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Creative Paper Crafts


Ugly Duckling of the Office, from the Early Series Can't see the top of your desk? Today is your day to tidy up and prepare for the coming year's paperwork. It's National Clean-Off-Your Desk Day!

But don't throw all those trees away! Take inspiration from Herbert Bayer's Ugly Duckling of the Office to recycle your discarded paperwork into something creative.

In the 1937, Walter Paepcke, founder of Container Corporation of America, embarked on an innovative advertising campaign in which modern graphic design was central to the presentation. The images, like this collage by Herbert Bayer, extolled the recycling efforts of the paperboard industry. "Discarded office records and stationery—hundreds of thousands of tons a year—are salvaged to produce America's beautiful paperboard packages!"

Pictured: Herbert Bayer, 1900 Austria–1985 USA, Ugly Duckling of the Office, from the Early Series, 1939, paper collage with ink, pencil, gouache and photomechanical reproductions, and ink with gouache and pencil on paperboard, 20 1/16 x 15 1/16 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Container Corporation of America.