THE GENIUS OF LOGO DESIGN
Paul
Rand's
Career
Paul Rand in his early twenties, doing design work.
Paul Rand’s graphic design career began while pursuing his education, as he started working as a part-time stock image creator for a syndicate (Heller, 1997). As he began his journey in this field, he figured out that his works were highly influenced by both two things: Sachplaket, a German-style of poster art, and the works of Gustav Jensen, a Danish designer of the 1920s art deco era.
FROM A
PERSONAL NAME TO A CORPORATE
IDENTITY
An example of Sachplaket, a German-style of poster art.
"PAUL RAND"
Paul Rand's personal branding.
Rand’s influential and creative works in page designs such as working on covers for Direction Magazine from his early twenties have garnered him an increasingly rapid growth in his profession as a respectable graphic designer, which allowed him to steer his artistic career into other industries, such as becoming a writer and a university lecturer as well.
Rand has since given his new identity a unique talent of transforming monotonous photographs into zestful pieces in 1936, when he performed a task on page layouts for the anniversary issue for Apparel Magazine. With such talent along with the successful completion for the project earned Rand an offer for a position as the art director for the Esquire-Coronet magazines at the young age of twenty-three!
It was around Rand’s start of his design career when he was still named as Peretz Rosenbaum, and decided that he needed a change. He figured if he shortened he changed and shortened his original name into “Paul Rand”, with four letters each word, it would create a simple, yet bold symbol. With this new persona Rand created for himself, he hustled to achieve accomplishments in order to gain a notable reputation within the industry. With hard work and dedication, the name “Paul Rand” was able to expand internationally.
An issue of Direction Magazine, edited by Paul Rand.
Throughout the 1950-the 1960s, Rand continued his work on reinventing corporate logos and setting the benchmark for corporate branding. Some of the most notable logos he designed were for ABC, IBM, UPS,
Westinghouse, Enron and NeXT.
Rand’s massive success in the graphic communications field had led him into opportunities after opportunities, and around 1950-1960, the name “Paul Rand” has since become a significant brand in the industry, known for creating designs for large corporates. Rand’s first defining corporate identity was for a logo he designed in 1956, the IBM logo. Although the logo looks different now than it was first designed by Rand, all the modifications of the logo made from then to now were all done by Rand himself. The finalized striped IBM logo was modified in 1972 and is still used in the present day.
A few issues of Apparel Arts and Esquire Magazines designed and edited by Paul Rand.
The striped IBM logo, designed by Paul Rand in 1972.
As a reputable graphic designer, Rand noted that "ideas do not need to be esoteric to be original or exciting" (Rand, 1947), as many of the logos he designed, were often seen as simplistic and minimal. Rand’s simple logos are very versatile and can quickly give off a clarity of message of what the company offers and its aesthetic appeal; his logos also allows for easy recognition to the public, proving his minimalistic ideas of how a logo “cannot survive unless it is designed with the utmost simplicity and restraint” (1947).
Logos that Paul Rand designed.
Rand continued with his work on producing corporate identities until the late 1980s and early 1990s, where he focused more on writing memoirs, such as Design, Form and Chaos and From Lasca to Brooklyn.
Rand continued with his work on producing corporate identities until the late 1980s and early 1990s, where he focused more on writing memoirs, such as Design, Form and Chaos and From Lascaux to Brooklyn.