1903-1969
AMERICAN GRAPHIC DESIGN PIONEER: LESTER BEALL
AMERICAN GRAPHIC DESIGN PIONEER: LESTER BEALL
COPYRIGHT 2010 Text by Mrs. Lester Beall for The American Institute of Graphic Arts Journal in December 1969 and is owned by the estate of Lester Beall. Text is sourced from the website LesterBeall.com represented by VAGA.
COPYRIGHT 1993 Text by The American Institute of Graphic Arts.
PAGE C title
Lester was first of all an artist, not only because of a vital and important talent, but because of an emotional spiritual quality, a very special attitude. He was a pioneer in his application of graphic design to advertising, publishing and creative activities. He was acutely aware of the effects of graphic design on the human environment and of the social responsibilities of the designer. – Dorothy M. Beall
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 23
INTRODUCTION
THE INFLUENTIAL YEARS
AN ARCHITECTONIC CLARITY
Life of Lester Beall from 1903-1969
Life and Career from 1903 to 1927
Recognition and the Beginning of a Career in 1903
PAGE 01
PAGE 09
PAGE 11
4
1941-1955: A TYPOGRAPHIC SURREALIST Lester Beall was a Typographer with Outstanding Ability PAGE 19
567
THE WAY A MAN LIVES
DESIGN AND THE HUMAN ENVIRONMENT
PERSONAL WORK
Beall’s Living and Office Locations Greatly Influenced His Work
Beall Took Part in Exhibitions and Gained Much Recognition
Drawing, Painting, Studying, and Lecturing
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PAGE 27
PAGE 29
The life of Lester Beall from 1903-1969
LESTER BEALL: INTRODUCTION
Lester Beall with a Cheviot sheep at Dunbarton Farm, 1960’s.
“If we can produce the kind of art which harnesses the power of the human instinct for that harmony of form, beauty and cleanness that seems inevitable when you see it, then I think we may be doing a job for our clients.”
Over the span of his 44-year career, Beall produced solutions to design problems that were fresh and innovative. He studied the dynamic visual form of the European avant-garde, synthesized parts into his own aesthetic and formed graphic design applications for business and industry that were appropriate, bold, and imaginative. In his mature years he led the way with creative and comprehensive packaging and corporate identity programs that met the needs of his clients. Along the way in his work manner and style, Beall proved to American business that the graphic designer was a professional that could creatively solve problems and at the same time deal with pragmatic issues of marketing and budget.
Beall felt that the designer “must work with one goal in mind—to integrate the elements in such a manner that they will combine to produce a result that will convey not merely a static commercial message, but an emotional reaction as well. If we can produce the kind of art which harnesses the power of the human instinct for that harmony of form, beauty and cleanness that seems inevitable when you see it, then I think we may be doing a job for our clients.” For Beall that creativity was present at every stage of the design process. He said, “the designer’s role in the development, application and protection of the trademark may be described as pre-creative, creative and post-creative.”
PAGE 1
introduction
THE MOMENT CLIENTS REALIZE THAT REVISIONS ARE NOT AN ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT BUFFET, SUDDENLY THEY REALIZE THEY ARE NOT HUNGRY. —LESTER BEALL
PAGE 3 title
1903
19031925 Spends summers in Ewing, MO with maternal grandparents
Born Kansas City, Missouri on March 14th
Carlstrand-Rock Company
Lives at 426 E. 50th Street, Chicago
Lives in St. Joseph, Missouri
Family moves to St. Louis, Missouri
1927
1910
19121926
Family moves to Chicago
19271930 Begins design career in Chicago as freelancer
Opens office in downtown Chicago
1929 Son Lester Beall, Jr. born (October 26) Achieves recognition “in a small way” for his work Moves into new studio Marshall Field & Company Spends time in Ryerson Memorial Library, Art Institute of Chicago Becomes aware of the European avant-garde in fine as well as graphic art Seeks “new direction” for his career
1930s Has design office at 333 North Michigan Avenue Charles Daniel Frey Advertising Agency Chicago Tribune Founding member of Chicago 27 Delivers speech to STA about the Bauhaus and Moholy-Nagy
1921 Recieves amateur radio operator’s license
1922 Graduates from Lane Technical School Begins studies at University of Chicago
1922- 1926
Appears in semi-professional theater while a student at University of Chicago Contemplates acting career with friend Will Geer; decides upon career in visual arts
PAGE 5
1903-1931
1935 Wins award at STA annual exhibit
Society of Typographic Arts
Awarded three blue ribbons by Art Directors Club of New York
R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co.
Daughter Joanna born, August 17, l935 Moves to New York City ahead of family to begin practice Office at Tudor City
Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc.
