New York School Movement - Paul Rand

Paul Rand (August 15, 1914 – November 26, 1996) is a very famous American graphic designer, which is best known for his contribution to make corporate logo designs. Paul Rand was taught at several schools and institutions such as the Pratt Institute, the Parsons School of Design and the Art Students League. He was one of the first minds behind the graphic design movement called the Swiss Style. From the periods of 1956-1969 and the beginning of 1974, Paul Rand was a teacher and taught design at the University of Yale in New Haven, Connecticut. Rand was welcomed into a group of designers called the “New York Art Directors Club Hall of Fame” in 1972. He designed a lot of posters and corporate identities, including logos for a lot of prominent companies such as IBM, UPS and ABC. Rand passed away during 1996.

Paul Rand (also known as Peretz Rosenbaum) was born in Brooklyn, New York in the 1914’s. Since Rand was an Orthodox, the Orthodox Jewish law dictates the forbiddance of the creation of images that can be easily “worshiped” as idols; Rand’s career in creating icons was highly valued and regarded very highly in the shrine of global capitalism. It was a career that he started to embrace at a very young age; he started out by doing painting of signs for his father’s grocery store and for school events at P.S. 109. His father did not believe that art could provide his son a sufficient livelihood, and so he convinced Paul to attend Manhattan’s Harren High School and take night classes at the Pratt Institute, though none of these institutions offered Rand any stimulation to his creativity. Despite his studies at Pratt and other institutions in the New York area which included the Parsons School of Design and the Art Students League, Rand was self-taught as a designer and used the works of Cassandre and Moholy-Nagy from a lot of European magazines such as the magazine called Gebrauchsgraphik as a source of inspiration for his works.

His graphic design career started with some humble assignments, such as a part-time position that involved the creation of stock images for an organization that supplied graphics to some various companies which they create newspapers and magazines. Between his school assignments and his work, Rand was also able to collect a huge portfolio, which was mainly influenced by the German advertising style Sachplakat (decorative poster) as well as the works of the artist Gustav Jensen. It was at around this time that he decided to camouflage (and reduce) his Jewish identity which was known as ‘Peretz Rosenbaum,’ and changed his name to ‘Paul’ and took the surname ‘Rand’ from an uncle to form his new surname.  Morris Wyszogrod who was a friend and assistant of Rand, said that “he figured that ‘Paul Rand,’ four letters here, four letters there, would create a nice symbol. So he became Paul Rand.” Peter Behrens also noted the importance of this new title and said: “Rand’s new persona, which served as the brand name for his many accomplishments, was the first corporate identity he created, and it may also eventually prove to be the most enduring.” Rand was moving very rapidly towards the forefront of his profession.

Design.uh.edu, (2015). Paul Rand. [online] Available at: http://design.uh.edu/~sechung/rand3/biography.html [Accessed 21 Jan. 2015]. 

Schneider, S. (2011). Paul Rand Will Change Your Life!. [online] noupe. Available at: http://www.noupe.com/inspiration/showcases/paul-rand-will-change-your-life.html [Accessed 21 Jan. 2015].

beiki, k. (2012). A Cup Of ART : Paul Rand. [online] Kamilgraphic.net. Available at: http://www.kamilgraphic.net/2012/12/paul-rand.html [Accessed 21 Jan. 2015].