THE GENIUS OF LOGO DESIGN
Paul Rand's
Notable Works
Paul Rand is most known for reinventing the corporate logo.
Here are some of his most notable logo designs and works.
Famous logos designed by Paul Rand.
Ibm Logo (1956-1972)
First designed and reinvented in 1956, the IBM logo marked the defining breakthrough of Paul Rand’s graphic design career. Rand decided to make the design quite subtle, yet bold when he first started working with the company’s existing logo.
The IBM logos throughout the years.
1956:
By using a similar typeface “City” to the existing logo, he created a “more solid, grounded and balanced appearance”, as well as “shaping letterforms and lengthening the serifs” (Envato, 2018). However, he had always felt that something was off about the logo and it took him years to figure out what was wrong.
1956 Logo:
1956 Logo:
1972:
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In 1972, Rand decided to create stripes on the IBM logo in order to show what the company values: equality, unity, as well as to suggest “speed and dynamism” (2018). After the successful reinvention, the IBM logo has remained unchanged up to this day.
Westinghouse Logo (1960)
The Westinghouse logos throughout the years.
Needing to revamp the company’s visual identity, Westinghouse turned and hired Rand for the new design. The Westinghouse logos throughout the years have always incorporated the use of the letter “W” in their designs and Rand did not want to change that part of the company’s identity.
The Westinghouse logo today.
Famous for his simplistic and modern designs, Rand ingeniously created a new “W” with interlinking points, suggesting a circuit board, which cleverly aligned with Westinghouse’s branding: an electric and manufacturing company.
UPS Logo (1961)
From a dramatic gold metallic shield logo to a simple black and white lined logo, the UPS logo underwent a huge transformation when Rand was hired to redesign the logo in 1961.
The UPS logos throughout the years. The third one in black & white was designed by Paul Rand in 1961.
Rand first simplified the shield and then added an outline of a parcel on top to effectively showcase UPS’ delivery services. Rand’s logo remained unchanged until 2003 when UPS decided to expand their company beyond shipping and delivery services.
ABC Logo (1962)
There have been minor changes of the logo throughout the years, Rand’s design behind the logo is still noticeable up till this day as it has become the blueprint of ABC’s simplistic logo design since it debuted on television in 1962.
ABC went through a series of different logos before hiring Paul Rand to redesign a new, unified one in the 1960s. Following his design principles of minimalism, Rand created a simple yet memorable logo of a black circle with white lowercase letters that says “abc” with the Sans Serif typeface.