After immigrating to the United States, Herbert Bayer did some of his most significant design work stateside for the Container Corporation of America (CCA). He served first as consultant and later as director of the design department, implementing a number of successful advertising campaigns, including the Great Ideas of Western Man series, in which he directed artists like René Magritte and Milton Glaser in the creation of posters based on famous quotations. In 1953, he was tasked with compiling and designing the World Geo-Graphic Atlas to commemorate the company’s twenty-fifth anniversary.
Choosing Futura for both display and text, he wields typography, photomontage, illustration, information design, and infographics in a rational and systematic way for utmost clarity and comprehension.
As a whole, the atlas represents precisely the kind of simple, functional, and legible system theorized earlier in Bauhaus design and typography.
