Paul Rand Book by Kayli Lucente

Paul Rand, 1951 Designed by Rand, this billboard is for Bab-O Cleanser. It was one of the largest advertising business at the time.

Paul Rand “Design is the method of putting form and content together. Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics.

Design is so simple, that’s why it is so complicated.�

Left to right. Paul Rand, 1929 Advertisement for Park & Tilford, this was one of the first designs that was inspired from European.

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Paul Rand, 1936 The Summer addition for Apparel Arts. Rand began to experiment with collages.

Paul Rand, 1943 A cover for the magazine Direction, it represented French’s Victory of Samothrace.

Paul Rand, 1953 Advertisements for the brand El Producto, Rand designed hundreds of these.

He began popular for the variety of themes.

Paul Rand, 1964 An advertisement for Westinghouse, these were created after his retirement.

n g i s e D f o l e b Who is Paul Rand?

The Re

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aul Rand, formerly known as Peretz Rosenbaum, was born on August 15, 1914. He was raised in Brooklyn, New York by strict Orthodox Jewish parents. At a young age, Rand was known as the rebel child and began to sketch copies of Palmolive models, which was against their religious morals. “I used a tiny stool as my table and I drew without stopping...But you realize, in the Orthodox religion you don’t draw the human figure. It’s against the rules.”1 This rebel behavior was the first of Rand’s creative outbursts. Eventually, it caused Rand to enroll in Pratt Institute. This is where Rand developed his own style that was unique from ‘traditional’ artwork. Everyday, he would assign himself new visual projects, teaching himself the basic principles of lettering with the use of ink. For inspiration, he purchased stacks of magazines such as Commercial Art and Gebrauchsgrafik. Both magazines focused on illustration and design. This is where Rand found his love for European design, which is presented in many of his posters, book covers, and logos.

1 Heller, Steven, Paul Rand, Armin Hofmann, George Lois, and Jessica Helfand.

Paul Rand. (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1999.) 2.

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Bringing a New Look to Design Different Leads to Success

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aul Rand wanted a variety in his work; he wanted to outshine the “normal” or “classical” style that other advertising companies produced. “‘Rand is unhampered by traditions….He has no stereotyped style because every task is something new and demands its own solution.”2 With his inspiration from several different German magazines, he found a love for using classical shapes and forms in a unique style. By working with overlapping shapes, pictures, and type, to create an interesting collage-like structure and compositions. He combined these objects to produce fresh abstract pieces that were uncommon, while most designs were stuck within a repetitive grid.

Many advertising companies didn’t like change. They continued to express the traditional styles and constructions. However, Rand noticed this pattern and immediately used it to his advantage, “I knew that the other guys [in the agencies] weren’t doing this...but I never thought it was any great achievement, because I was just doing what they were doing in Europe.”3 Being aware of the repetitive problems of design, he would turn to using different types styles that were new like Futura, compared to the normal “perfume scripts”. When creating many of his designs, Rand was cautious of placement of type and image to make sure he didn’t lose the message of the advertisement. As he experimented with layouts, he learned that not all designs needed to be cluttered with elements; keeping compositions simple can be as powerful as creating decorative ones. With simple designs in mind, Rand communicated messages through images, to represent the object being advertised, allowing the design to have more white-space and freedom.

These pieces didn’t require a cluster of text and type; because the images were the words, they displayed the advertisement cleaner than the type.

As the 1930’s came to a end, World War II began and sparked a resolution in popularity for advertisement. With the raise of demand for designs, the company that Rand worked for was sold to another owner, and Rand became the Art Director of the department. With Rand at one of the high points in his career, his inspiration didn’t stop.

He kept developing new ways to make advertising interesting and fresh to the viewer. Newspapers were one of the many layouts that caught his attention, taking interest in the layout and type choice. As Rand observed, he soon incorporated these ideas within his pieces, such as the use of typewriter type with image.

