From 1950–1975, Chicago-based Container Corporation of America ran a campaign heralded as one of the best in advertising history, Great Ideas of Western Man. The world has changed since 1975, but great ideas are timeless. Welcome to our response.
50k on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Aidyn on Abena Joan Brown
Alan Chan on Mencius
Alejandra, Grade 7 on Octavio Paz
Alex Paulette Sommerville on Jack D. Forbes
Alexander Skoirchet on Buddha
Alexia, Grade 7 on Selena
Alfonzo Dave IV on Angela Yvonne Davis
Ameer Carter on Ralph Waldo Emerson
Andy Gregg on Mary Wollstonecraft
Angeliki on Sandra Cisneros
Angie on Lois Weisberg
Ashley Renée King on GiGi Galloway
Ashley, Grade 6 on José María Morelos y Pavón
Audra Hubbell on Witold Gombrowicz
Bart Crosby on Augustine of Hippo
Bart Crosby on Augustine of Hippo
Bibliothèque on Alfred North Whitehead
Bob Faust on Buckminster Fuller
Brandon Olsen on Kōbō Abe
Brooke Cirone on Carlos Tortolero
Bryan Gallardo on Sun Ra
Bud Rodecker on Octavia E. Butler
Camille Ruiz-Funes on Fenton Johnson
Carol Ross Barney on Fernand Léger
Chad Kouri on Dr. Cornel West
Christian Solorzano on Lucy Larcom
Christoph Niemann on Wendell Berry
Cocu Liu on George Sand
Cody Hudson on Mary Shelley
Craig Ward on Dolores Huerta
Cristina Bottía on Isaiah Allen
Cushing on Sojourner Truth
D. Washington on Wendy Mogel
Daisy, Grade 7 on Frida Kahlo
Daniela Marx on Malala Yousafzai
David Sieren on Andy C., Grade 8
Debbie Millman on Carlos Cortez
Deborah Stratman on Ida B. Wells
Declan on Lois Weisberg
Dian Holton on László Moholy-Nagy
Douglass Scott on Ralph Waldo Emerson
Drew Larson on Charles Ives
Eddie Young on Martin Luther King Jr.
Eileen Tjan on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Emilia Chang on Harriet Monroe
Emry, Grade 7 on Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla
Erich Brechbühl on Willa Cather
Esperanza on Oprah Winfrey
Eugene Varnado on Yaya Lopez
Fletcher Martin on Nicholas Cummings
Franc Nunoo-Quarcoo on Jean-Paul Sartre
Gail Anderson on Marian Wright Edelman
Geoff Adler on Carl Sandburg
Guadalupe, Grade 7 on Rosario Castellanos
Hal Kugeler on Alondra D.T., Grade 7
Helencia on Jackie Taylor
Helvetica Jones Design on Elie Wiesel
Hugh Dubberly on Paul Rand and John Dewey
Iliana, Grade 6 on Lalo Guerrero
Ivan Chermayeff on Oliver Wendell Holmes
Jack Leary on Michel Foucault
James Goggin on Margaret Anderson
Jason Pickleman on Katharine Kuh
Jeffrey Hitchens on Aisling Panjwani
Jen Wandro on Vanessa C., Grade 8
Jennifer, Grade 7 on María Félix
Jestene Passolt on Wendy Mogel
Jiaqing Mo on Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
Jilly Simons on Gwendolyn Brooks
Joe Klomes on Lester Beall on Horace Mann; on Herbert Bayer on Alfred North Whitehead; on Stephanie Sohn on Gloria Steinem
Joelle on Cheryl Lynn Bruce
John Pobojewski and Zach Minnich on Manal Al-Sharif
John Terdich on Mahatma Gandhi
Jonathan Solomon on Harriet Monroe
Joseph Michael Essex on Guinevere S., Grade 6
Ken Lo on Miyamoto Musashi
Kevin Moreland on Howard Zinn
Kimberly Terzis on Anne Sophie Swetchine
LaShun Tines on Frederick Douglass
Leila Walker on Martin Luther King Jr.
Lisa Congdon on Mary Oliver
Luc Weber on Timothy Snyder
Lucia on Margaret Burroughs
Luis Pinto on Walter Gropius
Malarie on Sandra Cisneros
Marcus Norman on Lucy Larcom
Margot Harrington on Sojourner Truth
Marina Willer and Thomas Chan on Jiddu Krishnamurti
Martin, Grade 7 on José Vasconcelos Calderón
Martina Paukova on Michel Foucault
Matt Kuta on Eduardo Galeano
Matt Normand on John Luther Adams
Matthew Hoffman on Susan B. Anthony
Matthew Terdich on Benjamin Franklin
Max Temkin on Bertolt Brecht
Michaile Brooks on Toni Morrison
Michele Y. Washington on Isabel (Isa) Medrano
Mike Renaud on Victor Hugo
Mikey Burton on Gertrude Stein
Neville Brody on Timothy Snyder
Nick Adam on Henri Bergson
Nick Adam on Theaster Gates
Nicole Dressel on Mary Oliver
Nikki Juen on Edwidge Danticat
Olivia Giganti on Heinrich Heine
One Design Co. on Henri Bergson
Paul Sych on John Beecher
Paula Scher on Walter Benjamin
Pedro Neves on Geo Green
Pouya Ahmadi on Rumi
Reina Takahashi and Grace Suh on Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Remedy on Eleanor Roosevelt
Renata Graw on Hypatia
Reyna Noriega on Angela Davis
Rick Valicenti on Virgil Abloh
Ruben, Grade 7 on Rosario Castellanos
Russell Lord on Henry Ward Beecher
Ryohei Oba on Starhawk
Safwat Saleem on Kristina D., Grade 5
Sarah Leuchtner on Jane Saks
Scott Gericke on Charles Ives
Scott Gundersen on Francis Bacon
Sebastian on Barbara Gaines
Sharon and Guy on Mily Munoz
Steven Ryan on Avyn Harris
Sung Jang on Lemuel Haynes
Susan Bennett on Timothy Snyder
Susan Jackson Keig on Buckminster Fuller
Tanner Woodford on Andy A., Grade 8
Tanner Woodford on Edith Wharton
Tanner Woodford on Emily Dickinson
The Pattern Tales on Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Patternbase on Lucy Larcom
Tré Seals on Gwendolyn Brooks
Troy Lehman on László Moholy-Nagy
Verena Michelitsch on Anaïs Nin
Veronica Corzo-Duchardt on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Yaro Banduro on Wumen Huikai
Zach Sherwood on Sky Sims
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What is Great Ideas of Humanity?
John Massey, former Container Corporation of America (CCA) head of design, encouraged the Design Museum of Chicago to reimagine the Great Ideas of Western Man campaign. We happily obliged. Our reprise, Great Ideas of Humanity, embraces the increasing globalization of our world and celebrates the resulting cross-pollination of ideas, philosophies, societies, and cultures.