exhibition different?and worthwhile?is the personalized frame of reference. Today, the Eames? work is universal?but ?The World of Charles and Ray Eames? shows how influential California was as a backdrop for the designers? idealistic experimentations....