Tag: MoMA

The Shell Chair, Oneida Flatware + the Dishwasher

In our Design Object Series we highlight iconic objects designed by women. Thousands of objects that you use and appreciate everyday…surprise! Women designed them! Many of the contributions of women to design have been obscured if not erased throughout history. We want to do our part to counteract this effect by celebrating the women behind a range of objects that you’re sure to recognize. In this issue we salute three design objects that have revolutionized how we live in our homes; critical tools that were designed to be affordable and to make our daily lives easier. We’ll share the story of the Shell chair, designed by Ray Eames, Oneida Flatware, designed by Ellen Manderfield for decades, and the precursor to the modern day dishwasher, designed by Josephine Cochrane.

The Shell Chair

The shell chair is an iconic design form, recognized not only by industry professionals but by non-designers as well. The chair is really a chair system, and a powerful example of modular design. A series of chair bodies and bases can be mixed and matched to suit a range of uses, from bar stools and task chairs to outdoor and lounge chairs. The ergonomic, carefully plotted curves make it comfortable for a wide range of users. Diverse material and upholstery options create still more options for customization, creating over 2 million possible combinations. 

Designed in 1948, the chair eventually became the world’s first mass-produced plastic chair. Initially, though, it was created in fiberglass, designed by renaissance designer Ray Eames and her equally multi-disciplinary designer husband, Charles Eames. During World War II the team worked on strategies for bending plywood to create light, ergonomic leg splints for injured soldiers. After the war they kept playing with the technique, creating furniture concepts with the new manufacturing method. They experimented further, working on chair shapes in steel, which was low cost but rusted over time. They collaborated with a boat-builder to create prototypes in fiberglass, a hazardous material to handle but sleek and colorful. In the years after introducing the fiberglass model they created bent wire options and switched from fiberglass to polypropylene, then a brand new material. Because they could be mass-produced the chairs were affordable to produce and to purchase, and aligned with the goal of the Eames to create ‘design for everyone’.

Today the 1948 design is offered in polypropylene as well as polyester resin reinforced with glass fiber. The shell chair serves as a perfect representation of the clean simplicity and versatile functionality that the Eames became known for as a design team. The significance of the design is proven by its inclusion in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection in New York.

Oneida Flatware

Sitting down to dinner in your shell chair is great, though you won’t get far without flatware. The utopian Oneida Community in Oneida, NY began producing silver flatware and hollowware (hollow and concave objects made of silver) in 1899, becoming Onieda Ltd. in 1935. While the company had been designing flatware for decades before Ellen Manderfield came on board in 1956, no designer before her had designed so many designs, nor so many successful ones. Manderfield designed over 200 stainless steel and silver flatware patterns for Onieda, retiring in 1986 as a Senior Industrial Designer. 

By the 1980s Oneida manufactured over half of US flatware, and the brand is still one we recognize and can purchase today. They are known for practical and affordable flatware in an astonishing array of patterns ranging from sleek and contemporary to traditional and ornate, hundreds of which were designed by Ellen Manderfield. Several of those won accolades and design awards in addition to becoming best-selling patterns. Her ‘Omni’ line, created in 1979, was chosen for MoMA’s Design Study Collection. Her 1956 ‘Evening Star’ line was chosen for use in American Airlines’ first class in-flight service.

Manderfield had a rigorous process for creating these patterns. She would develop over 20 versions of a single teaspoon to get the balance and form just right. A 250% scale model was developed in clay and then in plaster to create the incredible details of the swirling, baroque patterns Oneida was known for. The tooling for the master molds was made with these oversized models. 

Ellen Manderfield was the first woman to be accepted into the Industrial Design Society of America (then the American Society of Industrial Designers) in 1957. While she is best-known for her work at Oneida, she had worked in industrial design for years before transitioning there, designing packaging and graphics at Meyercord Company, televisions and radios at Sylvania Electric, household goods and appliances at Ann Swainson’s Bureau of Design, and radio and television cabinets at General Electric. She was ambitious and seemingly indefatigable. Even at Oneida, as she churned out hundreds of flatware patterns, she developed jewelry and metal sculptures over her lunch break, and went home to do weaving and painting. Her dedicated renaissance approach makes her an incredible industrial design role model.

The Dishwasher

For many the dishwasher is a critical home appliance, preventing hundreds of hours of manual washing that, while meditative for some, is tedious and time-consuming for most. Those of us who benefit from this kitchen staple owe our gratitude to Josephine Cochrane, a socialite in Ohio in the late 1800s who tired of her fine china being damaged by hand-washing. 

Cochrane and her husband enjoyed entertaining, and she was accustomed to servants doing most of her housework. She realized that her fine china was often chipped when scrubbed by hand, and when she tried doing the dishes herself she discovered how tiresome and labor intensive the process was. She was determined to create a more efficient strategy for safely cleaning her china, and proceeded to work on a design that used strong jets of water to clean dishes suspended in a rack. After beginning the work her husband passed away and left her with debt that spurred her to create a machine that would be a success. While other dish washing machines had been invented, none were commercially viable and therefore none were available to her to purchase. She was sure she could create a functional solution. 

The design process Cochrane followed looked much like the process of a contemporary industrial designer. She measured her plates and cups and developed compartments that would hold them safely. A motor powered wheel spun inside a copper boiler and forced hot, soapy water up around the dishes. She patented her design as the “Cochrane Dishwasher” in 1886 and began selling to industrial clients like restaurants and hotels. While developed to help with residential housework, the houses at the time weren’t ready to support the appliance. Small hot water heaters couldn’t provide the necessary volume of hot water and, at the time, hand-washing dishes was considered a pleasant chore by many. 

The dishwasher wasn’t widely adopted until the 1950s when several cultural forces came together to make Cochrane’s dishwasher the perfect fit: women’s attitudes toward housework were shifting as they joined the workforce, technology improved to support the appliance, and dishwashing detergent improved. Cochrane’s company eventually became another company you probably recognize: KitchenAid. The first dishwasher available from KitchenAid was released in 1949, and was based on Cochrane’s patent, the ancestor of the modern dishwasher.

Sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn for design news, multi-media recommendations, and to learn more about product design and development!