Artist of the day

Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Artist of the day, October 15, 2024: Walter Landor, an American brand developer, graphic designer (#2041)

Walter Joseph Landor (1913 – 1995) was a brand designer and the founder of Landor Associates. He was an acclaimed designer and a pioneer of branding and consumer research techniques widely used to this day. Landor Associates, the company he founded in 1941, has offices around the world.

"Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind," Walter Landor memorably stated. He had a particular gift for creating designs with broad popular appeal, such as the Coca-Cola script. Brands as diverse as General Electric, Japan Airlines, Levi Strauss, and Shell Oil all benefited from his vision and commitment.

In 1941, Landor and his wife, Josephine, launched a design firm in their small flat, working from the living room table. Passionate about his work, he succeeded in attracting clients from a wide variety of fields, adding staff and relocating to larger offices as the need grew. In a move characteristic of his ebullient personality and original business style, Landor bought a retired ferryboat, the Klamath, in 1964 and turned it into his company's corporate headquarters, renting space to six other companies; Klamath had operated from 1924 to 1956, retiring after the opening of the Richmond–San Rafael Bridge. The firm moved from Klamath to their present headquarters at 1001 Front Street in the late 1980s, but retains the Klamath as their corporate symbol, although the boat itself was purchased by Duraflame and was moved to Stockton.

What the hell is good design? Is it something that gives satisfaction to your own ego? Or is it something that creates a positive response in the eyes, minds, and hearts of millions of people? Also, is it something that is appropriate to its category? Ideally it is all of these. — Walter Landor

His work included brands like Del Monte (1965), Levi Strauss & Co. (1968), Cotton Incorporated (1973), Marlboro (1977), Virginia Slims, Tab (1979), Dole Foods (1984), Coca-Cola (1985), Fujifilm (1987), and Bank of America. He also designed the corporate identities for many airlines, including Alitalia, British Airways, Garuda Indonesia, Japan Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Cathay Pacific Airways, and Singapore Airlines. GM New Look bus and PCC streetcar (No. 1122) in San Francisco, wearing "Landor livery" in 1982.

In 1985, Walter Landor gave the commencement address at Art Center College of Design (Pasadena, California), where he shared his five secrets for a successful design career; he was also presented with an honorary degree.

Landor retired in 1989. In 1994 the Smithsonian Institution honored Walter Landor by establishing a permanent collection of his designs and packaging. Landor died in 1995 at the age of 81.

© 2024. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Landor Associates or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only

Mr. Walter Landor

Landor Historical Klamath 152 (original office)

Royal Viking Lines

Bank of America

Nine Suns

Monday, October 14, 2024

Artist of the Day, October 14, 2024: Alfred Pellan, a Québéquois painter (#2136)

Born in Québec, Alfred Pellan (1906–1988) earned critical acclaim in the 1930s and helped pave the way for modern art in Québec. In the 1950s and 1960s, he gained renown and shaped the urban landscape through the murals he created on public and private buildings. Later in his career, Pellan embraced his desire to experiment with different media and techniques. The recipient of many prestigious awards and honours, he exhibited widely in Canada and abroad, and his work continues to be shown internationally. Several monographs, documentaries, and articles are devoted to the artist and his oeuvre.

Alfred Pellan spent a significant part of his early career in Paris, and he was influenced by European modernism—an artistic movement whose followers rebelled against conservative, academic traditions. Pellan fully embraced experimental approaches to artmaking, although this decision was initially met with resistance in his country of origin, where conventional ideas still dominated the Québec art scene. His oeuvre reflects a blend of various elements: Pellan managed to incorporate his personal beliefs, his formal training, and his interpretation of Québécois culture into his own synthesis of European modern art. Returning to conservative French Canada in the 1940s with revolutionary ideas about modern art. Influenced by movements such as Cubism and Surrealism, he developed an eclectic approach to painting and fought to free art from dogmatic thinking. While Pellan was an energizing force in Quebec culture, he was also no stranger to conflict, and his life was as daring and colourful as his canvases. His influence can be seen everywhere from gallery walls to city murals; his spirit lives on through the work of creative rebels who defy convention in their art.

Alfred Pellan had a courageous and eclectic approach to art. Driven by a desire for reinvention, he was perpetually evolving. From his very first paintings, through his Modernist canvases, murals, and theatrical work, to his unusual objects and late serigraphs, he taught his audience to expect the unexpected. Pellan engaged with abstraction, played with techniques borrowed from cutting-edge movements such as Cubism and Surrealism, and eagerly explored a range of media. But a common thread runs through the artist’s varied oeuvre: he maintains a balance between line and colour that creates a sense of harmony in every work.

As a defender of an aesthetic that refuted traditional artistic forms, Alfred Pellan contributed to setting Canadian painting free from restrictive ideology and delivering it into the modern era. He left his mark on Quebec at a time when the province had become suffocatingly conservative. His radical style, his exhibitions, his work with the group Prisme d’Yeux, his activities as a professor at the École des beaux-arts during the 1940s, and his efforts to resist censorship offered the possibility of creative liberation to those yearning for more than their oppressive environment would allow.

© 2024. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Alfred Pellan or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only