Thursday, May 3, 2012




He used in the IBM logo the city type family to tie the company together. Everything he chary it to Bodoni was a more graceful and functional typeface. IBM was so influential that itcall letter symbolized the technological revulsion of the1950 and 1960s. As a resultthe logo became more condensed, solid and heavy, Rand decided it was necessary to add an outline version, sitting it in two weight, light and medium. He introduced the striped version, because he thought thatthe stripes gave the logotype a sort of a legal sense, like scan lines on a banknote. Throughoutthe process Rand did not forsake tradition but valued serendipity. He once admitted that EL product's logo was setin stencil for no other reason than he did it in stencil.







 With the success of the Westinghouse logo Rand proceeded to design the entire panoply of corporate materials but his real opus was the redesign of Westinghouse retail light –bulb packaging.
The one of the key reasons that Rand was called upon so frequently by American businesses was his uncanny ability or rather obsession to inject wit and whimsy into the corporate vocabulary
. He created system (or at least logo) that was humanistic if not playful. One prime example of this was his redesign of the United Parcel Service (UPS) logo. Rand said “that was the end of it




One year after introducing the UPS mark Rand was commissioned to develop a logo for the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). Again he was brought in after other designer had tried and failed. So, of course it hands to be completed in heste. ABC ranched third of the three rational network and had an equally third- rate large in which the letters ABC were all set in capitals. Realizing immediately that ABC was anaturally rhythmic combination of forms Rand proposed that they be set in the lower case design typeface similar to Futura basing his design entirely on equal circles that comprised the negative of the three letters and dropped it out in white from a black circle, it was simple, direct, full of character and accepted immediately 
without debate.


Paul Rand is an American graphic designer. He was born on August 15, 1914. He lived in Peretz Rosenbaum, in Brooklyn, New York. Growing up in America at that time and with his strict upbringing, he hadn’t much of a chance to follow his creative urge. With virtually no avenues for him to follow, he found creative outlets where he could – painting signs for his father’s store and doing work for his schools special events. A career in art was certainly not viewed as one that could support a family and not one a Jewish family, especially an Orthodox one in post-World War l America would encourage. Considering the rampant anti-Semitism of the time, such careers were unheard of.
paul Rand (1914-1996) was a pioneering figure in American graphic design whose career spanned almost seven decades. Always enquiring and investigating, he explored the formal vocabulary of European avant-garde art movements and synthesised them to produce a distinctive graphic language. Rand was a major force in editorial design, advertising and corporate identity. He was art director at "Esquire" and "Apparel Arts" magazines. He worked at the Weintraub Advertising Agency from 1941-1954 and, in 1955, established his own design studio, acting as consultant to companies such as IBM, Westinghouse and UPS. His logos for these companies are world-renowned design classics.







 
References:
Richard Hollis, "Graphic Design: A Concise History." Thames & Hudson, Inc. 2001
Philip B. Meggs, Alston W. Purvis. “Meggs’ History of Graphic Design.” Fourth Edition. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. 2006
Steven Heller, Paul Rand, Phaidon Press (2000). find this book on amazon.com Michael Kroeger, Paul Rand: Conversations with Students, Princeton Architectural Press (2008).
Paul Rand, Paul Rand: Design, Form, and Chaos, Yale University Press (1993) Paul Rand, From Lascaux to Brooklyn, Yale University Press.
Paul Rand, Paul Rand: A Designer's Art, Yale University Press (2000).
 Meggs, Philip; Purvis, Alston (1983). Meggs' History of Graphic Design. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons Inc.
Rand, Paul. Paul Rand: A Designer’s Art. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985.
Heller, Steven. “Thoughts on Rand.” Print, May–June 1997







Saturday, April 14, 2012




american broadcasting company
Paul Rand 's 1965 redesign of the trademark for the American Broadcasting Company reduced the information to its simple essence while achieving a memorable and unique image. The continuing legacy of the Bauhaus and Herbert Bayer's universal alphabet informs this trademark, in which each letterform is reduced to its most elemental configuration


