From 1950–1975, Chicago-based Container Corporation of America (CCA) ran a campaign heralded as one of the best in advertising history, Great Ideas of Western Man. John Massey, former CCA head of design, encouraged the Design Museum of Chicago to reimagine the campaign. 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.
Like the original series, a committee meets, creates a list of “great ideas” from a variety of thinkers, and commissions an artist or designer to create a visual response. Also like the original series, the contemporary work does not advertise a product, but an ethos—of the museum, of the community, of Chicago in general—to make the world a better place via thoughtful design.
The most current iteration of the project is Great Ideas of Humanity: Passing the Torch. Running February 25–April 19, 2020 at the City of Chicago Expo 72 Gallery at 72 E. Randolph, just across the street from the Cultural Center, the exhibition displays the work of Chicago teens and takes inspiration from two Chicago public artworks that feature women in the arts and Latinx thinkers.
Responding to the words of the women depicted on Kerry James Marshall’s Rush More and the Mexican icons on the Francisco Mendoza-led, student-created mosaics on Cooper Dual Language Academy in Pilsen, students from 826CHI, One For One, and Philip D. Armour Elementary School designed flags that reflect their experience in Chicago. Why flags and murals? They share several goals with the Great Ideas campaign. Both murals and the campaign reach broad audiences, are often collaborative, inspire, and bring art to where the people are. Flags and murals also share many characteristics: they both mark location, identify a community, build camaraderie, and establish local pride. Marrying these elements allowed students to answer a design question in an unconventional way.
We welcome student groups to the exhibition and are able to arrange for short, staff-led tours with advance notice. If you would like more information, please contact either Lauren Boegen or Tanner Woodford.
FAQs
Do you want to do the workshop with your own students? Download Great Ideas: Workshop Curriculum and assets here, and please share your student results with us! We’d love to share out on social media!
Looking for more information on the original Great Ideas of Western Man campaign, and the Great Books series? You can find a brief overview here.
Want to see a full list of quotations that we’ve gathered for this project over the last 5 years? You can view the list here. Have ideas of sources for quotes from new thinkers? We’d love to have them – in particular, we are looking for ideas from people other than white, Western men from citable sources (no Pinterest images, please). Email Lauren Boegen with your suggestions.
Want to bring Great Ideas to your school? You’re in luck, Great Ideas can be a traveling exhibition! Please contact Tanner Woodford for more information.
Other resources
In 1970, Container Corporation published a book of all of the Great Ideas work created to date. This book is available at the Chicago Public Library.
The American Institute of Graphic Designers and Codex99 have both highlighted the series in free, online articles.