Paul Rand, Graphic Designer

“Design is a problem solving activity. It provides a means of clarifying, synthesizing, and dramatizing a word, a picture, a product, or an event,” Paul Rand. This quote stood out as an inspirational thought conveying Paul Rand’s idea of design. Paul Rand, graphic designer of the 20^th century was a major influence in the design world. His businessman tactics partnered with his ability to understand the design process, helped bring an adequate and respectful
relationship between design and the corporate world. Paul Rand, based in the United States was mostly known for his corporate logo design those being IBM, UPS and ABC to name a slim few. 

Paul Rand an American born graphic designer would soon find himself amongst the legends of design and inspiration. Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1914 Paul Rand attended Institutions such as Pratt, Parsons School of Design and The Art students League. Though attending such design schools it is said he did not take any concept from them, thus, making him a self taught designer. During Rand's uprising in become a world-renowned, designer he found himself to be one of the originators and innovators of the, Swiss style of Graphic Design. The Swiss style, is an international typographic style, “that demands cleanliness, readability and objectivity. The typical layout of the style are asymmetric and use a sans-serif typeface,” such as Helvetica. Rand’s path to success began creating stock images for magazines and various newspapers. Paul Rand’s core influence was from the works of European Magazine “Gebrauchsgrahik”.  His attention to the German advertising style played another large role for inspiration more particularly the, Sachplakat style which, is described as an ornamental poster. The skill sets that separated Rand from other young and upcoming designers of that particular time was his articulate mannerisms his ability to conduct himself on an intellectual level. Rand’s artistic ability was not discovered by his innovating logos; rather, it was his indistinguishable layouts found in magazines. An Apparel Magazine, anniversary issue (Esquire) which, received criticism such as, “His remarkable talent for transforming mundane photographs into dynamic compositions, which [. . .] gave editorial weight to the page”. After his uplifting career at Esquire Rand would take on a new identity. 

Corporate logo design made Rand an icon in graphic design. One of his most influential and prestigious logos was the IBM logo. The logo originally designed in 1962, consisted of 13total bars that horizontally marked through the letters, “IBM”. The logo was originally designed using blue and white coloring. Later the design was modified to an 8 bar design were the 8 bars horizontally struck through the lettering, “IBM”. The idea behind the implementation of stripes was considered a half-toning technique the objective was to make the logo slightly “less heavy and more dynamic.” Paul Rand quoted in his article, The Politics of Design, “Ignorance of the history and methodology of design-how work is conceived, produced, and reproduced-adds to the difficulties and misunderstandings.” With this being said the depiction of this computer company through his logo design was to interpret to the consumer the easiness and simplicity of this new innovation. Associated with this campaign was the famous, “eye-bee-M” poster, which was designed in 1980 as a banner and 1981 as a poster. This poster consisted of an artistic eye that is looking at the viewer; a bee that is colorful and artistic as well followed by the trademark “M”. This poster made the company, IBM, recognizable amongst daily living and even through the viewer’s children. Many viewed his logo design as, “simplistic”