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