PIONEERS OF GRAPHIC DESIGNPaul Rand

• American art director and graphic designer

• Best known for his corporate logo designs

PAUL RAND

GRIDA grid is the “most legible and harmonious means for structuring information.”

TEXTFlush left, ragged right.Sans serif

PHOTOGRAPHYObjective photography is another design element meant to present information clearly, and without any of the persuading influences of propaganda or commercial advertising.

Such a strong focus on order and clarity is drawn from early pioneers of the movement believing that design is a “socially useful and important activity... the designers define their roles not as artists but as objective conduits for spreading important information between components of society.” 

Followed Swiss style – a modernist approach on graphic design and art direction considering the following aspects:

Mark Favermann notes “was not just an identity but a basic design philosophy which permeated corporate consciousness and public awareness.”

• Half-toning technique to make the IBM mark slightly less heavy and more dynamic.

• one with eight stripes, one with thirteen stripes.

• The bolder mark with eight stripes was intended as the company's default logo, while the more delicate thirteen stripe version was used where a more refined look was required, such as IBM executive stationery and business cards.

• Rand also designed packaging, marketing materials and assorted communications for IBM from the late 1950s until the late 1990s, including the well known Eye-Bee-M poster. 

CORPORATE LOGOS

• Rebus style

• Use of picture to represent every consonant letter

• Even though they never developed signs for the connecting sounds, combining the various glyphs produced a skeletal form for every word.

• Round logo – showing continuity

• Black and white – subtle modern approach

• Simplicity showing that the company itself has its popularity and need not be enhanced by logo

“My identity for United Parcels Service: to take an escutcheon – a medieval symbol which inevitably seems pompous today – and then stick a package on top of it, that is funny.”

• For NeXT company

• Created a 100 page brochure explaining every detail and reasoning of logo

• Like 28 degree angle

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SIMPLE LINES

2 OR 3 COLOUR USED

SHADES OF BROWN AS BACKGROUND

• the important role of visual and symbolic contrast in Rand’s designs.

• The handwritten Christmas

tag on a crisp rectangle contrasts sharply with the mechanical stencil letter-ing of the logo on a torn-edged collage element

• a Christmas package wrapped with barbed wire instead of ribbon was a grim reminder of the spread of global war.

• Rand seized upon collage and montage as means to bring concepts, images, textures, and even objects into a cohesive whole

Plays hide and seek against the green background

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