# 4333k - 2008 42c Eames, Arts & Architecture

U.S. #4333k
Charles and Ray Eames
Magazine Cover

Issue Date: June 17, 2008
City: Santa Monica, CA

Charles and Ray Eames met in 1940 at Michigan’s Cranbrook Academy of Art, considered America’s cradle of modernism. 

Arriving at the Academy in the late 1930s, Charles studied architecture and within two years was the head of the Industrial Design department.  Ray began her studies at Cranbrook in 1940, after studying abstract painting with Hans Hofmann in New York City.  At Cranbrook, Ray assisted Charles with furniture he and Eero Saarinen had designed for the 1940 Organic Furniture Competition sponsored by New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

In 1941, the couple married and moved to Los Angeles, California.  During the day, Charles and Ray held jobs.  At night, they experimented on molding plywood in their apartment.  Charles worked as a set designer with MGM Studios, and Ray created covers for Art & Architecture Magazine, a leader in the development of modern architecture in the United States.  Ray’s abstract cover designs were representative of the California magazine’s content, promoting avant-garde art and architecture. 

In 2008, an Eames Art & Architecture magazine Cover was featured on a 42¢ stamp, one of a pane of 16 issued by the U.S. Postal Service to honor the design contributions of Charles and Ray Eames.