Packaging Environments: The Art and Design Program at the Container Corporation of America, Robin Lynch
Known for funding and supporting the New Bauhaus in Chicago, the Container Corporation of America (CCA) had its own extensive art and design programs. In this paper, I focus on the CCA’s first poster program, which was headed by designer Egbert Jacobson during the mid-1930s to the early 1940s. I track the themes of natural resources, weather, and resilience across the posters, situating these environmental themes in relation to the beginnings of the CCA’s box industry, and the influence of biocentric philosophies. Within this context, I analyze how design is used as a key medium to construct and communicate space.