Eero Saarinen was born in Kirkkonummi, Finland in 1910. He immigrated to the United States when he was thirteen years old. He first studied sculpture in Paris but later graduated in fine arts from Yale University in 1934.
Along with the help his friend Charles Eames, he made use plywood and plastic which were considered "new" materials at the time to create a molded-plywood seating for the Organic Design in Home Furnishings competition and won first prize. Although he made relatively few furniture designs they were almost always iconic.
His Womb chair was the first mass produced item of furniture made of a fiberglass shell and his Tulip chair, which has only one leg and took five years to create, was the first chair in which the base and seat formed a unified whole.