Paul Rand Catalog
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Transcript of Paul Rand Catalog
Paul Rand
Paul Rand
Paul Rand
Paul
Rand
Paul Rand
Paul RandPaul Rand
El Paso Museum of ArtAugust 24 - December 2, 2011
BACKGROUND
Graphic Design is everywhere, in everything one touches, in everything one reads. It is prob-
lem-solving art produced by a designer to convey messages from the service or business to an
audience. Paul Rand was one of the most important American graphic designers. For Rand,
modernism was not a trend or a style it was a lifestyle and attitude—a way to give a message
to the world. He brought modernism to America and helped spread the International Style
of design in the post-World War II 1950s. He was highly influence by European modernists
such as Klee, Picasso, and Miro, but his own style was a modified avant-garde, separate from
what he saw in Europe. Rand’s advertising campaigns, book jackets, children books, corpo-
rate identities, and teachings all helped establish him as a most influential graphic designer.
1
Advertising Campaigns
In 1936, Paul Rand was hired by Apparel Arts a popular
men’s fashion magazine owned by Esquire. Here he
transformed photographs into dynamic compositions. This
soon earned him a full-time position at Esquire. In addition
to Esquire, he did freelance work and later he accepted
a job with Direction, a cultural magazine. His job at
Direction lasted from 1938 to 1946. Rand advertising
career began with ads for Playtex and continued on
for decades. One of Rand’s ads included the re-issue of
designer A.M. Cassandre’s circa 1935 Dubonnet man,
done for the apertif Dubonnet. Rand hired an American
caricaturist to create seasonal costumes for the Dobonnet
Man. Instead of simply copying the original French idea,
he transformed it for an American idiom and audience
while still maintaining the characteristics of the original
campaign. He never tried to improve upon Cassandre’s
work. He only changed the Dubonnet Man’s outfits. Rand
understood that the character was a symbol and gave
it a personal signature by having the Doubonnet Man
change outfits to suit the season or situation around him.
2
Direction, cover, 1943.Apparel Arts, cover, 1949.
Dubonnet Advertisement, c. 1943–54.
Book Jackets and Children’s Books
Rand designed book jackets and covers for Wittenborn & Company, who
gave him plenty of freedom to express himself. He tried to give each book its
own individual presence and consistent design. The Cubist Painters designed in
1944, was Paul Rand’s first approach to pure abstraction. Using a simple sans
serif typeface for the title, he added two stains of color on the jacket to sug-
gest smudges of paint. He interpreted the Cubist style by evoking the essence
of an art revolution. When Rand was first introduced to the new challenge of
illustrating children’s books, he was not comfortable with the idea, but eventu-
ally accepted. Titles for children’s books he designed include I Know a Lot of
Things, Sparkle and Spin, and Little 1. Listen! Listen! Was a children’s book of
sounds written by Ann Rand, his second wife. Paul Rand illustrated the book
with paper cutouts and colorful typography. Rand enjoyed the process and
it took him only a week to complete the book. By the time Listen! Listen! Was
published, Rand’s reputation for design was already established, but he never
lost his passion for illustrating children’s books.
4
I know a Lot of Things, 1956.
Corporate Identities
IBM
After the World War II, many companies desperately sought corporate identities as a ne-
cessity to communicate to their products and services to the public. International Business
Machines (IBM) was one such company who decided they needed a makeover. At the time,
Rand was working for Weintraub Advertising Agency and had never designed an entire
corporate identity system before. He took on the project and his initial design concepts im-
pressed IBM staff. Both Rand’s IBM logo and the company’s “Think” logo were set in Beton
Bold Condensed, an Egyptian-style slab serif typeface. The purpose of the IBM logo was to
be easily identifiable and to understood. As he designed, the logo became more and more
condensed, solid and heavy so Rand decided to use an outline version of it in two weights,
light and medium. Eventually, while sketching the logo, he came up with the striped version.
