Lester Beall
Lester Beall (14 March 1903 – 20 June 1969) was an American graphic designer who was a leading proponent of modernist graphic design in the United States.
Also recorded as Lester Thomas Beall
Lester Beall
Beall, Lester, 1903-1969, artist · Library of Congress Catalog: http: Image download: http: Original url · Public domain
- Born
- 1903 · Kansas City.
- Died
- 1969 · Harkness Pavilion.
- Nationality
- United States
- Occupation
- designer
- Fields
- graphic design · poster artist
- Education
- University of Chicago
- Honours
- AIGA Medal
- Languages
- English
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Lester Beall (14 March 1903 – 20 June 1969) was an American graphic designer who was a leading proponent of modernist graphic design in the United States.
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wikidata · Q6531814 · wikipedia · Lester Beall
In this article
Biography
Biography
Lester Beall studied at University of Chicago. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is graphic design and poster artist. Work by Lester Beall is recorded in the collections of Museum of Modern Art and Smithsonian American Art Museum. Distinctions recorded are AIGA Medal.
Key facts
Key facts
• Illustration — A poster by Beall for the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) • Illustration — Another Beall REA poster from the 1930s
Biography
Biography
Lester Thomas Beall was born in Kansas City, Missouri. His family moved to St. Louis, Missouri, and later to Chicago, Illinois. Beall earned a degree in art history from the University of Chicago and was active on the varsity track team coached by Amos Alonzo Stagg. Beall also took classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. After a short period of experimentation and professional work in Chicago, Beall moved to New York in 1935. The following year he established his home/office in Wilton, Connecticut. According to his online AIGA biography by R. Roger Remington, "through the 1930s and 1940s Beall produced innovative and highly regarded work for clients including the Chicago Tribune, Sterling Engraving, The Art Directors Club of New York, Hiram Walker, Abbott Laboratories and Time magazine. Of particular interest was his work for the Crowell Publishing Company which produced Colliers magazine. Also of interest in this period are the remarkable poster series for the United States government's Rural Electrification Administration."
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Kansas City.
Birth place
Harkness Pavilion.
Death place
Legacy and death
His clear and concise use of typography was highly praised both in the United States and abroad. Throughout his career he used bold primary colors and illustrative arrows and lines in a graphic style that became easily recognizable as his own. He eventually moved to rural New York and set up an office, and home, at a premises that he and his family called "Dumbarton Farm". He remained at the farm until his death in 1969. Lester was posthumously awarded the Lifetime Award from the Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI) in 1993. In May 2007, Swann Galleries in New York set an auction record price for Beall's 1939 photomontage poster promoting the Rural Electrification Administration's campaign to bring electricity to rural America. The image at right—considered one of the greatest American posters of all time—features a young boy and girl smiling and looking to the future as they lean against the wood fence bordering their farm. It sold for $38,400.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Beall, Lester. Light - Rural electrification administration. www.loc.gov. 1930.
- 2.Guide to the Lester Beall Collection. Smithsonian Institution Online Virtual Archives.
- 3.Lester Beall: Trailblazer of American Graphic Design, pp. 15–19, R. Roger Remington, 1996, Norton.
- 4.Medallists, Lester Beall. American Institute of Graphic Arts. 2011.
- 5.Lester Beall & A New American Identity. Poster House. 2024-04-25.
- 6.Lester Beall – Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI) – 512 creative professionals from 46 countries. Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI).
References
Citations
References
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reference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Modern design
3,254 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Leopold BauerDesigner
- Leopoldina PelhanDesigner
- Leslie BuckDesigner
- Leslie ScottDesigner
- Lester W. SmithDesigner
- Lev ManovichDesigner
- Levi StraussDesigner
- Lewis Nockalls CottinghamDesigner
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