Vitra was founded in 1950 by furniture maker Willi Feldbaum, in Weil am Rhein, Germany. Three years later, on a trip to the United States, Feldbaum was bowled over by the Eames DSR chair. In 1957, Herman Miller transferred the rights to produce and distribute furniture designed by Charles & Ray Eames for Europe to Vitra. Today, the company still holds the rights to Eames designs for Europe and the Middle East.

Now, Vitra has branches all over the world and works with top international designers such as George Nelson, the author of the Coconut Chair; the internationally distinguished designer of office interiors, Sevil Peach; Czech designer and Prague Castle Architect Borek Sipek; and, posthumously, the legendary French designer Charles Prouve.

The internationally acclaimed Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, created by Frank O. Gehry (the author of Prague’s “Fred and Ginger” Dancing House) maintains one of the largest collections of modern furniture design in the world. But the company has never forgotten the tribute it owes to the Eameses.

After the death of Ray Eames in 1988, Vitra bought a considerable portion of the Eames estate, and put it on display at the aforementioned design museum. In 1996, the company published Vitra.Eames, a 120-page hardcover book full of personal snapshots of the couple, along with their ergonomic line drawings and color images of their furniture.

“Their ideas were so clear, so innovative, so fresh, they seemed truly to be, as once so memorably described, messages from another planet,” noted Vitra CEO Rolf Feldbaum on the company website. “The Eames influence on Vitra is everywhere. But the most essential influence is revealed in a simple question we ask ourselves when faced with an important design decision: What would Charles and Ray say?”

This year, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Charles Eames’ birthday on July 17, 2007, Vitra is producing a limited edition of the legendary Eames Plywood Elephant. Designed in 1945, but never produced, this complex piece is an embodiment of the couples’ revolutionary technique for molding plywood into threedimensional shapes.

Perhaps the greatest tribute to these pioneers of modern design is that their furniture continues to fill Vitra’s showrooms and re-editions of classics are launched every year.