Dr. Mordechai Naor approached me in June 2009 with a question: “Do you have any ads for Assis and Bejarano cigarettes?”

He took it upon himself to write a book for Beit Krinitzy (Ramat Gan History Museum) on the industrial firms in Ramat Gan. I replied in the affirmative: at Shenkar in their digital archives, there are dozens of ads by Shamir Brothers of Assis and Bejarano Brothers cigarettes products. I also offered ads for the chocolate factory “Ce De”, but he said that he was not sure if the location of Ce De was within the jurisdiction of Ramat Gan.

A few days later, I sat in Beit Ariella and checked in “Hatzofe” if there were any ads unique to the religious community. If I were to find ads that did not appeared in “Davar” or “Haaretz", through which I had already thoroughly searched, I would have to go through back copies of “Hatzofe” as well to look for ads designed by the Shamir Brothers.

I came across an ad for “Orlogin” shabbat clocks – a typographic ad designed by the print setter. I knew of Orlogin from a series of humorous ads designed by Shamir for an alarm clock by Orlogin. That series appeared in "Haaretz" and “Davar” and one ad which completed the series appeared in a programme of the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra. The novelty in the ad in “Hatzofe” was that for the first time it mentioned the location of the plant: Ramat Gan.

I mentioned this to my friend Gad Neery. His response was: “I have another manufacturer in Ramat Gan for you: “Ktav” - manufacturers of fountain pens”. As a child, I lived near their factory on Biyalik Street in Ramat Gan. My response was: “Shamir Brothers designed ads for “Ktav” and the ads are already in the Shenkar archives”.

At my request, Shanny Barber from Shenkar produced a disc containing all the ads for the Ramat Gan manufacturers that I found: Assis, Bejarano cigarettes, CeDe, Ktav and Orlogin. Motke Naor thanked me for this "treasure". We'll see how much of it will actually appear in Naor's book.

P.S. My contacts with the Ramat Gan Museum brought two surprises: two series of comical ads designed by Shamir. One for Bejarano Brothers and one for a book by the Workers Council of Ramat Gan "Work and Struggle". The cover of the book was identified by the Museum Director as being Shamir work. Looking at the cover it has the distinct Shamir style. I asked to scan the page with the accreditation. I got a copy of the cover – and in the book – it says “Y. Shamir”. Given that I can swear that I didn't design the cover and that I did not see it until that day in September 2009 it left two possibilities: either the cover was designed by Shamir Brothers but the accreditation is misspelt or the cover was designed by another designer also named Shamir. Reuven Cohen of Shenkar chose the latter explanation.

Yoram Shamir  2009