G&L VBJ – The Next Chapter

G&L was a great office supply store in downtown Austin for many years – Just across the Congress Ave Bridge, south of the River.

The initials G & L were two brothers. Gunnar and Louis Johnson.

G&L Stationers teamed up with VBJ (Von Beckman, Jones) to form G&L VBJ and moved across into a new store building south of Riverside on the east side of So. Congress – in the early 80s.

Below is a blurb from the Chronicle.

Below is my own story about G&L

The Strange Things We Remember

It’s been almost 47 years ago that I walked into G & L Stationers on South Congress. They were in a building just north of where the Night Hawk Restaurant was at So. Congress & Riverside Drive in Austin.

I had decided it was time to put a distinctive mark on my company. They had a graphics designer that worked with me to make a company Logo. I still remember his name, Duane Kelly. In just a few minutes he was putting the finishing touches on the big LC that would grace our new sign out front of the office on Montopolis Dr, as well as the doors of our trucks, our business cards and our stationary for all these years. The only difference was in the beginning it was a Caterpillar Yellow & Black symbol. About 25 years ago the yellow was dropped in favor of a light tan and sometime white background.

While it will never be what the Golden Arches are for McDonalds, it has served us well for all these many years.

This was 12/22/07 (date stamped) My Grandson, the famous William “Catfish” Lewis was a month from turning 3. Sitting in his dad, Mike Lewis’ lap. Will is now in his Junior Year at Texas A&M.

This was after the logo turned from yellow to tan.