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| Walter looking at the design for Pabco in the 1940's |
In November 1939, Walter was introduced to Glenn Wessels of the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. Wessels invited him to teach in the college's new department of industrial design.4 The curriculum Walter developed emphasized practical solutions to concrete problems. Walter taught his first class in January 1940, and there sitting in the front row was Josephine Martinelli. They fell in love and soon married. In 1941, Walter established Walter Landor & Associates (WL& A) in a small flat in the Russian Hill area of San Francisco, with Jo as the "associate."5
In 1945, Walter and Jo relocated their office and studios to 556 Commercial Street, near San Francisco's Chinatown, and expanded their team to include new members. Walter continued teaching design fundamentals at the San Francisco School of Fine Arts (today called the San Francisco Art Institute). The company's earliest contracts came from locally based clients. Walter and Jo collaborated on interior designs for the Joseph Magnin department stores, the Pony Lounge in the Hotel Don, and Lester's Market.6 Walter's first retail label project was for S&W Fine Foods in San Francisco. By the late 1940s, Walter and Jo were seeking new business opportunities and expanding beyond the San Francisco area. Together they headed up the Pacific coast to Seattle. Sicks' Select become WL&A's first beer label redesign as well as its first client outside California. At the Small Brewers Association (SBA) annual label competition in 1948, the design for Sicks' Select took first prize. These labels not only brought Walter his earliest design awards, they also opened doors to new clients across the country.