A Brand is Built in the Mind: Walter Landor and the Transformation of Industrial Design in the Twentieth Century

This thesis examines the career of Walter Landor, an industrial designer who created some of the world's most recognized packages, brands, and trademarks. Born in Germany and educated in Great Britain, Landor came to the United States to work on the Great Britain Pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair. In 1941, he started his company Walter Landor and Associates (later Landor Associates) in San Francisco with his wife Josephine Martinelli. The extensive list of Landor's clients included companies, products, and brands from a variety of businesses and industries that demonstrated his versatility in industrial design. His talents ranged from designing retail packaging and labels for prepared foods and beverages to designing corporate symbols for banking and finance and commercial aviation. The thesis is presented in four chapters that cover nearly fifty years of Walter Landor's career. Chapter 1 introduces Walter Landor from his childhood in Germany to the start of his career in San Francisco. The case study for Chapter 1 analyzes the redesign of the label and packaging of Sick's Select beer for the Seattle Brewing and Malting Company. Chapter 2 continues with the expansion of his company into wider markets that included some large wineries in California, several breweries in the mid-west, and a distillery in Kentucky. The case study for Chapter 2 focuses on Landor's work for Arrowhead & Puritas, Inc. of Los Angeles, producers of Arrowhead water in five-gallon jugs, who wanted to introduce bottled water for the retail and home markets. Chapter 3 starts with projects in the early 1960s and then, in 1962, Walter Landor bought the Klamath, a retired ferryboat, to become his company's headquarters. For over twenty years, the novelty of the Klamath attracted new clients from a variety of different businesses and industries, including banking and finance, retail consumer goods, and commercial aviation. The case study for Chapter 3 discusses introduction of a brand new style of beer in 1973, "Lite" by the Miller Brewing Company. Chapter 4 presents several projects for larger "Fortune 500" clients who through mergers and growth needed to consolidate their corporate visual identity with a distinctive symbol or logo. The case study for Chapter 4 chronicles Landor's efforts to repair the visual identity of the world's most recognizable product and name, Coca-Cola