Object Details
- Creator
- Landor Associates
- Landor, Walter, 1913-1995
- Donor
- Gallagher, Bernard F.
- Landor, Josephine Mary, 1918-2001
- Names
- Mair, Francis M., 1916-1991 (commercial artist)
- Topic
- Industrial design
- advertising
- Industrial designers
- Marketing
- Provenance
- Personal papers donated to Archives Center in 1993 by Josephine Landor, widow of Walter Landor; business records donated to Archives Center in 1993 by Landor Associates.
- Creator
- Landor Associates
- Landor, Walter, 1913-1995
- See more items in
- Landor Design Collection
- Summary
- Collection consists of the business records and original art documenting the work of Walter Landor and his design firm Landor Associates located in San Francisco, California.
- Accruals
- One agreement (1941) between Landor and Groves was donated by Bernard Gallagher, 2024.
- Biographical / Historical
- Walter Landor (1913-1995), son of Jewish Bauhaus architect Fritz Landauer, came to the United States in 1938 with the design team for the British Pavilion at the 1939 World's Fair in New York City. He emigrated to the United States in 1941, launching a small design firm in San Francisco. Landor started out doing package design for a largely local and regional clientele (including many West Coast wineries and breweries), although he soon developed a client list that included some of the world's largest and most prestigious corporations. Corporate identity projects were an important specialization. In addition to his own considerable design abilities, Landor had a gift for inspiring and organizing the creativity of a group of associates, and for developing lasting and productive relationships with his clients. The firm developed particular strength in its portfolio of airlines, financial institutions and consumer goods, and prided itself on a network of international clients. From the beginning, Landor linked design to research in consumer behavior, developing increasingly sophisticated methods for evaluating the effectiveness of his designs. This collection documents Walter Landor's remarkable career, the significant body of corporate identity, packaging and other commercial imagery produced by Landor Associates, and the interplay between industrial design and American consumer culture.
- Biographical
- German Historical Institute Walter Landor in the Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present. The collaborative research project Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present sheds new light on the entrepreneurial and economic capacity of immigrants by investigating the German-American example in the United States. It traces the lives, careers and business ventures of eminent German-American business people of roughly the last two hundred and ninety years, integrating the history of German-American immigration into the larger narrative of U.S. economic and business history.
- Extent
- 68 Cubic feet (198 boxes, 4 map folders)
- Date
- circa 1862-2002, undated
- Archival Repository
- Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Identifier
- NMAH.AC.0500
- Type
- Collection descriptions
- Archival materials
- Audiovisual materials
- Business letters
- Business records
- Personal papers
- Videotapes
- Interviews
- Oral history
- Citation
- Landor Design Collection, circa 1862-2002, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
- Arrangement
- Collection is arranged into seven series. Series 1: Landor Associates Business Records, 1862-1993, undated Subseries 1.1: Historical Background and Project Administration Files, 1941-1993, undated Subseries 1.2: Office Files, 1960-1993, undated Subseries 1.3: Newsletters, 1978-1986 Subseries 1.4: Scrapbooks, 1940s-1990s, undated Subseries 1.5: Memoranda, 1956-1979 Subseries 1.6: Magazine Articles, Newspaper Clippings, and Trade Journal Articles, 1926-1992, undated Subseries 1.7: Press Releases and Miscellaneous Files, 1982-1987, undated Subseries 1.8: Walter Landor Reading Files, 1948-1978 (bulk 1970-1978) Subseries 1.9: New Brochure, 1978-1983, 1978-1985 Subseries 1.10: International Files, 1938-1993, undated Subseries 1.11: Promotional Files, 1964-1991, undated Subseries 1.12: Conventions, Seminars, and Conferences, 1955-1989, undated Subseries 1.13: Awards, 1937-1989, undated Subseries 1.14: Tours, Presentations, and Parties, 1951-1986, undated Subseries 1.15: Communication Films, 1965-1969, undated Subseries 1.16: Client Files, 1936-1992, undated Subseries 1.16.1: Companies A-Z, 1936-1992, undated Subseries 1.16.2: Montedison Group S.p.A., 1971-1980, undated Subseries 1.17: Ferryboat Klamath and the Museum of Packaging Antiquities, 1924-1992, undated Subseries 1.18: Labels, 1862-1986, undated Subseries 1.19: Packaging, 1949, undated Subseries 1.20: Original Artwork, 1976-1992, undated Series 2: Walter Landor Papers, 1939-1996, undated Subseries 2.1: Papers, 1939-1993, undated Subseries 2.2: Trip Files, 1954-1988, undated Subseries 2.3: Speeches, 1948-1992, undated Subseries 2.4: Corporate Historical Reference, 1950-1996, undated Series 3: Photographic Materials, 1930-1993, undated Subseries 3.1: Photographic Prints, 1930-1993, undated Subseries 3.2: Slides, 1940-1990, undated Subseries 3.3: Publications, 1965-1992, undated Series 4: Landor Archives Project, 1949-2002, undated Subseries 4.1: Lillian Sader Files, 1950-1993, undated Subseries 4.2: Ed Scubic Files, 1968-1990, undated Subseries 4.3: Other Associates Files, 1949-1993, undated Subseries 4.4: Oral Histories, 1969-1994 Subseries 4.5: Archives Project Reference Files, 1939-2002, undated Series 5: Motion Picture Films, 1944-1977, undated Subseries 5.1: Landor Associates, 1958-1972, undated Subseries 5.2: Educational and Training Acquired by Landor Associates, 1944-1975, undated Subseries 5.3: Promotional Films Acquired by Landor Associates, 1958-1977, undated Subseries 5.4: Television Commercials, Advertising and Public Service Announcements, 1964-1975, undated Subseries 5.5: Miscellaneous Films Acquired by Landor Associates, 1967-1970, undated Series 6: Video Cassette Tapes, 1980-1993, undated Series 7: Audio Tapes, 1971-1991, undated
- Processing Information
- Collection processed by Roberto Landazuri, 1993, supervised by Mary Jo Pugh, consultant, at the San Francisco offices of Landor Associates. The Landor family and Landor Associates provided funding for this work. Finding aid revised and amended by Mimi Minnick, archivist January 1995 and May 1996. Additional processing by Vanessa Broussard-Simmons, archivist 2020-2022 and John A. Fleckner, archivist, 2019-2022, Clare McElhaney, 2022.
- Rights
- Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
- Genre/Form
- Audiovisual materials
- Business letters
- Business records -- 20th century
- Personal papers -- 20th century
- Videotapes
- Interviews -- 1980-2000
- Oral history
- Scope and Contents
- Collection documents the career of designer Walter Landor and the significant body of commercial imagery and packaging produced by Landor Associates design firm. Contains corporate and business records of Landor Associates, Landor's personal papers, oral history interviews, films, videotapes, and other audiovisual resources.
- Restrictions
- Collection is open for research.
- Record ID
- ebl-1503512529767-1503512529770-0
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