In 1940, Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen developed a chair with a novel plywood seat molded into a three-dimensional form for a competition sponsored by the New York Museum of Modern Art. However, it was not possible to produce the chair commercially, due to inadequate technical methods. It was seldom possible to press the plywood into a three-dimensional form without it breaking or splitting. During the following years, Charles and Ray Eames concentrated their efforts on developing a new method.
