A Designer's Art, Paul Rand Redesiign

A Designer’s Art Paul Rand



A Designer's Art



A Designer's Art by Paul Rand Princeton Architectural Press 2016

The Following essays by Paul Rand are reprinted with the permission of the original publishers. Most have been updated and edited. Politics of Design The Trademarks of Paul Rand Graphis Annual, Zurich, 1981. George Wittenborn, Inc., 1960 Thoughts on Design The Art of the Package, Tomorrow and Yesterday Wittenborn, Schultz, Inc., 1946. Print Magazine, January/February, 1960. Ideas about Ideas Integrity and Invention Industrial Design Magazine, August 1955. Graphis Annual, Zurich, 1981. The Good Old \"Neue Typografie\" A Paul Rand Miscellany Type Directors' Club, 1959. Design Quarterly, 1984. Photographs have been provided by the following: Wend Fisher, p. 2. Fred Schenk, p. 43. Hedrich Blessing, p. 205 John H. Super, p. 219. Peter Johnson,(who assisted the author with miscellaneous photographs.) Museum of Modern Art, Arp, p. 210. Prado Museum, Picasso, p. 210. National Gallery of Art, Cezanne, p. 231. Copyright © 1985 by Paul Rand All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Section 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers. Designed by Paul Rand. L.C. 85-50352 ISBN: 0-300-03483-0

Contents 17 About Legibility 177 18 The Good Old “Neue Typografie” 181 1 Art for Art’s Sake xi 19 Design and the Play Instinct 189 2 The Beautiful and the Useful 10 20 Black Black Black 203 3 The Designer Problem 14 21 The Art of the Package: 4 The Symbol in Visual Communication 18 Tomorrow and Yesterday 213 5 Versatility of the Symbol 20 22 The Third Dimension 218 6 The Trademaark 24 23 The Complexity of Color 225 7 Seeing Stripes 39 24 Word Pictures 227 8 Imagination and the Image 45 25 The Lesson of Ce´zanne 230 9 Integraating Form and Content 48 26 Politics of Design 233 10 Ideas About Ideas 79 27 Integrity and Invention 237 11 The Meaning of Repetition 87 12 The Role of Humor 101 13 The Rebus and the Visual Pun 114 14 Collage and Montage 137 15 Yesterday and Today 143 16 Typographic Form and Expression 149

“ Ideals ought to aim at the transformation of reality. ” William James Direction Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 9 December 1940.



The Beautiful And The Useful Visual communications of any kind, whether persuasive or infomormative, from billboards to birth announcements, should be seen as the embodiment of form and function: the integration of the beautiful and the useful. Copy, art, and typography should be seen as a living entity; each element integrally related, in harmony with the whole and essential to the execution of an idea. Like a juggler, the designer demonstrates his skills by manipulating these ingredients in a given space.Whether this space takes the form of advertisements, periodicals, or television etc, the criteria are the same. That the separation of form and function, of concept and execution, is not likely to produce objects of aestheitc value has been repeatedly demonstrated. Similarly, any system that sees aesthetics as irrelevant, that separates the artist from his product, that fragments the work of the individual will in the long run diminish not only the product but the maker as well. Commenting on the relationship between fine art and useful or technological art, John Dewey writes: “That many, perhaps most, of the articles and utensils made at present for use are not genuinely aesthetic happens, unfortunately, to be true. But it is true for reasons that are foreign to the relation of the ‘beautiful’ and’ useful as such. Wherever conditions are such as to prevent the act of production from being an experience in which the whole creature is alive and in which he possesses his living through enjoyment, the product will lack something of being aesthetic. No matter how useful it is for special and limited ends, it will not be useful in the ultimate degree-that of contributing directly and liberally to an expanding and enriched life.” 1 1John Dewey, “Ethereal Things,” Art as Experience. (New York, 1934), 26.

11 Shaker boxes, showing their distinctive characteristic elongated “swallowtails.”

[A] Shaker ladder chair. The aesthetic requirements to which Dewey refers are, it U.S. Patent No. 8771 seems to me, exemplified by the Shakers, who drawing image. believed that “Trifles make perfection but perfection itself is no trifle.” Their religious beliefs provided the [B] Patent No. 8771 image fertile soil in which beauty and utility could flourish. Their close-up of parts. spiritual needs found expression in the design of fabrics, furniture, and utensils of great beauty, These products are documents of the simple life of the people, their asceticism, their restraint, their devotion to fine craftsmanship, and their sesnsitivity to proportion, space, and materials. In the past, rarely has beauty been an end in itself. The magnificent stained glass windows of Chartres were no less utilitarian than was the Parthenon or the Pyramid of Cheops. The function of the exterior decoration of the great Gothic cathedrals was to invite entry; the rose windows inside provided the spiritual mood -a symbiosis of beauty and utility.

