A designer's art

Description

A Designer's Art «P aul Rand is an idealist and a realist, one who uses the language of the poet and the businessman. He thinks in terms of need and function . . . but his fantasy is boundless.» -L. Moholy-Nagy Paul Rand (1914 -96) was incontestably one of the leading graphic designers of the twentieth century. His pioneering work in the field of advertising design and typography exerted a profound influence on the design profession. Applying the lessons of modern art, particularly those of the Bauhaus, to art in the service of business, he almost single-handedly transformed «commercial art» from a practice that catered to the lowest common denominator of taste to one that asserted its place among the fine arts. Paul Rand: A Designer's Art brings together many of Rand's best essays on design and a wide selection of his brilliant graphic work from the 1930s to the 1980s. This book reprises the essays from his classic 1947 text, Thoughts on Design, most of which were updated by Rand in 1984. It also covers his subsequent work in advertising design, corporate identity, design teaching, and typography- areas in which he created exemplary and inventive work. Among the topics he explores are the role of humor in design, the trademark (the most ubiquitous of Rand's trademarks are those of IBM, ABC, UPS, and Westinghouse), design and the play instinct, the complexity of color, the role of symbols, the art of the package, and the politics of design. Each of the essays is illustrated with examples of Rand's work-posters, book jackets, product advertisements, corporate trademarks, packaging, interiors-as well as the work of artists he admired. For the design student, teacher, professional designer, and, indeed, for anyone interested in the creative communication of ideas, Paul Rand: A Designer's Art remains both provocative and enlightening.