Born Walter Landauer in Munich, Germany in 1913. The son of a Jewish architect, he enrolled in the London Goldsmith College of Art in 1931 and changed his surname to Landor. In 1939 he moved to San Francisco where became professor of industrial design and interior architecture at the California College of Arts and Crafts an year later. In 1941 he opened his own design firm with his wife, Josephine Martinelli. In 1964 he moved the office on a retired ferryboat he bought, the Klamath, where Landor Associates worked until the late 80s. From the 60s onwards, he designed iconic identities for major corporations including Alitalia, Levi’s, Bank of America, Marlboro, British Airways, Coca-Cola, and many more. He retired in 1989 and died in 1995 in Tiburon, California.