OTIS SHEPARD (1894-1969) FOR THE CHILDREN / WRIGLEY'S.

45 1/2x59 1/4 inches.
Condition A-: horizontal folds, creases in margins; two sheets.
The life of Otis Shepard was one long, successful excercise in modern advertising. His career began in 1917 with the Foster and Kleiser Outdoor Advertising Company in San Francisco. By 1927 he was in charge of America's "first, full-scale outdoor poster art department, and a few years later he became the chief creative director for the entire F&K organization" (Strauss p. 68) In 1930 he moved to New York City and by 1932 made his first posters for Wrigley's, the gum company. For the next 30 years of his life he served the company exclusively. His work "seduced the public with beautiful imagery; the pictures never seemed tired, never suffered from repetition, yet were comfortably continuous in each theme." (Strauss p. 74) Tom Purvis, in Poster Progress, noted that "Otis Shepard, in his prolific work for Wrigley's has found a happy balance between humor and formal qualities of design."
ref: Moving Images, by Steve Strauss, Full Court Press, New York, 1984, p. 67-81, Poster Progress, by Tom Purvis, The Studio, London, 1938 p. 80-81, Images of an Era, The Smithsonian Institution, Washington 1975, no. 2 & 3.