The year is 1959 and the Herman Miller Furniture Company needs a magazine advertisement for their Eames lounge chair. Its soft seating is just what a man needs after coming home from a long day working his busy business job — that and his wife to greet him with a kiss and a meal. They need an advertisement that adds paint to the picture of the idealistic 1950's household and to sell a chair to the busy business American man.

I present to them this ad, but inside I know it's not what they are looking for. They want the woman in the kitchen and the man in his comfortable chair. Here is where I step in, challenge these ideas, and create a new vision for 1959 that abolishes the patriarchy. Speaking of patriarchy in terms of the Eames chair, why is it that Ray Eames doesn't gain the attention she deserves? As I look to redefine the ideals of the 1950's I wonder, if in 62 years, if much will really change if I don't try.

I cross my fingers but the Herman Miller Furniture company rejects me before I have even said much. My head is high and my chin is up however, because I walk away feeling true to myself. I know my ethics and I won't bend them — design is far too powerful for that. In fact, I will continue this body of work as a personal endeavor because I feel I have something personal and important to say about the absurdity that is the idealistic American life. We should not pass over it without batting an eye.