We visited the Eames House today, the former home of Charles and Ray Eames. The Eames were two of the most recognized designers that collaborated with Herman Miller since the late 1940s.

Originally the house plan was designed by Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen, and was called the Bridge House. The house was meant to float over the meadow on the hillside supported by two metal columns, however due to WWII and the shortage of materials, the steel took three years to arrive. While waiting for the materials, the Eames had picnics on the meadow and later realized its charm, thus changing the design of the house to run parallel to the meadow instead of over it.

As designers it’s intriguing to see how external circumstances created an opportunity for a new design idea to evolve. Had the materials arrived on time, the meadow where they spent the rest of their lives enjoying wouldn’t have existed.

Here's a view of the ocean from the Eame's House meadow.

Read about how we brought the Bauhaus from Weimar to the web on MoMA’s recently launched blog, Inside/Out.

We came upon this original plywood splint at the Herman Miller LA Showroom. Charles and Ray Eames designed the splint for the U.S. Navy during WWII, which led them to perfect the technique for molding plywood that resulted in their signature Eames plywood chairs. The splints are now limited collectibles that are displayed as works of art.

Here’s behind the scenes at our video shoot for the new Herman Miller LA showroom. Check out the 3D Alexander Girard sculpture, Daisy Face, in the courtyard. We want one of these.

Here’s the final video.

We directed and shot this video for Herman Miller to launch the new Los Angeles showroom. With its dramatic bowstring wood trusses, curved walls, and freestanding forms, Herman Miller’s LA showroom epitomizes Herman Miller’s design legacy—right down to the details.

While Hiro and David were in New York, they dropped by the SoDA unConference held at the Art Director’s Club. Groups shared their experience and advice on topics such as new business and how clients should use social media. With a mission to advance the profession of digital agencies, SoDA provides resources for best practices, education, and advocacy as the voice of digital marketing professionals.

SoDA put together a Digital Marketing Outlook and found “81% of Brand Execs expect an increase in digital projects for 2010” and “50% will be shifting funds from traditional to digital media.” You can download the full report here.

David and Hiro flew off to New York for the opening of MoMA’s Bauhaus: Workshops for Modernity exhibition. Hello created a web site along with a kiosk experience for the show.

The Bauhaus holds special meaning for us as designers and we appreciated the work even more after experiencing them in person.

While in New York, Hiro and David gave Microsoft Surface a hands-on test run. The demos felt like, well demos. Not sure we really need a virtual koi pond. As multi-touch interfaces become more common, we’re going to see more intuitive, gestural interfaces like Surface or Wii around us.

The on-screen keyboard, not quite there yet as you don’t get a tactile response when you press.

Pinch and pull like an iPhone to zoom in on the map.

We landed in New York today and were greeted by this giant Hello Kitty statue. Hello Kitty, meet Hello Design.