Herbert Bayer, “Reason Is Language, Logos.” -Johann Georg Hamann
1966, acrylic on prepared fiberboard
Smithsonian American Art Museum
“It would seem unlikely that a manufacturer of short-lived paperboard boxes could make the slightest cultural impact upon his time. But the facts show that if even the humblest product is designed, manufactured, and distributed with a sense of human values and with a taste for quality, the world will recognize the presence of a creative force.” -Herbert Bayer
It’s uncertain who exactly came up with the idea. Some say Elizabeth Paepcke, wife of Walter P. Paepcke the founder of the Container Corporation of America (CCA). Others say it was Herbert Bayer, who curated the campaign.
Either way, the CCA ran a campaign of 26 work from the 1950s to 1975 under the title “Great Ideas of Western Man.” The collection showcased works of art inspired by the quotes of past philosophers and thinkers. Many of the quotes were arranged by Mortimer Alder.
Bayer’s work comes from a letter Hamann wrote to Herder. Hamann wrote:
Even if I were as eloquent as Demosthenes, I should not have to do more than thrice repeat a single phrase: Reason is language, logos. This is the bone I gnaw at, and shall gnaw myself to death over. Yet these depths are still obscure to me; I still await an apocalyptic angel with a key to this abyss.
-Letter to Herder, Aug. 6, 1784 ( ZH 5, 177:16–21)