Author: Kem Weber
Alternate names: Karl Emanuel Martin Weber
Born: 1889
Died: 1963
Bio: Kem Weber (b. Karl Emanuel Martin Weber,1889-1963) was a German-trained furniture maker who emigrated to Santa Barbara, California in 1915. After WWI he relocated to Los Angeles and by 1924 had become an American citizen. He successfully established himself while working as the Art Director for Barker Brothers, a large upscale furniture manufacturer and retailer, designing their furniture, store interiors and packaging. In 1927, though he continued his relationship with Barker Brothers, he formed his own studio in Hollywood as an "industrial designer" (a very new term of occupation at the time) and went on to freelance design a host of products for many other companies including Lloyd Manufacturing Co. Widdicomb, Grand Rapids Furniture Co., Mueller Furniture, Royal Metal Mfg Co., Berkey & Gay Furniture Co., Friedman Silver, Lawson Time, Inc. and Disney's Burbank animation studio. One of his best known designs, the "Airline chair" (1934-1935) was designed to be shipped in a cardboard "suitcase" in four parts and then reassembled by the customer. The concept, far too ahead of its time, was not commercially successful and only a few hundred were ever produced. Over the next four decades, Weber's accomplishments in architecture, interiors, furniture, industrial design, the decorative arts and even as a teacher at the influential Pasadena Art Center, were central to establishing the uniquely Californian vocabulary of American Modernism.