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Walter Margulies

Author: 
Carroll Gantz, FIDSA
Birth/Death Age: 
1914-1986
Walter Margulies image

Margulies had been an architect and interior designer for the Schine Company chain of hotels and theatres. He joined with J. Gordon Lippincott in 1944.

Soon after 1947, he married the daughter of Henry A. Wallace, Franklin Roosevelt's vice-president from 1941-1945. The firm became known as Lippincott & Margulies in 1947, buying out Douglas Sterling's interests. The firm was the first design firm to employ salespeople.

L&M introduced the concept of "corporate identity" to the business scene. It became well-known in packaging and corporate identity projects, including Chrysler, Eastern Airlines, Esso, Uniroyal, Xerox and US Steel. It was the first to use market research, and organized a Market Research Institute in 1947 which published a quarterly house journal, Design Sense, (became Sense in 2000) that offered information on consumer buying and marketing direction.

By 1969, L&M was at the top of its field. Margulies sold the firm in 1982 to Clive Chajet, chairman through 1996. In 1997, the firm relocated and became Chajet Consultancy.

The firm is now known as Lippincott Mercer, an international consulting firm.

Sources: 
100 Years of Design consists of excerpts from a book by Carroll M. Gantz, FIDSA, entitled, Design Chronicles: Significant Mass-produced Designs of the 20th Century, published August 2005 by Schiffer Publications, Ltd.
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