1936
Reunites with family and lives in Wilton, Connecticut (January)
Meets Gilbert Tompkins, to be his agent
Two Gold Medal Awards from Art Directors Club of New York
Meets George Bijur, CBS
Hiram Walker Incorporated
Designs first package
Art Directors Club of New York
Chicago Tribune
George Bijur, Inc. Narragansett Brewing Co. Abbott Laboratories
1937 Designs REA posters, Series 1 Exhibits REA posters at Museum of Modern Art Subject of cover and feature article in PM magazine Hires first employees U.S. Government, Rural Electrification Administration Philadelphia GAS Work Crowell-Collier Publishing
1932
1933 Opens design office with Fred Hauck Designs first mural at the Chicago Century of Progress (for Public Service Company of Northern Illinois) Designs playbill for Globe Theatre
1934
Meets Fred Hauck, BBDO
Art Directors Club of Chicago
Interests shifts from illustration to typography
Colortext Publications Carne Company
Pabst Corporation
First participation in group exhibition
Donald M. Frank
Mills Novelty Company
Mills Novelty Company
Wins award for illustration at the Chicago Art Directors Club
Chicago Tribune
Purchases first Leica camera First photograms
Exhibits at Art Directors Club of New York Gives talk at Society of Typographic Arts, “New Foundation for Layout” On trip east, visits Charles Coiner at N. W. Ayer, Philadelphia Globe Theater Chicago Tribune R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co. Society of Typographic Arts Mix Advertising Arts
1937 Company/Colliers George Bijur, Inc.
1938 Co-authors article with L. Sandusky titled “The Bauhaus Tradition and the New Typography”
Sterling Engraving
Subject of article in German magazine Gebrauchsgraphik
Art Directors Club of New York
Works on photograms and experimental photography
PM Publishing Company
Marshall Field & Company
Moves business to Woodstock Tower, Tudor City, New York City
Florida Citrus Canners Cooperative
Designs REA posters, series #2
Cue Publishing Company
Work reproduced in Arts et Metiers Graphiques, vols. 61. 63, 65
I. Miller & Sons, Inc. Union Bag and Paper Corporation
U.S. Government, Rural Electrification Administration
Hiram Walker Incorporated
Crowell-Collier Publishing Company
Narragansett Brewing Co.
George Bijur, Inc./Time magazine McGraw-Hill Publishing Co., Inc. Modern Arts Press Boston Insurance Company
1939
Moves office to 580 Fifth Avenue Name of firm changed to Lester Beall
PAGE 7
1932-1939
Life and career from 1903 to 1927
THE INFLUENTIAL YEARS
I am going to relate how I believe Lester’s career developed, why it took the course that it did. There is a certain quality of inevitability in terms of this development.
He was far too reticent. His thoughts were far too much a part of himself.
Born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1903, Beall’s early childhood years were spent in St. Louis and Chicago. His mother was an artist (untrained, to be sure, but not without talent.) His father, adventuresome and explorative, liked the challenge of a difficult problem. Cramped though their home might be, there was always room made available for Lester’s creative activities. He was always encouraged to use his hands and has recalled the fascination of assembling his own wireless set, to which he added that of “ham” operator, his call letters being 9DDQ. Prior to receiving his operator’s license, in 1919 or 1920, he had constructed a number of receiving sets both crystal and tube.
of Art in 1926. In these days traditional art was taught, none of the movements, such as Impressionism, were a part of the curriculum. His absorbing interest in the Fine Arts was now established. Within the next few years, although he was always vitally interested in art of the past, he became increasingly more interested in the art trends of the latter part of the 19th century and of his own time: Impressionism,
During these formative years the type of training he received contributed to the manner in which he worked. In high school at Lane Technical School he had been engaged in considerable work with his hands.
Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Dadaism, Surrealism, the Russian Constructivists, and the studies at the Bauhaus. He spent countless hours at the Ryerson Memorial Library at Chicago’s Art Institute.
Of particular importance was four years of mechanical drawing. All through his boyhood years and later at the University of Chicago he found himself drawn into artistic activities, finally graduating from the University with a PhD in History
To bring to life still more acutely the world of art, which had been developing during these years, he had the great good fortune of meeting Fred Hauck, a most sensitive artist, of intellectually perceptive understanding. Fred had just
Lester Beall opened a design office wtih Fred Hauck in 1933 in Chicago. In 1939 the office moves to 580 Ffith Avenue and the firm’s name is changed to Lester Beall.
returned from Munich, where he had studied under Hans Hoffman, bringing back with him books on the Bauhaus and on the progress of other art trends abroad. Some of the happiest occasions of Lester’s life were spent with the Haucks: Fred, and Janet, his wife (also a previous student of Hans Hoffman’s in Munich.) These conversations were from the heart, free yet analytical. These were perhaps two people altogether in his life with whom Lester could converse in this manner about art: Fred, and Joanna Beall Westermann, our daughter. Other
members of the family were fortunate to be present on these occasions to sense the excitement of this thinking. He was far too reticent. His thoughts were far too much a part of himself. So, we have Lester Beall, the beginning of his career in progress. It was a time of discovering the interdependence of painting, sculpture, and the technique of modern industry and of the underlying unity of all creative work. He began his design career in 1927.
PAGE 9
the influential years
Recognition and the beginning of a career
1939: AN ARCHITECTONIC CLARITY
Beall was commissioned to create a poster for The Freedom Pavilion in 1939 by The World’s Fair in New York.
