The Museum of contemporary
presents the work of
paul rand
P
aul Rand was an eminent twentieth century American graphic designer and art director. He was the pioneer of iconic corporate logo designs for major firms, including IBM, ABC, Morningstar, Inc., NeXT Computer, Yale University and Enron. He was an avid practitioner of Swiss Style of graphic designing in American advertising industry. On August 15, 1914, in Brooklyn, New York, Rand was born as Peretz Rosenbaum. Since a very early age, he had a keen interest in painting and designing which reflected through his painting signs for his father’s grocery store and for his school events. As his father was of the view that art alone would be insufficient to provide a satisfying lifestyle for his son, so he enrolled him at Manhattan’s Harren High School. While studying there, Paul also attended night classes at the Pratt Institute from 1929 to 1932. He attended
paul rand several art schools in succession such as The New School for Design, the Art Students League and Yale University in Connecticut. Notwithstanding his rich academic career in arts, Rand developed his graphic sense through self-education largely, as he voraciously read the European magazines, discovering the works of Cassandre and László Moholy-Nagy. Subsequently, Rand began his career as a part-time stock image creator for a syndicate. Soon his class assignments and parttime job rendered him to assemble a distinguished portfolio. His work was highly influenced by Sachplakat, the German advertising style and Gustav Jensen’s works. During this time he also decided to cloak his Jewish origin by shortening and modernizing his name Peretz Rosenbaum as Paul Rand. The decision worked in his best interest as he became the most enduring brand name for graphic designing. Shortly after, he became a success story and during his twenties his graphic work
earned international recognition. One of his notable designs was featured on the cover of Direction magazine, which he created free of charge in honor of artistic freedom. Despite the fact that Rand earned his ultimate success by designing corporate logos, however, the source of his reputation is based on his initial work on page design. In mid 1930s he was requested by Apparel Arts (now GQ) magazine to develop the page layout for their anniversary issue. Later he was offered a job at another prestigious magazine, Esquire-Coronet, as an art director. After first refusal, he accepted the offer, managing the fashion pages for Esquire. During 1950s and 1960s, Paul Rand became a brand name for logo designing in corporate industry. Many of the above mentioned firms owe their graphic designing heritage to him. In 1956, IBM became one of the companies that truly defined his corporate identity. He revised the IBM logo design in 1960 and yet again in 1972 with the famous stripes pattern.
A TYPOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION Type is everywhere – street signs, magazines, the web. Every typeface you see around you has been painstakingly and carefully planned out, and each has its own personality and vibe. But have you ever stopped to wonder how the typefaces we encounter everyday came to be? Who invented them, and why? If you’re interested in learning more about typography, you’ve come to the right place. TERMINOLOGY EXPLAINED What’s the difference between a typeface and a font? Before you jump in, let’s clarify the terminology used. Typography is the art of creating the letters we use everyday. It’s designing them and creating them and making them real. A font is a collection or set of letters – they’re the mechanism you use to get your message across to your reader. Every letter and dash and semi colon would be considered part of a specific font. A typeface is the design you see – the style and look of a specific font. Throughout history, typefaces have been influenced by technological advances, culture shifts, and just general boredom with the state of typography. Here’s how it all went down:
Guttenberginventedmovable typefaces, giving the world a cheaper way to obtain the written word. Up until this point, all written materials weredonebyhand,andwere very costly to purchase. Guttenburgalsocreatedthe firsttypeface,blackletter–it wasdark,fairlypractical,and intense,butnotverylegible.
1400
1470
173 4 Italics begin to be used as waytofitmorewordsonto a page, saving the printer money.Today,weuseitalics as a design detail or for emphasis when writing.
Nicolas Jenson created RomanType,inspiredby thetextonancientroman buildings.Itwasfarmore readablethanblackletter, and caught on quickly.
a 1501
C WilliamCasloncreateda typefacewhichfeatures straighterserifsandmuch moreobviouscontrasts between thin and bold strokes. Today, we call thistypestyle‘oldstyle’.
John Baskerville created whatwenowcallTransitional type, a Roman-style type, with very sharp serifs and lots of drastic contrast betweenthickandthinlines.
B 1757
1
D
Fi Gi cre Ro an we ev av
178 0
D
irmin Didot and iambattista Bodoni reatedthefirst‘modern’ omantypefaces(Didot, ndBodoni).Thecontrasts weremoreextremethan verbefore,andcreated very cool, fresh look.
Firmin Didot and Giambattista Bodoni createdthefirst‘modern’ Romantypefaces(Didot, andBodoni).Thecontrasts weremoreextremethan everbefore,andcreated a very cool, fresh look.
A 1815
1816
William Caslon IV created the first typefacewithoutany serifs at all. It was widely rebuked at the time. This was the start of what we now consider Sans Serif typefaces. During this time, type exploded, and many,manyvariations were being created to accommodate advertising.
VincentFigginscreated Egyptian,orSlabSerif– thefirsttimeatypeface had serifs that were squares or boxes.
19 2 0 ' s
Contemporary
FredericGoudybecame the world’s first full time type designer, developingnumerous groundbreaking typefaces, such as CopperplateGothic, Kennerly, and Goudy Old Style.
About the Museum
The Museum of Contemporary Typography is a contemporary art museum founded by philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Gensler, the museum offers free general admission and presents an active program of rotating temporary exhibitions and innovative audience engagement. The Broad is home to more than 2,000 works of art in the Broad collection, which is one of the world's most prominent collections of postwar and contemporary art. The 120,000-square-foot building features two floors of gallery space and is the headquarters of The Broad Art Foundation’s worldwide lending library, which has been loaning collection works to museums around the world since 1984. Since opening in September 2015, The Broad has welcomed more than 2.5 million visitors. Generous support is provided by Leading Partner East West Bank.
Colophon about this brochure
Adobe Jenson Albertus Aldus Alexandria Algerian American Typewriter Antiqua Arno * Aster Aurora
design by Zarya Tom Wing
M u s e u m o f C o n t e m p o r a r y Ty p o g r a p h y 21 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90012 w w w.t h e m u s e u m o f m o d e r nt y p e.o r g