WESTVACO INSPIRATION FOR PRINTERS 137
Design for the Times
Lester Beall

Lester Beall (designer): WESTVACO INSPIRATION FOR PRINTERS 137 [Design for the Times]. West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company, 1942. First edition. A near-fine softcover booklet in stiff, printed wrappers. Interior unmarked and very clean. Out-of-print and rather uncommon.

9 x 12 softcover saddle-stitched booklet with 20 pages of Lester Beallšs magnificent graphic design. This issue of Westvaco Inspirations features artwork by Herbert Bayer, Herbert Matter and many others.

Westvaco Inspirations was a graphic arts publication issued by the Westvaco Corporation, formerly named the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company, with the objective of showing typography, photography, art work and other graphic inventiveness on papers manufactured at its mills. Because Westvaco Inspirations was intended to demonstrate printing processes and papers, its primary audience consisted of 35,000 designers, printers, teachers and students. This issue is an absolute knockout-- designed by Beall himself and beautifully produced to the highest standards of the day.

Westvaco Inspirations utilized a variety of printing methods, including letterpress and offset lithography. The corporation's leaders all believed that such a publication should be a living example of good graphics. From its founding in 1925 to its discontinuation in 1962, Westvaco Inspirations was a leading corporate contributor to graphic design. It remains unsurpassed as an example of promotional graphics, as an a unique living record and anthology of advertising and commercial art.

The Westvaco advertising director reserved the right, in the early years of Thompson's work, to decide upon a painting for the cover of each issue. This divergence explainsthe frequent disconnect between the traditional covers and the modernist designs found inside. Aside from that, the designers had no constraints except financial ones.

Educated at Lane Technical School and the University of Chicago, Lester Beall (1903 -1969) was a designer ahead of his time. Primarily self-taught in graphic design, he exemplified a great knowledge and understanding of the European avant-garde. His early work shows the influence of constructivist and Bauhaus energy mixed with his personal sense of control. Beall exhibited a great talent for communicating ideas and elevating the taste and expectations of the corporate client. In 1937, Beall became the first American designer to have a one man show at the Museum of Modern Art, featuring his posters for the Rural Electrification Administration. These posters, his art direction of Scope the house magazine for Upjohn Pharmaceuticals Co., International Paper Co. and Connecticut Life Insurance helped to change the way industry viewed design. In 1992, he received the AIGA medal. His work was a model of the idea that good design could be effective communication and good business.

out of stock