Lester was unorthodox in the choice of his media. He used old woodcuts, lithos, drawings and pieces of paintings, he operated with photomontage, photogram, photographic and typographic effects. Recognition abroad became evident in 1935 with an article in a German magazine: “Fifteen drawings prepared for the Chicago Tribune Travel Bureau by Lester Beall of Chicago are all very original and daring, and are absolutely not, as we have understood to be the manner in which American art is done.” Later the same year the Chicago Tribune received a letter from Germany: “The excellent Swiss typographical journal, Typoghiche Monatsblaetter, is preparing a special issue on the United States and has asked me to write a review of modern American advertising typography. As I consider your pamphlet and advertising folder such as ‘Consider Chicago’ and others designed by Lester Beall as the finest and most progressive American advertising designs, I should be most obliged to you for letting me have a selection of what you consider most representative.” By 1935 Beall had decided to move to New York and in late September of that year had opened a studio/office in his apartment in Tudor City on Manhattan’s east side. In 1936, while maintaining the office in New York, he moved to Wilton, Connecticut where he established his home and studio in a rural setting. He was to remain in Wilton until 1950. Many of the significant works from this period were done in this location. Through the 1930s and 1940s Beall produced innovative and highly regarded work for clients including the Chicago Tribune, Sterling Engraving, The Art Directors Club of
New York, Hiram Walker, Abbott Laboratories and Time magazine. Of particular interest was his work for the Crowell Publishing Company which produced Colliers magazine. The promotional covers “Will There Be War?” and “Hitler’s Nightmare” are powerful designs which distill messages of the time. In these works he utilizes angled elements, iconic arrows, silhouetted photographs and dynamic shapes, all of which captures the essence of his personal style of the late 1930s. Also of interest in this period are the remarkable poster series for the United States Government’s Rural Electrification Administration. In all Beall designed three series of posters between 1937 and 1941 with the simple goals of increasing the number of rural Americans who would electrify their homes and increasing public awareness of the benefits of electricity. His poster for the ill-fated “Freedom Pavilion” at the 1939 World’s Fair was another dynamic example of this time in which he used what he called “thrust and counter-thrust” of design elements. In 1939 appeared an article in the German magazine Gebrauschsgraphik: “Lester Beall is the typical representative of those definitely intellectual artists whose creative work is based less upon spontaneity than upon reflection. His work displays an almost mathematical accuracy and architectonic clarity: one feels in looking at it that it has been executed with careful consideration and with a feeling of responsibility. Further, it reveals a perfect command of the typographical medium and an unerring feeling for the proper arrangement of surfaces. It also betrays the obvious desire to express with the simplest possible means easily comprehended impressions of striking forcefulness.
PAGE 11 1939
APPLIED GOOD TASTE IS A MARK OF GOOD CITIZENSHIP. UGLINESS IS A FROM OF ANARCHY. UGLY CITIES, UGLY ADVERTISING, UGLY LIVES PRODUCE BAD CITIZENS. —LESTER BEALL
PAGE 13 title
1939
1940 Abbott Laboratories
Mutual Broadcasting System, Inc. Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc.
Work produced in Arts et Metiers Graphiques, vol. 68
Crowell-Collier Publishing Company
U.S. Government, Rural Electrification Administration
William Allen White Committee
National Alliance of Art & Industry, Inc.
1941
Designs REA posters, series #3 U.S. Government, Rural Electrification Administration
Crowell-Collier Publishing Company
U.S. Housing Authority and Office for Emergency Management
Mutual Broadcasting System, Inc.
Crowell-Collier Publishing Company
George Bijur, Inc.
Museum of Modern Art
Sterling Engraving
Abbott Laboratories
New York World’s Fair
Advertising Club of Boston
Art Center School
St. Matthew’s Parish
Abbott Laboratories
Caterpillar Tractor Company
1942
Exhibits in “Advance Guard of Advertising Artists” show at A-D Gallery, New York (with Bayer, Carlu, Kepes, Kauffer, Matter, Moholy-Nagy, Rand, and Sutnar) Featured in Norte magazine Packaging Institute Inc. U.S. Government, Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs Burroughs Wellcome & Co., Inc. C.J. Bates & Sons Designs first Scope for Upjohn Company Burroughs Wellcome & Co., Inc. C.J. Bates & Sons
New York Public Library Art Directors Club of New York Robert Johnson Magazines, Inc. McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. In.
1948
Moves office to 60 Sutton Place South Exhibits in one-man show at Society of Illustrators, New York Award from Art Directors Club of Chicago for Marshall Field ads
1949 Buys Dumbarton Farm
Screen Process & Display Association Strathmore Paper Company Upjohn Company
1950 Davis, Delaney, Inc. Medical Times Miles Pennybacker Pond’s Extract Company
Beall’s mother, Effie Kendall Thomas Beall, dies
Strathmore Paper Company
E.J. Brach & Sons
McGavin Bakeries, Ltd.
Sweet Caporal Cigarettes
American Red Cross
West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company
Davis and Geck
Cockfield, Brown & Company, Ltd.
Rogers Engraving Company, Inc.
Altes Brewing Company
1951 First trip to Europe
Gives talk at International Advertising Conference, London Advertising and Sales Club of Syracuse American Red Cross Diameter magazine Kurt Volk New York Herald Tribune United States Lines Company New England Fish Company Perfex Bleach Limited U.S. Air Force Ketchum, MacLleod & Grove Inc. Museum of Modern Art
1945
1946 Art Directors Club of New York
Container Corporation of America Museum of Modern Art New Republic Magazine Willow Run Automobiles
Exhibits in one-man show at A-D Gallery, New York City
RCA
Receives gold medal for fine arts at Art Directors Club of New York
Ford Motor Company
Cone Automatic Machine Co., Inc.
