PAUL RANDA Legendary Graphic

Designer

Everything is design. Everything!

by iriz ruiz

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Famous for his corporate logo designs, Paul Rand was quite a success himself…

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Paul was born under the Jewish name of Peretz Rosenbaum on August 15, 1914 in Brooklyn, New York.

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Started his love for art from a very young age such as painting signs for his father’s grocery store and signs for his school events.

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His father did not have an eye for any art.

He had Paul attend Manhattan’s Harren High School for his education and had him take any other art classes he wanted at spare times.

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His first job was a part-time position where he created stock images for a company that supplied graphics to many different newspapers and magazines.

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A lot of his work was inspired by Sachplakat and Gustav Jensen; which were German designers of advertising.

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In building his portfolio was when he decided to use his “artist” name as “Paul Rand”.

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By Paul’s early twenties, he scored a job in designing the cover for Direction magazine.

Paul’s negotiation with Directions magazine was the he gain full artistic freedom return of no compensation.

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For the Esquire-Coronet magazine, Paul had originally refused the offer for the title of art director for he felt he was not yet at the level in his profession.

A year later he had decided to go for the opportunity and took over at the age of 23.

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Famous logos we still see around today include IBM (created in 1956).

This was one of his highest sold logo identities for he was asked to create numerous different versions of theoriginal logo he started with.

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Famous logos also include Westinghouse (created in 1960).

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UPS (created in 1961).

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ABC (created in 1962).

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Paul was also a salesman.

He great in selling his idea behind the logos he designed to each company.

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His ARTISTIC BELIEFS…

“…ideas do not need to be esoteric to be original or exciting.”

[a logo] “…cannot survive unless it is designed with the utmost simplicity and restraint.”

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It has been rumored that each of his logos were pricedat $100,000 per single solution!

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Paul produced books, articles, advertising, editorials, packaging, posters and more.

He also taught at the Pratt Institute, Yale University and other institutions as an art professor.

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Worked as if he never aged…

Some had called him the “greatest living graphic designer” and many had seen him as "an idealist and a realist using the language of the poet and the businessman. He thinks in terms of need and function. He is able to analyze his problems, but his fantasy is boundless.”

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Before Paul died, he asked Fred Toller, a Swiss designer to create a headstone for him that stood out from the typical headstones found in cemeteries.

He died on November 26, 1999. His headstone can be found in the Connecticut cemetery.

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Everything is design. Everything!

- Paul Rand