AdminMay 8, 2018 12:07:15 PM2 min read

What’s The Big Idea?

How does that quote from Spiderman go?

Uncle Ben (forgive me Stan Lee) – “With great strength comes great responsibility.”

After visiting Chicago Design Museum’s current exhibition, Great Ideas of Humanity: Out of the Container. I left with a thought on this sentence, with one small twist:

With “great ideas comes great responsibility.”

Chicago Design Museum Team In Front of Backdrop

With Great Ideas Come Great Responsibility (and the Amazing Chicago Design Museum Team)

Great Ideas of Western Man changed the rules of advertising. Focused on company ideology beyond commercial interest, it did not advertise product. It ran from 1950 through 1975, bringing attention to philosophy, politics, and morality.

Hold Up – Where Did This Start?

Glad you asked! Chicago-based Container Corporation of America: a global leader in paperboard manufacturing. According to the Chicago Design Museum website, “founder Walter Paepcke and his wife, Elizabeth, had deep and personal passions for art, design, and culture.” This passion became a platform for artists and designers.

Exhibition Posters Hanging at Design Museum of Chicago

Posters On Display at Chicago Design Museum

Why is it Important?

Father of advertising, David Ogilvy, called Great Ideas of Western Man:

“the best corporate advertising ever to appear in print.”

Great Ideas of Western Man shook traditional advertising and explored creative possibility. For the first time, design took centerstage, beyond commercial purpose.

Cushing and Chicago Design Museum

Tanner Woodford is the Founder and Executive director at Chicago Design Museum (opened in 2012.) He has worked with Cushing for over six years. His reprise of Great Ideas brings together artists from Chicago and throughout the United States. A trip into the past that paves new ground, Great Ideas of Humanity: Out of the Container is a stunning initiative, full of color and creativity.