Roger Ferriter (September 6, 1932 – August 28, 2015) was an American

graphic designer A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for publishe ...

. He is known as the progenitor of the

L'eggs L'eggs is a brand of pantyhose, introduced in 1969 by Hanes, which radically changed the hosiery marketplace. The novel developments were the egg-shaped plastic product container, the shift to consignment sales in drug stores and groceries, and ...

name, logo and packaging design (the L'eggs egg and egg-shaped dispenser).

Personal life

Ferriter was born in

Cranston, Rhode Island Cranston, once known as Pawtuxet, is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, Providence County, Rhode Island. The official population of the city in the 2020 United States Census was 82,934, making it the second largest in the state. The cente ...

. He was a lieutenant in the

U.S. Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through com ...

and later played minor league baseball.

Career

Ferriter worked at Herb Lubalin Associates in New York and was given an opportunity to design new packaging for Hanes' new line of pantyhose. The packaging design was in the form of an egg to promote how compact pantyhose could be and branding the line to rhyme with "legs." Although the concept was initially considered 'a marketing risk' by the board members, the risk turned into a multibillion-dollar enterprise. The design made its way to 70,000 retail outlets, the Museum of Modern Art and by 1978, accounted for 38 percent of Hanes' business. During the 1970s and 1980s the

egg became a ubiquitous part of the culture, once referred to as the 'marketing breakthrough of the 20th Century.'Providence Journal - - Jul 11, 1991
/ref> He also designed numerous logos, including ''

Sport Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...

'', ''

Argosy Argosy or The Argosy may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Argosy'' (magazine), an American pulp magazine 1882–1978 and revived 1990–1994, 2004–2006 * ''Argosy'' (UK magazine), three British magazines * Argosy spaceship in ''Escap ...

'', and ''

Signature A signature (; from la, signare, "to sign") is a Handwriting, handwritten (and often Stylization, stylized) depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and ...

'' magazines, conceived other brand and packaging concepts, such as the Westinghouse Turtle Lite, and was the first to design an animated logo for television, for

Metromedia Metromedia (also often MetroMedia) was an American media company that owned radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986 and controlled Orion Pictures from 1988 to 1997. Metromedia was established in 1956 after the DuMon ...

TV back in the mid-1960s. Ferriter was later the Art Director at

Burson-Marsteller Burson Cohn & Wolfe is a multinational public relations and communications firm, headquartered in New York City. In February 2018, parent WPP Group PLC announced that it had merged its subsidiaries Cohn & Wolfe with Burson-Marsteller. The com ...

and taught graphic design at the

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by ...

in New York for 30 years. He emphasized lean, elegant design solutions, distilling ideas down to their essence. The work of his students can be found in his book, ''Typerformance''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferriter, Roger American graphic designers School of Visual Arts faculty 1932 births 2015 deaths