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This mug features It's Fine For Us and Now I'm Satisfied, from Lester Beall's 1939 poster series for the Rural Electrification Administration.
In May 1935, President Roosevelt created the Rural Electrification Administration managed by the Department of Agriculture. Its sole goal was to bring affordable electricity to rural areas in America. In 1937, Bill Phillips, one of the information officers for the Department of Agriculture, recognized that the REA needed a promotional campaign. He was introduced to Lester Beall through a mutual acquaintance in the advertising world. Beall’s independence from the large advertising agencies combined with his incredibly modern approach to design made him an attractive choice to become one of the first graphic artists hired by the federal government.
Beall’s 1939 series of posters for the REA demonstrates a more advanced understanding of modern design, deftly incorporating photomontage with silkscreened graphics. Another hallmark of Beall’s series was taglines accompanying each image that indicate a positive mindset toward progress. As he had been writing the copy for most of his advertising campaigns since the beginning of his career, it is likely that he came up with these slogans himself.
In It's Fine For Us, Beall shows a woman using an electric milk separator; raw milk is poured into the top basin, which spins like a centrifuge, separating the milk from the cream and sending them down individual spouts. The cream could then be made into butter or added back in various ratios to the skimmed milk. Before the introduction of electricity, a similar machine would have been cranked by hand, frequently causing spills if not done at a correct and even speed, processing a much lower volume of milk, and often resulting in spoilage. Now I'm Satisfied highlights that electric light not only extended available working hours, but also helped preserve people’s eyesight, a fact emphasized here by the image of an older woman mending clothes next to a lamp.
11 ounce mug. Measures 5 x 4 x 3.5 inches.