Many consider Alexander Girard the most influential textile designers of the modern era. As textile designer at Herman Miller, Girard's fabric designs became part of the furniture of Charles and Ray Eames and George Nelson among others. Behind those fabrics, as well as the wallpapers and 300 other designs Girard contributed during his 20-plus years with Herman Miller, was a unique folk art-inspired aesthetic. Over the course of his adult life, Girard, along with his wife, collected more than 100,000 pieces of folk art, many of which are housed at the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 1965, he turned that aesthetic loose on Braniff Airlines. "The End of the Plain Plane" project comprised 17,000 Girard redesigns of everything from the airplanes themselves to passenger lounges and playing cards.