Upjohn Company Fortune magazine
Curtiss-Wright Corporation Marshall Field & Company New York Subways Advertising Company Upjohn Company
1952
1954
Visiting Graphic Artist at Yale University John Labatt, Ltd. Link-Belt Company Martin Aircraft Company United States Lines Company
1955
Opens office at Dumbarton Farm
Joseph A. Kaplan & Sons, Inc.
E.T. Barwick Mills
Graphis magazine
Lithographers National Association
Stanley Works
Simoniz Corporation
Parsons Paper Company
New England Fish Company
Closes offices in New York
J. Wiss & Sons Co.
Perfex Bleach Limited
Albin Dearing
MacMillan Bloedel, Ltd.
Propeller Club of United States
Simoniz Company
Participates in Alliance Graphique Internationale exhibit in Paris
United States Lines Company
Peter Downes
Art Director & Studio News magazine
Journal of Living Publishing Corporation
Ohio Brass Company
Perfex Bleach Limited
American Broadcasting Company
Torrington Manufacturing Company
Family Shopper
Visiting graphic artist at Yale University Consultant, Office of Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force
Davis and Geck
Torrington Manufacturing Company Connecticut General Life Insurance Company Container Corporation of America
PAGE 15
1939-1954
1955
1956
Produces “Dumbarton Farm—A Place in the Country” booklet Produces “Music Sphere” for ALCOA Changes name of firm to Lester Beall Design Group Visiting Graphic Artist at Yale University
Closes offices in New York
Graham Foundation
Participates in Alliance Graphique Internationale exhibit in Paris
H. L. Judd Company
1957
1958
Begins work for International Paper Company Aluminum Company of America Colton Press, Inc. Connecticut General Life Insurance Company
Second trip to Europe, with Dorothy and Lester Jr.
Emhart Manufacturing Company
Lee-Vons farms
Connecticut General Life Insurance Company
Sperry Products, Inc.
Martin Aircraft Company
Equity Press Inc.
Torrington Manufacturing Company
Outdoor Advertising, Inc.
Martin Aircraft Company
Western Gypsum Products Ltd.
Aluminum Company of Canada
Pfeiffer Brewing Company
Titeflex, Inc.
General Electric Company
Uris Buildings Co.
Simoniz Corporation
Connecticut General Life Insurance Company
Consolidated Natural Gas Co.
American Telephone and Telegraph Company
J. Wiss & Sons Co.
McGraw-Hill Publishing Co., Inc.
Visiting graphic artist at Yale University Consultant, Office of Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force Blumenthal Brothers Chocolate Company Davis and Geck
MacMillan Bloedel, Ltd.
Torrington Manufacturing Company Emhart Manufacturing Company
Martin Aircraft Company
Caterpillar Tractor Company United States Government Post Office
Torrington Manufacturing Company Connecticut General Life Insurance Company Container Corporation of America
1963
Beall’s father, Walter Miles Beall, dies International Paper Company Kimberly-Clark Corporation Lincoln Center Fund Martin Marietta Corporation Newsweek magazine
1964 Art Metal, Inc.
Western Gypsum Products, Ltd.
Bunker-Ramo Corporation
General Aniline & Film Corporation
Martin Marietta Corporation
House of Herbs
Newal, Inc.
Union Carbide Corporation
Rohm & Haas Company
Art Metal, Inc.
House of Herbs
Caterpillar Tractor Company
MacMillan Bloedel, Ltd. Caterpillar Tractor Company
1959
Lectures at “Typography USA” conference, New York city
1960 Incorporates business (June)
Changes name of firm to Lester Beall Inc. Travels in France with Dorothy Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc.
1961
Uris Buildings Corp.
Standard Oil Company
One-man exhibit, “The Graphic Work of Lester Beall” opens at American Institute of Graphic Arts in New York
International Paper Company
Torrington Manufacturing Company
New York Hilton Hotel
Martin Marietta Corporation
Mite Corporation
Chilton Company
Corry Jamestown Corporation
MacMillan Bloedel, Ltd.
Max O. Urbahn
Hudson Pulp & Paper Corporation
International Paper Company
International Paper Company
International Paper Company
Martin Marietta Corporation
Caterpillar Tractor Company
Martin Aircraft Company
Eastman Kodak Company
U.S. Information Agency
J. Wiss & Sons Co.
J.W. Clement
Martin Marietta Corporation
Boy Scouts of America
Produces “Lester Beall” promotional booklet
Aluminum Company of America Connecticut General Life Insurance Company
REA Express
United Biscuit Company of America
New York Hilton
Titeflex, Inc. Western Gypsum Products Ltd.
1965 Lester Beall becomes ill Art Metal, Inc. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. Rohm & Haas Company Caterpillar Tractor Company Martin Marietta Corporation Warner-Lambert Pharmaceutical Company
1966 Art Metal, Inc.
1967 International Paper Company Martin Marietta Corporation Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. Caterpillar Tractor Company MacMillan Bloedel, Ltd.
