Landor Design Collection
name: label: Creator
content: Landor Associates
label: Creator
content: Landor, Walter, 1913-1995
label: Donor
content: Gallagher, Bernard F.
label: Donor
content: Landor, Josephine Mary, 1918-2001
label: Names
content: Mair, Francis M., 1916-1991 (commercial artist)
topic: label: Topic
content: Industrial design
label: Topic
content: advertising
label: Topic
content: Industrial designers
label: Topic
content: Marketing
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: 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: label: Creator
content: Landor Associates
label: Creator
content: Landor, Walter, 1913-1995
setName: label: See more items in
content: Landor Design Collection
abstract: label: Summary
content: 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: label: Accruals
content: One agreement (1941) between Landor and Groves was donated by Bernard Gallagher, 2024.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Walter Landor (1913-1995), son of Jewish Bauhaus architect Fritz Landauer, came to the United States in 1938 with the design team for the British Pavilion at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.
label: Biographical
content: 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.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 68 Cubic feet (198 boxes, 4 map folders)
unitdate: label: Date
content: circa 1862-2002, undated
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.0500
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Audiovisual materials
label: Type
content: Business letters
label: Type
content: Business records
label: Type
content: Personal papers
label: Type
content: Videotapes
label: Type
content: Interviews
label: Type
content: Oral history
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: 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
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: 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.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Audiovisual materials
label: Genre/Form
content: Business letters
label: Genre/Form
content: Business records -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Personal papers -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Videotapes
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews -- 1980-2000
label: Genre/Form
content: Oral history
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: 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.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: 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.