Along with his colleagues Charles and Ray Eames and George Nelson, Alexander Girard was one of the leading figures in American design during the postwar era. While textile design was the primary focus of Girard‘s oeuvre, he was also admired for his work in the graphic arts as well as furniture, exhibition and interior design. Girard brought a sensuous playfulness to twentieth-century design that had been absent from the austere aesthetic of classic modernism. On his extensive travels, Girard avidly collected textiles and folk art – as well as matchboxesmatchboxes – from all over the world. Together with the contents of his studio, which encompassed hundreds of drawings, prototypes and samples, Girard bequeathed a major portion of these objects to the Vitra Design Museum in 1993. The Girard Matchboxes come in assorted motifs created by the designer for various purposes and selected by Vitra in cooperation with the Girard family.