Finding Aids

Irv Koons (1922-2017) was a graphic artist, designer, and illustrator who became one of the leading consumer package designers of the twentieth century. The Irv Koons papers include marketing research studies, business correspondence, public relations files, and materials from the designer's packaging courses. In addition to this textual component, the archive contains original artwork, sketches, comprehensives, mock-ups, and final product packaging. These materials document not only the career of Irv Koons, but also the growth and development of the packaging industry in the second half of the twentieth century.

Irv Koons (1922-2017) was a graphic artist, designer, and illustrator who became one of the leading consumer package designers of the twentieth century. The photographic collection contains slides, negatives, color transparencies, and prints documenting all of Koons's major design projects over the course of his long career as a package designer.

Marshall Johnson (1938-), an industrial designer, worked for some of the most well-known small appliance companies and designed many popular consumer products as well as often doing their graphic and packaging design. He began working at Black & Decker, Inc., designing portable power tools and lawn and garden power tools. He went on to work as a corporate industrial designer for ALCOA, and later as a designer of small appliances and cookware for Wear-Ever, Proctor Silex, and Hamilton Beach, as those companies merged and evolved through the years. The Marshall B. Johnson Research Collection for Industrial Design and Housewares consists of Johnson's career files and artifacts from the various companies for which he worked, historical and research materials on the companies and their products, files on industrial designers, and Johnson's personal papers, which include materials on his family, childhood, education, interests, and other activities.