1968 Art Metal, Inc.
Caterpillar Tractor Company
Caterpillar Tractor Company
Crane Company
Martin Marietta Corporation
Martin Marietta Corporation
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith
Rohm & Haas Company
International Paper Company
International Paper Company
Oldham, Soforenko & Priestley Associates
PAGE 17
1955-1968
Lester Beall was a typographer with outstanding ability
1941-1955: A TYPOGRAPHIC SURREALIST
“[Beall] might be called in a sense ‘a typographical surrealist.’”
A typographer of outstanding ability, he was described in 1941 as “best known of all definitely non-traditional typographers and designers of printing, he might be called in a sense ‘a typographical surrealist.’” Later in 1952, again in Graphis magazine appeared an article: “The redesigning of well-known journals and magazines with which Lester Beall was entrusted by their publishers has had a deep influence on typogScope compare with the avant-garde of the fine raphy in the U.S.A. Only those who are familiar arts.” Lester was also art director and designer for with the conservative prejudices of the literary, “What’s New”, the Abbott Laboratories technical and scientific press can fully appreciate house organ. this achievement, which amounts to the aesthetic re-education of the whole staffs of the journals He remained in Chicago until 1935, at which time concerned, from the publishers themselves to Beall had decided to move to New York and in the compositors, not forgetting the readers. Beall late September of that year had opened a studio/ has something in common with the pioneers who office in his apartment in Tudor City on Manhatdiscovered the American west and utilized and tan’s east side. In 1936, while maintaining the developed what they found there to their own office in New York, he moved to Wilton, Connectiends. Like them he will never be satisfied with cut where he established his home and studio what he has accomplished, but will always be in a rural setting. He was to remain in Wilton searching for other ways of combining the new until 1950. Many of the significant works from and the useful.” Of interest in this field were a this period were done in this location. Through series of twenty McGraw-Hill publications which the 1930s and 1940s Beall produced innovative he redesigned. Lester was also art director and and highly regarded work for clients including designer for “Scope,” the chemical and pharmathe Chicago Tribune, Sterling Engraving, The Art ceutical advertising periodical published by the Directors Club of New York, Hiram Walker, Abbott Upjohn Co. He began this series early in 1944 Laboratories and Time magazine. Of particular with the March issue and continued the project interest was his work for the Crowell Publishing through May 195l. Graphis magazine in 1946 Company which produced Colliers magazine. The referring to his association with this project says: promotional covers “Will There Be War?” and “It is rare to find the sense for accurate represen- “Hitler’s Nightmare” are powerful designs which tation united with artistic insight, which has led distill messages of the time. In these works he to such stimulating results. The collaboration of utilizes angled elements, iconic arrows, silhouscientists, technicians and photographers finds in etted photographs and dynamic shapes, all of Beall’s work a visual expression which affords ev- which captures the essence of his personal style ident proof of his strong hand. His title pages for of the late 1930s. Also of interest in this period
Poster series for the US Government’s Rural Electrification Administration in 1937.
are the remarkable poster series for the United States Government’s Rural Electrification Administration. In all Beall designed three series of posters between 1937 and 1941 with the simple goals of increasing the number of rural Americans who would electrify their homes and increasing public awareness of the benefits of
electricity. His poster for the ill-fated “Freedom Pavilion” at the 1939 World’s Fair was another dynamic example of this time in which he used what he called “thrust and counter-thrust” of design elements.
PAGE 19
1941-1955
B e a l l ’s l i v i n g a n d o f f i c e s i n f l u e n c e d h i s w o r k g r e a t l y
THE WAY A MAN LIVES
In 1952, he established offices at Dumbarton Farm and divided his time between the New York and the Brookfield Center office. In 1955 the New York City office consolidated with the Brookfield Center office at Dumbarton Farm, the barns further developed with increased facilities and an enlarged staff. At this time Lester said, “There were a number of reasons why this move was made: the obvious reason of canceling out the commuting every day, but also by living and working in the country I felt I could enjoy a more integrated life, and although I still need the periodic stimulation of New York City, the opportunities of creative activity in an area of both beauty and tranquility seemed to me to far exceed anything that a permanent studio and residence in New York City might offer—The way a man lives is essential to the work he produces. The two cannot be separated.” Prior to 1937, Lester had always worked alone, but from 1937 he employed a staff, varying in number from one to six. This gave him the opportunity of training young designers while
“The way a man lives is essential to the work he produces. The two cannot be separated.”
at the same time stimulating them to think and create for themselves. It has always been of the greatest importance to Lester to maintain a small design group, for he took a personal interest in all that was done there, insisting on participating, directing and approving personally all that was accomplished. Shortly after moving to New York in 1935 he for the first time worked on packaging projects. As time passed he became increasingly more interested in packaging design. This led eventually toward integrated design programs for large business firms. His approach to packaging was based on the premise that a package design was only a part of an inter-related series of merchandising and marketing problems—that no specifically isolated facet could, or should be disassociated from the overall problem itself. Lester’s work for industry has included: packaging, trademark, integrated corporate identification programs, product styling, exhibits, and the graphics of advertising and printed literature. During the 1950s and ‘60s Beall’s design office expanded both in its staff and scope, adding associate designers and mounting full-scale corporate identification campaigns for large companies such as a Caterpillar Tractor, Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, The New York Hilton and Merrill Lynch, Fenner Pierce and Smith, Inc. His identity program for International Paper Company from 1960 was his most extensive identity program and is noteworthy for the graphics standards manual, one of the first to be so fully articulated.
