Miller Lite Beer Can
notes: label: Description
content: In 1939, Walter Landor arrived in the United States to help install the British training pavilion at the New York World’s Fair. At twenty-six years old, Landor had left his home in Germany to study art and design in Britain, where he became the youngest Fellow of the Royal Society of Industrial Artists. With whispers of war circulating around Europe, Landor decided to stay in the United States and travelled to the West Coast in search of design work. In 1941, Landor and his new wife Josephine Martinelli founded Walter Landor and Associates (today Landor) in their San Francisco apartment. The company specialized in packaging and label design for a number of iconic brands ranging from Marlboro cigarettes to Aunt Jemima to Sara Lee. As the company expanded, Landor’s base of operations moved from his home through several locations until it settled in 1962 on the Klamath, a docked ferryboat in the San Francisco Bay that would become an iconic part of Landor’s own brand.
label: Description
content: Postwar Americans concerned with counting calories created new markets for old brands. In 1975, Miller Brewing Company (founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1855) created a new brand of beer called “Lite.” Miller meant to use this product line to attract two types of calorie-conscious consumers. One type already drank beer, but would have preferred a beer with fewer calories if it had the same taste. The other type of consumer refrained from drinking beer because of its high calorie count. The company sought a label to make their new beer stand out and convey a sense of masculinity. To that end, Landor designed a label featuring a heavy Gothic script to tie Lite to its German roots, with the name “Lite” surrounded by “A Fine Pilsner Beer” to create a bullseye effect. Coupled with the bright white can and the gold wheat framing this bullseye, the Lite design became a quick success. The label was “accepted for exhibition in the annual awards show of the “Art Directors Club of Los Angeles and Art Direction of New York” and received national attention.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Bequest of Walter and Josephine Landor
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1993.0393.031
label: accession number
content: 1993.0393
label: catalog number
content: 1993.0393.031
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Beer Can
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 10.2 cm x 6 cm; 4 in x 2 3/8 in