“Only once in awhile, a great talent appears on the scene, someone who creates original, beautiful, classic, joyful and wonderful things. Marget Larsen was one of those people.” Dick Coyne so described Marget Larsen in a CA article in March/April 1988.

Marget Larsen (1922–1984) was a native of the Bay Area, having grown up in Burlingame on the San Francisco Peninsula. Her art training was limited to about six months at the Academy of Art. While on her first job at I. Magnin, a woman’s specialty store, she became fascinated with lettering and typography, establishing the basic direction for her future career in design and advertising.

As art director for Joseph Magnin, a store catering to young, smart tastes, Marget was involved in retail newspaper advertising. Her design and use of color, with illustrations by Betty Brader Ashley, built an image for the store. All of the JM design was handled internally and Marget also did the brochures and packaging.

She designed many of the ads for the San Francisco agency Weiner & Gossage or Freeman Mander & Gossage or whatever name they were operating under that week, and also worked as a partner in Intrinsics, Inc. with Robert Freeman. Intrinsics created and marketed design products and offered creative consulting to clients.

“Marget was responsible for so many innovations, and was the very embodiment of ‘What if?’” said Freeman. “She, probably as much as any other, changed the look of advertising and graphics in the last generation.” ca