Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Guide to the Landor Design Collection

Summary

Collection ID:
NMAH.AC.0500
Creators:
Landor Associates
Landor, Walter
Dates:
circa 1862-2002, undated
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
68 Cubic feet
198 boxes, 4 map folders
Repository:
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.

Scope and Contents

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.

Arrangement

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Subseries 2.4: Corporate Historical Reference, 1950-1996, undated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 Cassette Tapes, 1971-1991, undated

Biographical / Historical

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 / Historical
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.

Administration

Author
Mimi Minnick, John A. Fleckner, and Vanessa Broussard-Simmons
Immediate Source of Acquisition
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.
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.

Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Use
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.
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
Preferred Citation
Landor Design Collection, circa 1862-2002, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.

Related Materials
Archives Center, National Museum of American History
Francis M. Mair Papers NMAH.AC.0548
NW Ayer Advertising Agency Records NMAH.AC.0059
Hills Bros. Coffee Company, Incorporated Records NMAH.AC.0395
Emmett McBain Afro American Advertising Poster Collection NMAH.AC.0192
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana NMAH.AC.0060
Marilyn E. Jacklar Memorial Collection of Tobacco Advertisements NMAH.AC.1224
Marlboro Oral History and Documentation Project NMAH.AC.0198
Black and Decker Collection NMAH.AC.1441
Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Documentation Project NMAH.AC.0816
Frito-Lay, Incorporated Records NMAH.AC.1263
Smothers Brothers Collection, NMAH.AC.1437
Division of Work and Industry, National Museum of American History
The division holds artifacts related to the Walter Landor and his advertising work. See accession 1993.0393.

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Audiovisual materials Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Business letters Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Business records -- 20th century Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Industrial design Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
advertising Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Personal papers -- 20th century Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Videotapes Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Industrial designers Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Interviews -- 1980-2000 Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Marketing Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Oral history Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Mair, Francis M., 1916-1991 (commercial artist) Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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