Herbert Bayer – Great Ideas Print Ad Series for CCA.

St. Paul – Acts 17: 24–28

Alexander Hamilton – The Federalist, 1788 / 1954

Ralph Waldo Emerson – Civilization, 1862 / February, 1952

Alfred North Whitehead, 1861–1947 / 1964

Theodore Roosevelt – Letter to S. Stanwood Menken, January 10, 1917 / 1959

Thomas Paine – On First Principles of Government, 1795 / August, 1942
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Great Ideas Series for Container Corporation of America
Part 1, Herbert Bayer (1900–1985)

Beginning in 1950 and continuing until 1975, Container Corp. of America ran a print ad campaign entitled “Great Ideas of Western Man”. The concept was to pair quotes from philosophers, scientists and politicians with work by modern artists and designers. The founder and CEO of Container Corp., Walter Paepcke stated “We were all coming to feel that our advertising should serve a public interest as well as our own.”

A committee was formed, consisting of Elizabeth Paepcke, members of Container Corp. and representatives of the company that administered the ad pages, N.W. Ayer, to select the statements. The quotations fell into one of three categories, moral, philosophical and political. The “great idea” was then given to an artist with the only stipulation being that the design must in some way be related to the quote.

I thought it fitting the first set to share would feature artwork by Herbert Bayer. Austrian born artist, designer and architect Bayer studied at the Bauhaus under Wassily Kandinsky and László Moholy-Nagy. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1938. From 1946 on Bayer served first as a consultant and then Chairman of the Department of Design for Container Corp. He was art director as well as a frequent contributor for the Great Ideas Series.

I am grateful for the quarter of a century of remarkable words and images. Wouldn’t it be something to see a reboot of this series with designers of the 21^st century?

[ All images from the Great Ideas book published in 1976 by Container Corporation of America ]

>> Container Corporation of America flickr set
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Sandi Vincent grew up in the bay area of California surrounded by mid-century modern architecture and other influences responsible for her affinity for the period and its pop style, including her early exposure to The Monkees, The Avengers and Gerald McBoing-Boing. Sandi now resides in Portland and is a board member of a local nonprofit preservation group, the Mid-Century Modern League. In her day job at a community foundation, she sports the web/social media/print materials coordinator title.

Follow Sandi on Twitter > @SandiV

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