Legends

Roll 'em if you got 'em. Corbu shows that even when working hard you can still look effortless.

Charlotte Perriand (1903-1999), French architect and designer, at Simon, furniture store, near Saint-Germain-des-Près. Paris, 1963. © Jean Mounicq / Roger-Viollet / The Image Works.

Greta Grossman; Photo courtesy of Gubi

Saarinen’s parents, Eliel Saarinen and textile designer Loja Saarinen, immigrated to the United States in 1923 and settled in Michigan, where Eliel helped found the Cranbrook Academy for the Arts. Eero, who worked there as a student apprentice, struck up a friendship with Charles Eames, whom he would collaborate with to develop molded plywood furniture. While Eero’s legacy mostly springs from his playful building designs, his furniture work, like the Womb chair (still in production by Knoll), were emblems of modern design, so much so, that the Coca-Cola company used the image of a tired Santa slumped on one of these curvaceous chairs.

Critic Charles Arthur Boyer described the Jasper Morrison's designer style and philosophy as aiming to "produce everyday objects for everyone's use, make things lighter not heavier, softer not harder, inclusive rather than exclusive, and generate energy, light, and space."

Alvar Aalto at work.

Verner Panton; Photo courtesy of Vitra

Ray Eames; Photo courtesy of the Eames Office

Alvar Aalto with this wife Alissa; Photo courtesy of the Alvar Aalto Museum

Alexander Girard; Photo by Charles Eames and courtesy of Vitra

Finn Juhl in his element; Photo courtesy of OneCollection

Richard Schultz circa 1966; Photo courtesy of Knoll

Harry Bertoia; Photo courtesy of Knoll

Le Corbusier in his apartment and studio in Paris, France.

This photo of a young Ada Louise Huxtable is from the Life Magazine Archive.

Jens RisomJens Risom’s spot in the canon of mid-century American design is one marked by displacement. Some of the accolades heaped upon the great designers should rightly have gone to Risom, who, with Hans Knoll, began priming the market for modern design as early as 1941 with the Risom-designed 600 line for Knoll. It included the first Knoll chair ever. View his prefab house in Rhode Island here.

Danish furniture designer Hans Wegner in his studio. Photo courtesy PP MØBLER.

Jacqueline Groag. Image courtesy of The University of Brighton, Design Archives. Art by the Yard: Women Design Mid-Century Britain is on display at the Textile Museum in Washington, DC, May 15-September 12, 2010.