2 Heller, Steven, Paul Rand, Armin Hofmann, George Lois, and Jessica Helfand.

Paul Rand. (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1999.) 2.

3 Rand, Paul. Paul Rand: A Designer’s Art. (London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985.) 3.

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Top to bottom. Paul Rand, 1944 Advertisement for Air-Wick, this was one of the first examples of Rand using symbols for words.

Paul Rand, 1944 Another advertisement for AirWick, this was also the first time Rand introduced typewriter type underneath or around images.

Typical 1940’s Advertisements

Rand’s Designs

Left to right. Paul Rand, 1940 Cover magazine for Direction, many of these covers were experiments of Rand’s style.

Paul Rand, 1947 Advertisement for Disney Hats, he created a mascot from a old painting.

Paul Rand, 1944 Cover magazine for Direction, it represented D-Day during World War II.

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rn e d o M , n g i s l De a n o i t i d a r T Making Addition, subtraction, and abstraction

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and was able to enlighten the world of graphic design from the 1930’s through the 1970’s with his techniques to approaching design and advertising, with his usage of white-space, collages, text and type, and the structure of his abstract compositions.

Rand’s rebel behavior and smart “problem-solving” mindset allowed designs to become unique and simple. Working by the book and creating art the “classical” way doesn’t enable the artists creative ability because they are assigned to a grid and the “traditional” path to creating artwork. Without Rand’s inspiration and favoritism towards European designers, the advertising and graphic design aspects of the 1930’s through the 1970’s would all look the same.

However, with Paul Rand’s techniques that he learned from European designers, we can see examples of European influences in modern graphic design and advertisement today. These techniques include, displaying the object being advertised with the usage of symbols and signs. The expansion of using different fonts and typefaces in advertisements and posters, his placement of white-space and simple usage of spaces and abstract forms. All of these techniques are present in many designs today. Although, we know Rand wasn’t the first to design and create these techniques, he is a important example of a designer who thought outside of the box. He was able to expand and create a new and fresh look to design with the inspiration of his European designers.

“Good typography, whether old or new, doesn’t make a hell of a lot of difference. I respect people who do traditional typography in a way more than I can some people who do so-called “modern” typography. It has to do with spacing, it has to do with contrasts. But if you’re looking for a catchword, appropriateness is an important word.”

—Paul Rand

Left to right. Paul Rand, 1940 Paul Rand, 1961 Cover for Direction.

Magazine advertisement for Westinghouse Electric Corporation.

Paul Rand, 1950 Paul Rand, 1968 Billboard for Twentieth Cover design for American Century Fox’s movie No Institute of Graphic Arts.

Way Out.

Paul Rand, 1951 Paul Rand, 1984 Paul Rand, 1966 Paul Rand, 1982 Jacket design for Another cover design for A poster design for the Poster for the International Wittenborn, Schultz, Inc. Design Quarterly.

Aspen Design Conference. Design Conference.

Paul Rand, 1970 Book Illustration for Listen! Listen! Harcourt Brace & World.

Right side, top to bottom.

Quim Marin A poster for Indie Club.

Quim Marin A poster design for Prodigio Ak Modernzr.

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Bibliography 1. Lewandowski, Daniel. “Paul-Rand.com.” Home | Paul Rand, American Modernist (1914-1996). 2007. Accessed March 27, 2018. http://www.paul-rand.com/. (For images) 2. Heller, Steven, Paul Rand, Armin Hofmann, George Lois, and Jessica Helfand. Paul Rand. London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1999.

3. Rand, Paul. Paul Rand: A Designer’s Art. London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985.

Paul Rand, Unknown Rand is overlooking some of his designs in a book.

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Designed and written by Kayli Lucente Composed in Garamond and Futura. Garamond was designed by Robert Slimbach in 1989 and Futura was designed by Paul Renner in 1927 Printed from Kyocera onto Hammerhill 80 lb.

Copyright Š 2018 Kayli Lucente, Portland, Maine, Maine College of Art