Thursday, April 12, 2012





Paul Rand’s ties to Connecticut are widely known, from his home for years in Weston and his tenure as a professor at Yale University.
In 1986, Rand left even more of a mark on the Connecticut design community with the design of the Connecticut Art Directors Club logo, still in use today.
 “I had just joined the Board of the CADC,” recalled Nathan Garland (a friend of Rand’s and editor and contributor to many books on Rand) in an essay in 1998. “At my first meeting I learned that the Board was unable to select a logo from any of the various designs submitted by members in an open competition. Several of the designs had interesting aspects, but none were able to attract wide support.
I suggested that Paul Rand […] might solve the club’s problem. I offered to ask Paul […] who agreed on condition that I oversee the application of his design.
 “Several weeks later he called to say that he had it. Without having seen the earlier attempts by CADC members, Paul had combined several of the best ideas in one resolved configuration."
Rand would say, “If you show them more than two ideas, you weaken your position. […] You make one statement, and this is it."
Legend goes that Rand presented one solution in a “take it or leave it” kind of fashion.
I do remember there were a few members who hated the design,” says Peter Good, an active member of CADC’s earlier years, and creator of iconic Connecticut identities for the Mark Twain House, UConn and the Wadsworth. “I think it’s an elegant, typically modern design, exhibiting graphic wit, simplicity and grace."
 “Paul’s design was an appropriate homage to both letter forms and symbols.” wrote Garland. “The familiar acronym CADC was varied by submitting the playing card ‘club’ sign as a rebus in place of the last letter. In order to avoid reading CAD, the misleading word made by the remaining three letters, he arranged the four elements in two rows of two each, which also made a simple square. This was reinforced by diagonally alternating two colors — solid black for the C and the club sign and red (or a grey screen of black) for the A and the D.
The rebus was familiar territory for Rand, most famously in the Eye-Bee-M poster (an announcement for an in-house IBM event) but also in an unused AIGA logo from 1982.
Alexander Isley jokes, “The first time I saw the CADC logo, I thought, ‘That’s funny, they got someone to do a Paul Rand-style logo. Too bad they weren’t able to get the real guy.’ Now I’m older and I know more things".
Wayne Raicik, designer of such notable identities as the Connecticut Lottery, Centerplate,  and the Ad Club of Connecticut, admits, “When I first saw the logo I remember not being terribly impressed. At the time I was very young and Paul Rand was considered the ‘old guard’ — I’ll admit that it was a bit of young ignorance. It felt a little too simplistic and a little obvious and cliché with the club symbol.
Over the years, as I became more aware of Mr. Rand and his legacy, I developed a deeper appreciation of the logo. I now have a deep regard for its simplicity, elegance and the equity it has built. Of course, the other half of the equation is that the CADC has done a masterful job protecting the brand and adhering to elegant solutions in the usage of the logo".
Good adds, “In this post, post-modern environment, it now does look a little dated. It is somewhat ironic that a design executed in the spirit of timelessness, ultimately succumbs to the whims of popular style.
But I do think that the Rand logo should continue to be used. How many Clubs can say that their identity was created by one of the greatest designers of the 20th century? Besides, what could be better"?

Monday, April 2, 2012

Rand was probably best known, at least among designers, for his iconic logos (back to the breaking of his childhood upbringing of false idols) for IBM, Westinghouse, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) and the United Parcel Service UPS


  http://www.underconsideration.com/speakup/archives/002430.html ....This website shows Paul Rand final logo

Paul Rand talking about design 





http://www.logodesignlove.com/all-about-paul-rand ..... This website shows Paul Rand logos    


Paul Rand is an American graphic designer. He was born on August 15, 1914. He lived in Peretz Rosenbaum, in Brooklyn, New York. Growing up in America at that time and with his strict upbringing, he hadn’t much of a chance to follow his creative urge. With virtually no avenues for him to follow, he found creative outlets where he could – painting signs for his father’s store and doing work for his schools special events. A career in art was certainly not viewed as one that could support a family and not one a Jewish family, especially an Orthodox one in post-World War l America would encourage. Considering the rampant anti-Semitism of the time, such careers were unheard of.

Monday, March 12, 2012

I'll be talking about the designer Paul Rand packaging and book design and how social/political events related to the designer work,as well as how the interpretation from the perspective of the psychoanalytic viewpoint