Tony Palladino once said this promotion for a packaging designer was one of his fondest advertising concepts. It’s an early example of his flair for finding unexpected graphic power in found objects (see also: this and this). The humble brown paper bag — one of the last things one might expect to advertise the services of a Madison Avenue designer — arrived in the prospective client’s mailbox, letterpressed simply in a gothic type that matches the object’s simplicity, but with the typographic twist of combining the name of the designer and his specialty.

Promotional mailer for Irving Werbin, 1957. (Actual) brown paper bag.
August 27, 2010