One of my favorite designers when attending design school was Lester Beall. I was drawn to him as a native counterpart to the more luminous designer, Piet Zwart. Piet’s work is from a different time and place, directly born of De Stijl and Russian Constructivism with a modern Dutch twist. A little earlier in the century than Beall. And it seamed to me unapproachable and foreign, the same way Bauhaus felt to me. It was beautiful, clean, and mean and I loved it, but I didn’t want it on my wall to stare at all day. It was good math, but math nonetheless.
Lester Beall on the other hand, felt familiar. A younger American translation of the aforementioned styles, he added, I believe, a populist warmth to his work. He was an avid fan of typography and photography and influenced by the same European design movements, if not Piet himself. His most notable work was for The Chicago Tribune, Time, Colliers Magazine, the Rural Electrification Administration and the identity system for International Paper. The logo of which was on the lid of my coffee cup this morning, inspiring this post.
You can read more about him here.
The Rural Electrification Administration poster series. The REA was created in 1935 by executive order to provide rural areas inexpensive electric lighting and power.
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