Advice by Charles Eames

Advice for students by Charles Eames:

  • Make a list of books
  • Develop a curiosity
  • Look at things as though for the first time
  • Think of things in relation to each other
  • Always think of the next larger thing
  • Avoid the ‘pat’ answer – the formula
  • Avoid the preconceived idea
  • Study well objects made past recent and ancient but never without the technological and social conditions responsible
  • Prepare yourself to search out the true need – physical, psychological
  • Prepare yourself to intelligently fill that need
  • The art is not something you apply to your work
  • The art is the way you do your work, a result of your attitude toward it
  • Design is a full time job. It is the way you look at politics, funny papers, listen to music, raise children
  • Art is not a thing in a vacuum –
    • No personal signature
    • Economy of material
    • Avoid the contrived
  • No office wants to add another prima donna to its staff
  • No office is looking for a great creative genius
  • No office – or at least very few – can train employees from scratch
  • There is always a need for anyone that can do a simple job thoroughly
  • There are things you can do to prepare yourself – to be desirable
    • orderly work habits
    • ability to bring any job to a conclusion
    • drawing feasibility
    • lettering
    • a presentation that ‘reads’ well
    • willingness to do outside work and study on a problem…

— (via notes on talks at University of California, January 1949)