Paul Rand (1914–96,) born Peretz Rosenbaum, was an American graphic designer who played a prominent role in the development of corporate identity design and logotypes. The pioneer of the distinctive American Modernist style, his ideas have influenced generations of graphic designers and illustrators.
Born in Brooklyn, New York City, Rand studied at the Pratt Institute, the Parsons School of Design, and the Arts Students League. He was the art director of Esquire and Apparel Arts 1937–41 and of the William H. Weintraub advertising agency 1941–54. He then became a freelance graphic design consultant to many leading American corporations.
In the 1940s, Rand broke away from the conventions of standard typography and layout. He assimilated the philosophy and visual vocabulary of European art and design, in particular, that of the Bauhaus, Constructivism, Cubism, De Stijl, and Futuristic art movements. He synthesized these styles and developed a powerful integration of visual and technical content in pictographic symbols.
Over a career spanning seven decades, Rand designed iconic advertising design, illustration, and industrial design, as well as typography. His clients included El Producto Cigar Company, Compton Advertising, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, IBM, United Parcel Service, ABC television, and Cummins Engine Company. His designs for corporate annual reports were also influential.
An ardent advocate of design education, Rand taught graphic design for three decades at Yale University. His writings include Thoughts on Design (1947,) A Designer’s Art (1985,) Design, Form and Chaos (1993,) and From Lascaux to Brooklyn (1996.)
Steven Heller wrote the popular biography Paul Rand (1999.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Paul Rand
Don’t try to be original; just try to be good.
—Paul Rand
Design is the method of putting form and content together. Design, just as art, has multiple definitions, there is no single definition. Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that’s why it is so complicated.
—Paul Rand
Simplicity is not the goal. It is the by-product of a good idea and modest expectations.
—Paul Rand
The designer is primarily confronted with three classes of material: a) the given material: product, copy, slogan, logotype, format, media, production process; b) the formal material: space, contrast, proportion, harmony, rhythm, repetition, line, mass, shape, color, weight, volume, value, texture; c) the psychological material: visual perception and optical illusion problems, the spectators’ instincts, intuitions, and emotions as well as the designer’s own needs.
—Paul Rand
It is important to use your hands, that is what distinguishes you from a cow or a computer operator.
—Paul Rand
Visual communication of any kind, whether persuasive or informative, from billboards to birth announcements, should be seen as the embodiment of form and function: the integration of the beautiful and useful. Copy, art, and typography should be seen as a living entity; each element integrally related, in harmony with the whole, and essential to the execution of an idea.
—Paul Rand
In essence, it is not what it looks like but what it does that defines a symbol.
—Paul Rand
The designer does not, as a rule, begin with some preconceived idea. Rather, the idea is (or should be) the result of careful study and observation, and the design a product of that idea.
—Paul Rand
All art is relationships, all art. Design is relationships. Design in a relationship between form and content… Your glasses are round. Your collar is diagonal. These are relationships. Your mouth is an oval. Your nose is a triangle – this is what design is.
—Paul Rand
To distort the letters of the alphabet in “the style of” Chinese calligraphy (sometimes referred to as chop suey lettering), because the subject happens to deal with the Orient is to create the typographic equivalent of a corny illustration. To mimic a woodcut style of type to “go with” a woodcut; to use bold type to “harmonize with” heavy machinery, etc., is clich