What is Design?

DATE - 1969

In 1969, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs invited five designers to participate in the exhibition, Quest ce que le design? (What is Design?)  Each participant represented his country: Joe Colombo (Italy), Charles Eames (USA), Fritz Eichler (Germany), Werner Panton (Denmark), and Roger Tallon (France). The five participants submitted work from their offices and printed responses to a series of questions about the nature of the design process.

Additional Information

The Eames room, entitled Three Clients, showed work that Charles and Ray had produced for Herman Miller, IBM, and the governments of the United States and India. The space featured a version of the three-screen slideshow GEM. It also included floor-to-ceiling photographic blow-ups of the questions posed to Charles by the museum, along with his responses.

The Eames Office later created the short film Design Q&A, which they based upon the exchange of questions and answers.

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