Helmut Krone (July 16, 1925 – April 12, 1996) was an art director and is considered to be a pioneer of modern advertising. Krone spent over 30 years at the advertising agency
Doyle Dane Bernbach. He was the art director for the popular 1960s campaign for the
Volkswagen Beetle, which featured a large unadorned photo of the car with the tiny word "Lemon" underneath it; the series of "When you're only No. 2, you try harder" advertisements for
Avis
Avis is Latin for bird and may refer to:
Aviation
*Auster Avis, a 1940s four-seat light aircraft developed from the Auster Autocrat (abandoned project)
*Avro Avis, a two-seat biplane
*Scottish Aeroplane Syndicate Avis, an early aircraft built by ...
, and the creation of
Juan Valdez, who personified Colombian coffee. During his career, Krone won a number of awards and was inducted in both the
One Club's Creative Hall of Fame and the Art Directors Hall of Fame. His work has been collected by the
Museum of Modern Art and the
Smithsonian.
Krone's "
Think Small
Think Small was one of the most famous ads in the advertising campaign for the Volkswagen Beetle, art-directed by Helmut Krone. The copy for Think Small was written by Julian Koenig at the Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB) agency in 1959. Doyle Dane Be ...
" advertisement for Volkswagen was voted the No. 1 campaign of all time in Advertising Age’s 1999 ''The Century of Advertising'' issue.
Krone was born in 1925 in
Yorkville,
Manhattan, which was at that time a German section. He attended Public School 77 in Queens, graduating in 1939.
[http://www.enchorial.com/HelmutKroneIntro/Helmut%20Krone%20Timeline.htm Helmut Krone. The book.
Graphic Design and Art
Direction (concept, form
and meaning) after
advertising's Creative
Revolution. Clive Challis
The Cambridge Enchorial
Press Ltd.
] He then enrolled at the
School of Industrial Art, where he hoped to become a product designer. When he was 21, he took his first step towards advertising, working with designer
Robert Greenwell
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...
doing freelance advertisements for magazines. He followed naval service in World War II with postwar classes with
Alexey Brodovitch and stints at ''
Esquire
Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title.
In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...
'' and
Sudler & Hennessey
VMLY&R is an American marketing and communications company specializing in advertising, digital and social media, sales promotion, direct marketing and brand identity consulting, formed from the merger of VML, founded in 1992, and Young & Rubi ...
. Then, at the age of 29, he began to work for
Doyle Dane Bernbach, where he was one of only four art directors. With the exception of a few years in the early 1970s when he started his own agency, Case and Krone (later Case and McGrath), he would spend his entire career there. Krone retired as executive vice president-creative director at DDB Needham, as the agency became known after a merger in 1988.
References
External links
An Interview with Helmut Krone(DDB NEWS SEPTEMBER 1968)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Krone, Helmut
1925 births
1996 deaths
People from Yorkville, Manhattan
American art directors
High School of Art and Design alumni