Bonner’s Fruit Cupboard Package
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: The Bonner Packaging Company, found in Fresno, California in the 1880s packaged and distributed multiple private brands of California dried fruits. As the company approached World War II, President Charles W. Bonner noticed that one of the Bonner affiliate brands, “Victory,” had a package design that showcased an Italian flag. Although the Bonner Packaging Company dropped the “Victory” brand as an affiliate, the questionable use of an enemy’s flag while the United States was at war sparked the discussion of the company’s need for new packaging. In addition to the problem of “Victory’s” design, dried fruit consumption decreased in the 1940s because of wartime frugality and an industry-wide lack of advertising.
label: Description
content: In 1944, Bonner hired Landor to design a label that could sell itself on the store shelf. The final product used aluminum foil to attract attention and keep the product fresh, an untouched color photograph to display the fruit, and a lacy border to insinuate product quality. In an effort to increase sales and showcase the available variety, Landor also created the “Bonner’s Fruit Cupboard” a multipack featuring the full range of Bonner products. The firm kept the cupboard design simple to emphasize the individual boxes of dried fruit. The Bonner Packaging Company gifted Landor a credit line on the lower edge of the back panel of each package they designed for the company.
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: 1993.0393.061
label: accession number
content: 1993.0393
label: catalog number
content: 1993.0393.061
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Box
label: Object Name
content: dried fruit box
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 13.5 cm x 9.5 cm x 5 cm; 5 5/16 in x 3 3/4 in x 1 15/16 in