Great Ideas of Western Man

Cfa collection: Rhodes Patterson Collection
Notes: The film begins in Aspen, Colorado at the offices of artist and architect, Herbert Bayer, who is also a consultant on the campaign. Here, Bayer meets with principals of CCA, including John Massey, CCA's Director of Design, Advertising and Public Relations. Together they sift through potential ideas or verbal forms of the campaign that act as a basis for the series. The film goes onto explain how these selected ideas or phrases are matched up with contemporary artists hand picked by CCA. These artists then visually interpret the verbal expression assigned to them. The film illustrates this process with St. Louis based sculptor, Ernest Trova, who is paired up with a quote from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Once Trova's sculpture is complete it is shipped to a studio in Chicago where it is photographed under the supervision of CCA. These photographs are then used as advertisements for CCA in magazine publications and various institutional campaigns. The film ends with a slideshow sampling of the campaign as well as a justification of the campaign as a "timeless value with much to say to each succeeding generation."
Sponsor: Container Corporation of America
Subjects: Design; Art; Advertising; Industrial design
Places: North America > United States > Colorado > Aspen
Language: English
Cfa elements: Print, 250 feet
Cfa records: https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/Detail/objects/5769