13 Shaker ladder chair with ball swivels on rear legs for tilting (1970s).

The Designer’s Problem To believe that a good layout is produced merely by making a pleasing arrangement of some visual miscellany (photos, type, illustrations) is an erroneous conception of the graphic designer’s function.1 what is implied is that a problem can be solved simply by pushing things around until something happens. This obviously involves the time-consuming uncertainties of trial and error. However, since the artist works partly by instinct, a certain amount of pushing around may be necessary. But this does not imply that any systematic, unifying, repetitive idea should be avoided out of hand. As a rule, the experienced designer does not begin with some preconceived idea. Rather, the idea is (or should be) the result of careful observation, and the design a product of that idea. In order to solve his problem effectively, the designer must necessarily go through some sort of mental process.2 Consciously or not, he analyzes, interprets, formulates. He is aware of the technological developments in his own and kindred fields. He improvises or invents new techniques and comb­ inations. He coordinates his material so that he may restate his problem in terms of ideas, symbols, pictures. He reinforces his symbols with appropriate accessories to achieve clarity and interest. He draws upon instinct and intuition. He considers the spectator’s feelings and predilections. Briefly, the designer experiences, perceives, analyzes, organizes, symbolizes, synthesizes. This is largely what the designer has in common with all thinking people. “According to Kant, man’s knowledge is realized in the act of comparing, examining, relating, distinguishing, abstracting, deducing, demonstrating all of which are forms of active intellectual effort.” 3 1I use the term layout here because of its popular acceptance. I should prefer instead to use the term composition (as it is used in painting). 2 The reader may wish to refer to Wilenski, The Modern Movement in Art (New York,1934), for a description of the artist’s mental processes in creating a work of art. 3 Joseph Pieper, Leisure: The Basis of Culture (New York, 1952), 25.

15 Leave Cancelled, 1941.

Switzerland Builds, 1950.

Psychic Energy 17 Its Source and Its Transformation. The designer is confronted, primarily, with three Front and Back Cover. classes of material: a) The given product, copy, slogan, logotype, format, media, production process; b) The formal space, contrast, proportion, harmony, rhythm, repetition, line, mass, shape, color, weight, volume, value,texture; c} The Psychological visual perception and optical illusion problems, the spectators’ instincts, intuitions, and emotions as well as the designer’s own needs.

The Symbol In Visual Communication Brochure Cover, U.S. Navy, U.S.S. Lexington, 1959.

19 Because graphic design, in the end, deals with the In essence, it is not what it looks like but what it does that spectator, and because it is the goal of the designer to be defines a symbol. persuasive or at least informative, it follows that the designer’s problems are twofold: to anticipate the A symbol may be depicted as an abstract shape, a spectator’s reactions and to meet his own aesthetic needs. geometric figure, a photograph, an illustration, a He must therefore discover a means of communication letter of the alphabet, or a numeral. Thus a five-pointed between himself and the spectator (a condition with which star, a picture of a little dog listening to his master’s the easel painter need not concern himself). The problem voice, a steel engraving of George Washiongton, and the is not simple; its very complexity virtually dictates the Eiffel Tower itself are all symbols. solution-that is, the discovery of an image universally comprehensible, one that translates abstract ideas Religious and secular instritutions have clearly into concrete forms. demonstrated the power of the symbol as a means of communication. It is significant that the crucifix, It is in symbolic, visual terms that the designer ultimately aside from its religious implications, is a demonstration realizes his percept­ions and experiences; and it is of perfect form-a union of the agrressive vertical in a world of symbols that man lives. The sym­bol is thus (male) and the passive horizontal (female). It is not too the common language between artist and spectator. farfetched to infer that these formal relations Webster defines the symbol as ‘’that which stands for or have at least something to do with its endurance. Note suggests something else by reason of relationship, the curious analogy between Occidental and association, convention, or accidental but not inten­tional Oriental thought in the following excerpts: Rudolf Koch, resemblance; espeeially, a visible sign of something in The Book of Signs, comments: “In the sign of invisible, as an idea, a quality or totality such as a the Cross, God and earth are combined and are in state or a church; an emblem; as the lion is the symbol of harmony...from two simple lines a complete sign has been courage; the cross is the symbol of Christianity. ‘A evolved. The Cross is by far the earliest of all signs symbol is a representation which does not aim at being a and is found everywhere quite apart from the concepts reproduction.’ (Goblet d’Alvielle).” of Christianity.” 1 The words simplified, stylized, geometric, abstract, two-dimensional, flat, non-representational, non-mimetic are comm­ only associated, sometimes incor­rectly, with the term symbol. It is true that the depiction of most distinctive symb­ ols does fit the image these words help to characterize visually; but it is not true that the symbol hasto besimplified (etc.) in order to qualify as a symbol. The fact that some of the best symbols are simplified images merely points to the effectiveness of simplicity but not to the meaning of the word per se. 1Rudolf Koch, The Book of Siigns (London. 1930), 2.

In the Book of Changes (Chou Yih) it is stated: American Advetising Guild “The fathomlessness of the male and female Announcement Card, principles (Yang and Yin) is called God.” This 1941. conception is illustrated by the t’ai chi symbol expressing the “two regulating powers which together create all the phenomena of Nature.” The essence of Chinese philosophy is revealed in the expression: “All things are produceed by the action of the male and female principles.” 1The I Ching or Book of Changes (New York, 1950).

21 Oil Lamp, 1956.

A Designer's Art, by Paul Rand, has been set in Futura Std and Adobe Caslon Pro designd by Paul Renner and William Caslon respectively. This book hs been typeset and designed by Shreya Kumra as a part of the Rhode Island School of Design, Summer 2020 class on Book Design. Type Specifications: Futura Std Medium Oblique 10/15, 18/26 Futura Std Medium 9/14 Adobe Caslon Pro 9/12, 10/15 Adobe Caslon Pro Italic 9/12 Adobe Caslon Pro Bold Italic 10/14, 18/22, 36/44



“ You will learn most things by looking, but reading gives understanding. Reading will make you free.” Graphic design which fulfills aesthetic needs, complies with the laws of form and the exigencies of two-dimensional space; which speaks in semiotics, sans-serifs, and geometrics; which abstracts, transforms, translates, rotates, dilates, repeats, mirros, groups, and regroups is not good design if it is irrelevant. Graphic design which evokes the symmetria of Vitruvius, the dynamic symmetry of Hambidge, the asymmetry of Mondrian; which is a good gestalt, generateed by intuition or by computer, by invention or by a system of coordinates is not good design if it does not communicate. Paul Rand Yale University Press New Haven and London