Between 1950 and 1975, Container Corporation of America (CCA) provided an unprecedented platform for artists and designers to bring attention to philosophy, politics, and morality — the groundbreaking Great Ideas of Western Man campaign.
The advertising campaign married the words of great thinkers with the visuals of great artists and designers. It did not advertise a product. Instead, it focused on sharing beautiful images and powerful ideas.
With the blessing of CCA’s former Head of Design, John Massey, the Design Museum is reimagining the campaign. Great Ideas of Humanity expands the canon of artists, designers, and thinkers to better represent our world and continues to push us all to make the world a better place.
Side-by-side, the original advertisements and their contemporary cousins tell many stories
It is interesting to compare the visual similarities and differences between different designers and different eras, with both bright colors and earth tones represented in similar ways. We continue to explore who gets to have great ideas, but the themes of these ideas are consistent no matter who has them, or when. And of course, the principles of good design are timeless, and it is interesting to compare how different designers utilize them to communicate with their audience.
Tana Hoban on Jean Jacques Rousseau, 1950
A Discourse on Political Economy, 1755
Jean Varda on Epictetus, 1952–3
The Manual, c. 100 AD
Jason Pickleman on Katherine Kuh, 2018
My Love Affair with Modern Art, 2006
Herbert Bayer on Thomas Jefferson, 1957
Letter to Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours, 24 April 1816
Cody Hudson on Mary Shelley, 2018
Introduction to Frankenstein, 1831
Bryan Gallardo on Sun Ra, 2018
The Neglected Plane of Wisdom, 1966
Ken Lo on Miyamoto Musashi, 2018
A Book of Five Rings, c. 1645
Elaine Urbain on Michel de Montaigne, 1950
Of Vanity, trans. 1877
Ryohei Oba on Starhawk, 2018
As quoted in Christ and Plaskow, Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion, 1979
Pouya Ahmadi on Rumi, 2016
Rumi (1207–1273)
Honoré Sharrer on Horace Mann, 1951
Lectures and Annual Reports on Education, 1867
Leo Lionni on Joseph Addison, 1950
Unknown citation
Herbert Matter on Abraham Lincoln, 1951
Message to Congress, 1861
Herbert Bayer on Thomas Paine, 1952–3
On First Principles of Government, 1795
Paul Rand on Herodotus, 1950
The History of Herodotus, Vol. 4, Speech of Artabanus, 440 BCE
W.H. Allner, 1952–3
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, 1789
Kimberly Terzis on Anne Sophie Swetchine, 2018
The Writings of Madame Swetchine, 1870
Hans Erni on Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, 1950
Found in The Thoughts of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, 1889
Jilly Simons on Gwendolyn Brooks, 2018
Report from Part One, 1972
Eileen Tjan on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 2016
Remark, to a German historian, 1813
Hans Moller on Thomas Jefferson, 1951
Letter to George Washington, 1792
Verena Michelitsch on Anaïs Nin, 2018. D.H. Lawrence: An Unprofessional
Study, 1932
Gail Anderson on Marian Wright Edelman, 2018
As quoted in Richards, The Art of Winning Commitment: 10 Ways Leaders Can Engage Minds, Hearts, And Spirits, 2004
Reina Takahashi and Grace Suh on Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, 2018
The Education of the Human Race, 1780
Ben Shahn on John Locke, 1950
Second Treatise, 1690
Audra Hubbell on Witold Gombrowicz, 2018
Diary, Vol. 2, 1988
Ivan Chermayeff on Oliver Wendell Holmes, 2014
The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, 1858
Edith Jaffy on Montesquieu, 1950–2
The Spirit of Laws, 1748
50k on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 2016
Remark, to a German historian, 1831
Felix Topolski on Alexis de Tocqueville, 1952
Democracy in America, 1835
Lemuel B. Line on Montesquieu, 1952–3
Spirit of the Laws, 1748
Luis Pinto on Walter Gropius, 2018
Manifesto and Programme of the Weimar State Bauhaus, 1919
LaShun Tines on Frederick Douglass, 2016
Speech at Civil Rights Mass Meeting, Washington, DC, 1883
Robert Brady on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1952
Maxims and Reflections, 1829
S. Neil Fujita on Thomas Paine, 1952–3
The American Crisis No. 1, 1863
Deborah Stratman on Ida B. Wells, 2018
“A Lecture,” an advertisement for one of Wells’s speeches, Washington Bee, 22 October 1892