The December 1940 cover of Direction, which uses barbed wire to present the magazine as both a war-torn gift and a crucifix, indicates the artistic freedom Rand enjoyed at Direction. Rand worked for free, claiming that the removal of financial obligation inspired more honest art.
DEFAMILIARIZATION MINIMALIST ARTISTS SERIES
By drawing upon these influences, Rand linked the fine arts with popular graphic application.īetween 19, Rand produced a series of cover designs for Direction, a culture magazine publishing avante-gardists such as Le Corbusier and Jean Cocteau. He explored the formal vocabulary of the European avant garde art movements and developed a unique graphic style, characterized by simplicity, wit and a rational approach to problem solving. He absorbed the visual language of Cubism, Constructivism, the Bauhaus and De Stijl, translating the innovations of European modern art into a new form of American design. Throughout his career, Rand broke away from the conventions of American typography and layout. "A light bulb is almost as commonplace as an apple," he wrote, "but if I fail to make a package or an advertisement for light bulbs that is lively and original, it will not be the light bulb that is at fault."ĬHALLENGING THE CREATIVE HIERARCHY: RAND'S ART DIRECTION For years Rand worked with light bulb manufacturers, cigar makers, distillers, etc., whose products were not in themselves unusual. Rand was quick to point out in A Designer’s Art that "ideas do not need to be esoteric to be original or exciting." He insisted that artistic quality did not depend on exalted subject-matter.
Working with manufacturers provided him the challenge of utilizing his corporate identities to create interesting packaging for mundane items. The idea of defamiliarizing the ordinary played an important part in Rand’s design choices. In the resulting logo, Rand used basic graphic forms to evoke wires and plugs, electronic diagrams and circuitry, and molecular structures. Rand was faced with just such a problem when he was commissioned by Westinghouse Corporation to symbolically incorporate the nature of the company’s business in a new mark that would be simple, memorable, and distinct. The problem of the artist is to defamiliarize the ordinary." What Cézanne did with apples, Picasso with guitars, Léger with machines, Schwitters with rubbish, and Duchamp with urinals makes it clear that revelation does not depend upon grandiose concepts. In A Designer’s Art, Rand describes his motivation for finding inspiration in the potentially banal: "From Impressionism to Pop Art, the commonplace and even the comic strip have become ingredients for the artist’s cauldron. Bromidic advertising catering to that bad taste merely perpetuates that mediocrity and denies him one of the most easily accessible means of aesthetic development." In attempting to bring "aesthetic development" to the masses, Rand consistently converted familiar objects into commanding symbols. The final thought of Rand's Thoughts on Design states, "Even if it is true that commonplace advertising and exhibitions of bad taste are indicative of the mental capacity of the man in the street, the opposing argument is equally valid. THE EXOTERIC SENTIMENT: RAND'S ADVERTISEMENTS He is able to analyze his problems, but his fantasy is boundless." Three dominant principles seem to comprise Rand's design philosophy: the influence of the fine arts, firm belief in modernist fundamentals, and the practice of defamiliarizing the ordinary. Laszlo Moholy-Nagy said Rand was "an idealist and a realist using the language of the poet and the businessman. During his long career, he established many of the definitions of the term "graphic designer." Rand’s work includes advertising design, illustration, industrial design, and typography, with clients from a broad range of industry. Paul Rand (Aug– November 26, 1996) is one of the most influential figures in American graphic design.
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