Cees Braakman

Best known for his work as the lead designer and manager at the Pastoe furni­ture company, Cees Braak­man embraced post World War II modern design and fueled that aesthetic through­out the Nether­lands. After a trip to the United States in 1947, Braak­man became inspired by the work of the Herman Miller Company as well as Charles and Ray Eames; and he began exper­i­ment­ing with bent plywood and steel wire frames. Through­out his four decades of design­ing for Pastoe, he created several success­ful furni­ture lines. He spent much of the 1950s and 1960s design­ing modular cabi­netry, where customers could choose from various wood types and details. Braak­man also moved away from tradi­tional naming systems for furni­ture lines and created a code­name for each design with letters and numbers.