PAUL RAND: DEFINING DESIGN
October 27, 2013 - January 31, 2014
Design helps to create everything that is around us: the cereal boxes on our breakfast tables, the ads we read, the websites we surf, the buildings in which we work, the paintings we admire, the phones on which we talk . . . Design shapes everything.
Design, however, is much more than the colors, the textures, and the shapes that give style to the objects and images that are part of our everyday lives. In fact, the concept of design is so broad that it can be quite difficult to define. Yet, establishing a definition of design is precisely the task that the American graphic designer Paul Rand (1914 - 1996) pursued throughout his long career, spent trying to understand the visual elements that combined to make some works of design stand out from others. While he recognized that achieving the right combination of these elements was challenging, his definition was simple: design, he said, was “. . . the synthesis of form and content.”
In October of 2013, MODA presented Paul Rand: Defining Design, which was an exhibition informed by Rand’s remarkable ability to combine theory and practice. Throughout the galleries, Rand’s own writings were juxtaposed with examples of his work that demonstrated how he used a blend of theory and practice to develop his own highly influential definition of design.
This exhibition was curated by Daniel Lewandowski
About Paul Rand
Born in Brooklyn and educated at the Pratt Institute, Rand found inspiration in the works of European Modernists like Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder, Joan Miró, and others. Extensive study into their work led Rand to develop an avant-garde style for graphic design based on restrained minimalism, focused ideas, cut paper, and photographic collage. He first made a name for himself by designing playful layouts for publications such as Apparel Arts and Direction Magazine, in which he created memorable and effective images that reflected his strong understanding of design and its principles.
Rand is best known for the corporate identities he designed in the 1950s and 1960s for firms including IBM, ABC, and UPS. In these and all his other designs, he sought to achieve the synthesis of form and content necessary for the creation of what he considered “good work.”
A prolific writer, Rand documented his theory of design in articles and in four critically acclaimed books, all of which are written in a short and direct style and examine complex subjects -- namely the relation of graphic design to art, the relation of form to content, expression through typography, and humor in design.
