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El Paso Museum of Art August 24 - December 2, 2011
Paul Rand Paul Rand
BACKGROUND Graphic Design is everywhere, in everything one touches, in everything one reads. It is problem-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, corporate identities, and teachings all helped establish him as a most influential graphic designer.
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Dubonnet Advertisement, c. 1943–54.
Advertising Campaigns In 1936, Paul Rand was hired by Apparel Arts a popular
done for the apertif Dubonnet. Rand hired an American
men’s fashion magazine owned by Esquire. Here he
caricaturist to create seasonal costumes for the Dobonnet
transformed photographs into dynamic compositions. This Man. Instead of simply copying the original French idea, soon earned him a full-time position at Esquire. In addition he transformed it for an American idiom and audience to Esquire, he did freelance work and later he accepted
while still maintaining the characteristics of the original
a job with Direction, a cultural magazine. His job at
campaign. He never tried to improve upon Cassandre’s
Direction lasted from 1938 to 1946. Rand advertising
work. He only changed the Dubonnet Man’s outfits. Rand
career began with ads for Playtex and continued on
understood that the character was a symbol and gave
for decades. One of Rand’s ads included the re-issue of
it a personal signature by having the Doubonnet Man
designer A.M. Cassandre’s circa 1935 Dubonnet man,
change outfits to suit the season or situation around him.
Apparel Arts, cover, 1949.
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Direction, cover, 1943.
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 suggest 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 eventually 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. I know a Lot of Things, 1956.
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Corporate Identities IBM After the World War II, many companies desperately sought corporate identities as a necessity 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 impressed 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 unification. 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.
IBM, 1956.
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ďƒ§Eye Bee M, poster, 1981.
Westinghouse Electric Company Westinghouse Electric Company was looking for a new logo, identity package, and advertising. Rand’s reputation 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
Westinghouse, 1960.
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 created 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 introduced lower case gothic letters with a bow on the top of the shield as sort of a present. This logo, created in
UPS, 1961.
1961, was still in use until 2003 when it was updated and lost the gift-wrapped bow, but maintained the shield.
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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, Switzerland that began on 1997. Paul rand played a very important Yale University Press, 1985
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.
Thoughts on Design Thoughts on design is one of the most important and desirable 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 experimenting 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
Thoughts on Design, 1947
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Steven Heller, American Type play, 1994
Paul Rand, The Dada Painters and Poets, 1951
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 cochair 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.
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