Beall designed the 1947 cover for Fortune Magazine.
PAGE 21
the way a man lives
THE DESIGNER’S ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT, APPLICATION AND PROTECTION OF THE TRADEMARK MAY BE DESCRIBED AS PRECREATIVE, CREATIVE AND POST-CREATIVE. —LESTER BEALL
PAGE 23 title
1969 Lester Beall dies (June 20)
Caterpillar Tractor Company Rohm & Haas Company
1972
Studio/barns at Dumbarton Farm sold Beall inducted into Hall of Fame, Art Directors Club of New York
1974
Personal library of books sold
1983 House at Dumbarton Farm sold
1986
1993
Lester Beall honored with Lifetime Achievement Award by American Institute of Graphic Arts
Dorothy Miller Beall dies
PAGE 25
1969-1993
Beall had taken part in many exhibitions and gained much recognition
1968: DESIGN & THE HUMAN ENVIRONMENT
Print Magazine (1968), devoted a special issue from the integrity of expression; one finds the to the subject: “Graphic Design in the Human same problems of group-guilt in the theatre, Environment.” A group of Symposium statements ballet and cinema – in the fields of architecture, were requested of twenty-four persons (designcity planning, landmark preservation. ers, architects, city planners, public officials, “As for the personal involvement of the designer, critics, psychologists, etc.). They were invited to or any other environmental maker, by entering comment on the prospects and possibilities for the game of politics, it would only end in the achieving meaningful environmental improvedegradation of his work, as well as his perment in our time. Lester Beall’s statement in sonality--. In fact, the problems of many types part: “Today’s design environment is one facet of of environmental control are, in my opinion, man’s overall culture – hence, it is only partially too enormous for governments, city and state responsible for the visual mess in which we planners, scientists, and technologists using all find ourselves. One microcosm of this threat to the most advanced computer systems . . . The our civilization is the detrimental characteristic near-perfect answer, if there is one, is to be prevailing in the philosophy of advertising and found in personal and group integrity.” public relations that has indubitably cemented sales records to the products, regardless of the By 1935 Lester had taken part in fourteen exintrinsic worth of the product. The result in part hibitions. Of these four were international (the is the manufacturer who produces products of expediency; and the craftsman (the labor community) who demands more and more monies without equally important demands for products with structural aesthetic honesty. “We can say that the painter, the sculptor, and the graphics and industrial designer have also yielded to the competitive aggressiveness manifest by the desire for quick money and the prevalence on the ‘marquee.’ The propellants of this posture are, too often, the museums, galleries, art schools, magazines and others with eulogies of what are the foremost trends. Hence, the socalled ‘fine artists’ as well as graphic designers, must share some concern in perverting and being perverted by these instruments of fashion-setting trends with an attendant drift-away
“Today’s design environment is one facet of man’s overall culture – hence, it is only partially responsible for the visual mess in which we find ourselves.”
Beall created corporate identities for many businesses. From left: Caterpillar Tractor (1967), International Paper Company (1960), and Merrill Lynch, Fenner, Pierce, and Smith, Inc. (1968).
first was in Holland), and ten were group shows Today”, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.: in this country. The first of his one-man shows “Modern Art Influences on Printing Design”: Cartook place in the Museum of Modern Art in negie Museum, Pittsburgh: “The Music Sphere New York in 1937. The same year he exhibited Designed by Lester Beall” for the Aluminum for the first time in Paris, six samples of his Company of America. work being included in the Paris International Throughout the years he has won a great many Exposition. Since then he has participated in awards and trophies, his first received in1934. several additional shows in Paris, also a number Other awards included one given to him by of times in London, as well as other cities in the United States Treasury Department for England. Some of the other exhibitions abroad Distinguished Services rendered in behalf of in which he took part were in Italy, Switzerland, the War Savings Program; another given by the Germany, Russia, Sweden, in various cities as Continental Air Command for outstanding coopwell as in Stockholm; Norway, Finland, Denmark; eration and professional services rendered in Melbourne in Australia; Japan, both in Tokyo and furtherance of the Air Force Reserve Information Kyoto; also in Czechoslovakia and Canada. . . Services Program. He has taken part in a number of international exhibitions in this country. Of particular pleasure to him were three fine arts exhibitions at the Art Institute in Chicago –as well as other shows there that were not international. He has been included in countless group shows in this country, his first being in 1933, being the first exhibition of the Art Directors Club of Chicago. His work has been shown in many cities throughout the United States, from coast to coast, some of these: The Baltimore Museum of Art: “The Poster
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PERSONAL WORK: DRAWING, PAINTING, STUDYING, LECTURING