He thought that the stripes gave it a more legal sense, and lightened the condensed feeling
and solidness of it which was a problem. He finally decided to go with the striped version
which added more common sense and a touch of poetry, the stripes lent harmony and uni-
fication. Later on Rand designed a rebus in a poster with an eye, a bee and the striped M
suggesting the IBM logo. Since then, that poster has become a classic of graphic design.
5
IBM, 1956.
Westinghouse Electric Company
Westinghouse Electric Company was looking for a new
logo, identity package, and advertising. Rand’s repu-
tation and success from his work with IBM impressed
Westinghouse’s president. For their logo, Rand designed
a circle with a W whose points ended with three filled
circles that suggested the look of an electronic circuit
board with a dark black rounded stroke underneath the
remnant of the old logo. Rand believed that clarity was
as important in design management as in good design.
The final result was a success as it took the elements of
the old logo, the circle and the W, and showed them in
a whole way and suggesting the companies goals.
UPS
Soon, Rand was called upon frequently for corporate
design. Companies recognized the fact that he injected
wit and whimsy into the corporate vocabulary. He cre-
ated more humanistic or playful logos..Paul Rand was
also hired to redesign the logo for United Parcel Service
(UPS). His challenge was to change their current logo
to a modern image, but still have the essence of the old
one. Paul started with a contour streamline and then in-
troduced lower case gothic letters with a bow on the top
of the shield as sort of a present. This logo, created in
1961, was still in use until 2003 when it was updated and
lost the gift-wrapped bow, but maintained the shield.
7
Westinghouse, 1960.
UPS, 1961.
Eye Bee M, poster, 1981.
8Thoughts on Design, 1947
Yale University Press, 1985
Thoughts on Design Thoughts on design is one of the most important and desir-
able books on Graphic Design ever published. Wrote by
Paul Rand on 1947, Thoughts of Design was the first of his
four books and it codified his beliefs and works. Published
when Rand was thirty-four Thoughts of Design was a bible
of Modernism an International Style of design. Rand was ex-
perimenting with the introduction of themes normally found
in the avant-garde into his new graphic design, and bridging
the gap between graphic design and modernist masters
Yale
One of the most important programs on Graphic Design
was established on Yale University on 1951. Paul Rand was
asked to be a professor at Yale University and was one of
the most influential professor on Graphic Design at Yale,
where the thought from 1956 to 19993. Rand was also
contributing to Yale summer program in Brissago, Switzer-
land that began on 1997. Paul rand played a very important
role on instituting studying the International Style of Design
at Yale. Paul Rand design the logo for Yale University Press
in 1985 , a circle with the word Yale inside of it, stitching
together the serif of the letters forming a linear web design.
9
Influences
Paul Rand as one of the most important Graphic Designers of America has influenced everyone. Rand
brought Modernism and International Style of design to America and the influences of him in other artists
are very notable. Steven Heller American graphic designer born in 1950 is a clear example as how Paul
Rand works influenced other artist. Art Director of the New York Times Book Review and founder and co-
chair of the School of Visual Arts, New York MFA/Design Program. He is the former editor of the AIGA
Journal of Graphic Design and author or editor of over 80 books on popular culture, graphic design history,
and political art. Heller not only influence by Rand’s works he is also the author of Paul Rand published on
1999 that includes most of all his career and art works and did a series of interviews with Paul Rand on 1989
for AIGA. American Type play book jacket by Steven Heller published on October 1994 is a clear example
as how Paul Rand book jacket of Dada Printers and Poets on 1951 was influenced by Rand’s works.
Paul Rand passed away on November 26, 1996 at the age of 82, leaving a great legacy in the graphic design
world. His influences of Constructivism and Cubism led to avant-garde graphic design into America. His influence
on modern design and many of his logos are still in the market as he first designed them. His modern techniques
of asymmetrical typography, collage, and the process of working with primary colors has become a visual style.
Steven Heller, American Type play, 1994 Paul Rand, The Dada Painters and Poets, 1951