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Mair, Francis M
Category: Artist and sculptor
Frances M Mair was an artist and designer. He obtained a B.F.A. in Painting, University of Illinois School Of Design in Chicago, in 1938, joined the Navy in 1938, and designed visual aids for the Naval Training School in Chicago.
In 1949, he joined Landor Associates, San Francisco, and worked there for 40 years, retiring in 1989. At Landor, he specialized in packaging and labeling beverages. He was also the director of the Landor’s Museum of Packaging History, which shared quarters with Landor Associates on the Ferryboat Klamath. Throughout his career, Frances also took on diverse freelance projects, such as the Suva line of rattan furniture and decorative objects for Decorative Imports. He also published articles in Advertising Age, Industrial Design, Advertising Techniques, and Wines and Vines. "His personal artwork included alphabets, typefaces, and sketchbooks, and is often humorous or erotic".
So why is he on the site? The following more detailed description of Francis and his work comes from a paper Bizarre Images and Beta-Adrenergic Blocking Agents: A Unique Case Report by Ray H. Rosenman, M.D. & Jack D. Maser, Ph.D. and this should explain everything.
Francis M. Mair was born May 5, 1916. At the time of his death 75 years later, an epitaph written by a colleague for his memorial stated that Francis Mair was a philosopher, printer, sculptor, poet, artist, and one of the most creative and prolific designers of our time; that he did it all effortlessly, and was an epitome of the Renaissance Man.
For many years he played a leading role in the famed Walter Landor Company of industrial design and, among other things, had the key creative role in the design of labels, logos, and packaging of a wide variety of leading retail food and other products. The epitaph also noted that packaging, exhibit, furniture, and product design were only part of his repertoire, which also included elegant Spenserian and calligraphic scripts with flourishes and cartouches for any occasion. He produced a constant stream of delights across the Baroque through Rococo, from the undulating line of Art Nouveau to the geometries of Art Deco to Bauhaus.
Some of the papers and drawings of this gifted man are housed in the collection of industrial design and consumer culture in the National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Mair was 64 inches tall and weighed 190 pounds.
A heart murmur was initially discovered during his adulthood. He stopped smoking cigarettes in 1963 and rarely ingested alcoholic beverages.
Benign prostatic hypertrophy developed and, in 1981, the patient began to note sudden episodes of cardiac tachyrhythmia during nocturnal voiding. A physician placed him briefly on propranolol and then on metoprolol, which was discontinued after several months. He was referred to one of the authors (R.R.) early in 1982 and placed on pindolol, but this too was discontinued after two weeks because of the side effect described below. In early 1990, the patient manifested a slow sinus syndrome and a permanent cardiac pacemaker was implanted. A year later he died of complications of secondary liver cancer.
Pindolol and Bizarre Images
Shortly after use of pindolol was discontinued, the patient described his unique "dream" experience during its brief period of administration.
And the observations I have provided show what he saw and his comments at the time.
Observations
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