In recent years Lester has said, “Through all my life as a designer I have spent considerable time developing myself as an artist. I am constantly drawing, with particular emphasis on the figure, which I find fascinating though difficult in terms of evolving something that is not completely abstract but certainly not literal or realistic.” He was a particularly fine water colorist. A student of the arts, Lester has done much reading and studying, had engaged in the writing of papers, composing these on matters associated with his profession, had been the author of papers expressing in lectures and in panel discussions his credo. He had given many lectures throughout the United States, Canada and abroad, the first recorded talk in 1934 before the Society of Typographic Arts in Chicago at the Newberry Library, his subject: “New Foundations for Layout”. His lectures have been for the most part before design groups, Universities, and Museums. On the occasion of his being a delegate from the United States to the International Advertising Conference taking place in London in 1951, he gave a talk before the Advertising Creative Circle of Great Britain. Expressing his thoughts on lecturing in general he said, “In spite of the fact that I have lectured many times and although I do have some simple precepts upon which I base my own approach to problems of design and painting, I am becoming less patient with the increasing vogue for ‘talking design and painting’. Art in any form is a projected emotion using visual tools, and although it is true that at times words are certainly helpful in describing and explaining one’s visual concept, on the whole the fewer the words, the better the design philosophy.” Beall maintained, throughout his life, a core of sources which stimulated his perception,
creativity and methods of making art and design. He was a highly visual person with a great need to express himself. Always first and at the center of his ways of working were his form experimentation in the drawing and painting of the human figure. He was always at work in his studio, whether it was creating design, art or photography. His wife, Dorothy Miller Beall, characterized her husband as “first of all an artist, not only because of a vital and important talent, but because of an emotional spiritual quality, a very special attitude.” His daughter Joanna remembers this fine art expression as “a major part of his thinking.” Beall, in his memoirs, confirms this by recalling that “all through my life as a designer, I have spent considerable time developing myself as an artist. I am constantly drawing, with particular emphasis on the figure, which I find fascinating though difficult in term of evolving something that is not completely abstract but certainly not literal or realistic.” Photography also was a lifelong interest to Beall and an important part of his creative process. He experimented with photography and photographic processes almost from the beginning of his career in design in Chicago. Cameras, a photographic studio and a darkroom were always necessary for his visual experiments. In the ‘30s he had seen the experimental photographic work of the European avant-garde designers such as Herbert Bayer, El Lissitzky, and Lazlo Moholy-Nagy. Beall would experiment regularly with photograms, and with straight photography both in and out of the studio. Even today, many of Beall’s photographic images remain unusual and innovative visual experiments. Beall carried his camera with him on all his travels. These images formed an image bank from which he drew inspiration for his lectures. Others found
In addition to design, Beall had a profound interest in painting.
their way into direct graphic design application the opportunity and creative activity in an area for his clients such as in the cover for ORS, a of both beauty and tranquility seemed to me journal for health services professionals. A more to far exceed anything that a studio and resicomplex photographic technique is used on the dence in New York might offer—the way a man cover of What’s New, a house organ of Abbott lives is essential to the work he produces. The Laboratories. This image from 1939 shows a two cannot be separated. If I could condense complex integration of photographic and graph- into a single idea the thinking we are trying ic elements, set in a scale which juxtaposes the to do here at Dumbarton Farm, it would be to size relationships of foreground and background. achieve, through organic and integrated design, that power of inevitability. This has for a long The psychologist Erich Fromm said, “Education time been an effort to work out a way of living for creativity is nothing short of education for for me and my family—and for the people who living.” Beall’s creative activities were powerfully work with me. It gives me more time at home. It influenced, enhanced and supported by the surrounds me with atmosphere I feel is pretty working environments that he established to essential to good creativity.” With Beall it was support them. Whether he was working from his not so much that he had his studio in the counoffice near the Loop in Chicago, an office in a try, but that he had a way of life built around the New York skyscraper or from the pastoral setting country, part of which involved having his studio in Connecticut, Beall was sensitive to the imthere at his elbow. portance of the space around him and how this could influence his creativity. In 1968 he wrote: As with other pioneers of his era, Beall believed “By living and working in the country I felt I could that the designer cannot work in a vacuum. He enjoy a more integrated life, and although I still remarked, “all experience in fields directly or need the periodic stimulation of New York City, indirectly related to design must be absorbed
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and stored up, to provide the inspirational source that guides, nourishes and enriches the idea-flow of the designer.” Beall’s own interests in other art forms provided further stimulus to his immense curiosity and creativity. Dorothy Beall wrote that Lester “believed that anyone interested in design must necessarily be interested in other fields of expression—the theatre,
ballet, photography, painting, literature, as well as music, for from any of these the alert designer can at times obtain not only ideas related to his advertising problem, but genuine inspiration.” His books and periodicals were another great source of inspiration for Beall. He collected books and periodicals seriously from the beginning of his design career in Chicago.
In addition to design, Beall had a profound interest in painting.
