‘United We Stand’ poster still standing strong one year later




MICHAEL COONS/The Acorn  ONE YEAR AGO-Raul Castellanos of Weiser Litho looks at a copy of the

MICHAEL COONS/The Acorn ONE YEAR AGO-Raul Castellanos of Weiser Litho looks at a copy of the “United We Stand” poster that has been reprinted for 9-11. The poster was a major success throughout the United States.


By John Loesing
Acorn Staff Writer

As Americans last year were searching for a tangible reminder—a symbol of the Sept. 11 tragedy—they heard about a small print shop in Westlake Village that had produced a deeply patriotic poster with a red, white, and blue theme and the inspirational words, "United We Stand."


The 17- by 22-inch poster, created by Weiser Litho on La Baya Drive, first appeared on local storefronts in Westlake Village, Thousand Oaks and Agoura Hills.


But in the blink of an eye the poster became wildly popular, not only locally, but across the country and even abroad. Interest in the poster came from major movies studios and magazines such as Time and Newsweek. CNN did a television news piece on the product and even the White House expressed interest in obtaining copies.


Eleven months after the terrorist attacks, more than 170,000 copies of the "United We Stand" poster have been printed and distributed. According to company owner Paula Weiser, the initial press run was just 5,000.


Copies have been shipped to locations as far away as Ireland and Greece, Weiser said. A race car owner in France even requested to use the poster design on his race car, and the city of Twentynine Palms wants to the put the poster on its water tower.


"And every single high school and middle school across the country that you can imagine wanted it for their year book cover," Weiser added.


"The list goes on and on. Set people have bought it and people have called and said we saw it on television."


The poster appeared on the shows "Friends" and "Judging Amy," Weiser said.


To commemorate the first anniversary of 9-11, Weiser invites owners of the poster to bring their year-old faded copies back to the shop for a free replacement.


"We printed them with fade resistant ink this time, so they should last a lot longer, and we put a gold a seal on them this time with an anniversary date and a ‘We Will Never Forget,’" Weiser said.


"United We Stand" was mostly given away free last year, but people who request a copy this year will be asked to pay a one dollar fee to cover printing costs.


Money from the poster also was donated to American Red Cross.


Weiser said her desire to produce the poster came as she watched the heart-wrenching story of Lisa Beamer on television, the widow of the man who died attempting to save hijacked United Flight 93 in Pennsylvania.


Within half an hour after receiving orders from Weiser, creative director Thomas Nance had a poster design in mind, and within two hours the copies were rolling off the presses.


"I guess it came at the right time because we were slow, like most businesses, and it gave us the opportunity to go into production of these posters," Nance said.


"The most unusual thing I saw," he remembers, "was a van that was just completely covered with these posters.


"We certainly didn’t think they’d still be hanging after a year."


The company so far has printed 9,000 of the new design.


The poster can be obtained at Weiser Litho, 31295 La Baya Dr., Westlake Village.


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