Lester Beall: trailblazer of American graphic design

Abstract

"Lester Beall (1903-1969) was the first graphic designer to be honored by a one-man exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (in 1937) and was awarded the 1993 Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Institute of Graphic Arts. Deeply influenced by the European avant-garde in the 1930s, Beall synthesized its forms for the American business community and was a pioneer in the development of advertising, corporate identity design, packaging, and print media during the post-war decades. R. Roger Remington's definitive study of Lester Beall sets the designer in context and shows the range of his work. Based on the Beall archives in the Wallace Library at Rochester Institute of Technology, the book includes over 200 produced pieces and sketches, most in full color, together with portraits, drawings, paintings, and experimental photographs, many of them never previously reproduced."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents

Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- The formative years: 1903-1926 -- The development years: 1927-1934 -- Case study 1: Advertising campaign for the Chicago Tribune, 1933-1935 -- The experimental years: 1935-1949 -- Case study 2: Rural Electrification Administration posters, 1937-1941 -- The mature years: 1950-1969 -- Case study 3: Corporate identity program for International Paper, 1960 -- Appendix 1: Lester Beall chronology -- Appendix 2: Professional staff, 1927-1969.