By the Sixties, Beall had accumulated a major personal collection of publications on creative forms such as art, design, photography and architecture. He also collected seminal magazines such as Cahiers d’Art and rare volumes such as the famous Bauhausbucher. Music was another important ingredient of Beall’s creative environment. He was very familiar with jazz, having grown up with it in Chicago. While working in his studio there in the mid-’20s, he would often listen to live broadcasts on radio. Throughout his life, he would surround himself with music, be it jazz, or the classical compositions of Europeans such as Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Shostakovich. Beall, in 1963, when writing about what he saw as the qualifications for a designer, listed “an understanding wife.” Throughout their life together, from the earliest days of struggle in Chicago to the golden years at Dumbarton Farm, Dorothy Miller Beall was by his side, relating to his friends and clients. She participated as she could to realize her husband’s work, career and life. She said, “I have always felt very close to my husband’s career, having been a part of it from the very beginning.” Together Dorothy and Lester built living environments for themselves and their family which were rich with collected folk art, antiques, Americana, as well as contemporary works. Beall said, “A lot of wives take a dim view of their husbands coming home for lunch. Dorothy actually looks forward to my coming home; perhaps even too much so. I enjoy getting over to the house, being surrounded by the things in my home.” In remembering the beginning of Beall’s career, Dorothy recalled “It was a time of discovering the interdependence of painting, sculpture and the technique of modern industry and of the underlying unity of all creative work.” For many years after Beall’s death, Dorothy preserved the artifacts of his
career, sustained his name in the design press with articles and was continually supportive to inquiring students or researchers. Beall was a major synthesizer of the ideas of European avant-garde artists and designers into the mainstream of design for American business. An associate Fred Hauck, with whom he had shared office space in Chicago, was probably the major vehicle through which Beall received those exciting ideas from Europe. Hauck, who had lived and painted in Paris and had gone to Hans Hofman’s school in Munich, returned to Chicago and shared with Beall an enthusiasm for the European artists and designers, especially the Bauhaus. Hauck showed Beall valued copies of the Bauhaus books and publications of the avant-garde which he had brought back with him. This interest as well as such publications as Arts et Metier Graphiques, and Bebrauschgraphik helped Beall consolidate his own thinking away from a limiting vision of design as ordinary middle-American commercial
“Today’s design environment is one facet of man’s overall culture – hence, it is only partially responsible for the visual mess in which we find ourselves.” PAGE 31
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illustration and towards a new dynamic, progressive form of graphic communication.
The recognition of Lester Beall’s pioneering efforts has been slow in coming. It is fitting that his importance to design is now to be Beall earned great respect form his clients and acknowledged again by The American Institute staff. Bob Pliskin recalled that Beall “was a of Graphic Arts. Looking back, however, he was good man to work for. He had the gift of enthuconsistently commended for the excellence of siasm and he knew how to communicate it. He this work. As early as 1937 Beall was given gave us freedom and guidance too. His studio the first one-man exhibit of graphic design at was a happy, stimulating place where work was the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Then, fun and clocks did not exist. And Beall could in 1942, Beall’s greatness was acknowledged teach. He taught us to spurn symmetry, which as he accompanied a distinguished group of he called an easy out? a static response to a colleagues, namely Dr. Agha, Alexey Brodovitch, dynamic world. He taught us that the solution to A.M. Cassandre, Bob Gage, William Golden and a design problem must come from the problem. Paul Rand in an ADG exhibit, “A Half Century That form must follow function.” About Beall’s on the Greatest Artists of the Modern Media.” graphic design imagery of the 1940s Plisken August Freundlich remarked in the brochure, wrote, “You couldn’t miss Beall’s work. It rivet“These are men who have bridged the gap ed you? held your attention? and planted an between art and commerce. Although we fully idea in you head. He was a skillful typographic recognize their success within their commercial designer and he liked working with type and regions, it is their success as creative artists, as typographic symbols. He loved arrows. Loved creative thinkers, as innovators, as inventors them and used them in nearly everything he did. that concerns us.” It took the New York Art DiIt was a natural symbolism for him because the rectors Club until 4 years after Beall’s death in arrow was and is the simplest, most direct way 1969, to vote him into their prestigious Hall of to move the eye from one spot to another.” fame in 1973. At that time Bob Plisken, who worked for Beall in the early 1940s, spoke on his behalf, “In my opinion, Beall did more than anyone to make graphic design in America a distinct and respected profession.” Lorraine Wild, in her writing on American design history, has characterized Beall as a leader of those designers form the Thirties to the Fifties whose work has a “quality of openness and accessibility. It is evidence of all the energy spent trying to make a real contribution to the common good and the environment. The stakes were clear—a new profession was formed.” Another distinguished design historian, Ann Ferebee, knew Beall personally and is steadfast in referring to his formative work as “the conscience of American design.” Philip Meggs in his A History of Graphic Design, credits Beall with “almost single-handedly launching the Modern movement
“Today’s design environment is one facet of man’s overall culture – hence, it is only partially responsible for the visual mess in which we find ourselves.”
Beall had an interest in photography as well, here he photographs his logo being installed.
in American design.” The excellence of Beall’s life and work has made him into a near mythic figure who, even a quarter of a century after his death, still dazzles the imagination of many students and professionals alike. “The quality of any man’s life has got to be a full measure of that man’s personal commitment to excellence?” Beall would have felt good about these words spoken by Vince Lombardi, because competition and commitment were the
ways in which he was able to achieve brilliance in his professional career in design. Beall said, “When a designer designs a beautiful product he has unveiled a simple truth. In short, this product of his creativeness communicates a simple message—a message that will outlast the product’s function or salability. The designer, furthermore, can then be said to have contributed something of value to his culture.”
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ART IS A PROJECTED EMOTION USING VISUAL TOOLS & ALTHOUGH IT’S TRUE AT TIMES WORDS ARE HELPFUL... THE FEWER THE WORDS, THE BETTER THE DESIGN PHILOSOPHY. —LESTER BEALL
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