Excerpt from Jessica Helfand, "Paul Rand: American Modernist." The New Republic, (forthcoming, Fall 1997).

Clearly, to design a modern mark forty years ago was a very different task. The corporate America into which Rand was introduced in the 1950s and 60s was eager to define itself within the context of a relatively new--and rapidly growing--consumer culture. Rand's penchant for purism gave visual form to the exalted ideals of corporate leaders whose great ambition was to embrace new and complex audiences: this process involved rethinking traditional methods of corporate communication which, in the years directly following the Second World War, had been largely characterized by unimaginative marketing efforts and unnecessarily decorative design. Given a climate ripe for change, the idea that visual communication could be both powerful and simple was a radical--but fashionably pragmatic--idea.

But more important even than this was his unusual capacity to express an idea verbally. For his corporate clients, Rand habitually prepared detailed reports in which he presented a new trademark as a carefully documented process, illustrating the evolution of his ideas over time and articulating his argument with clarity and purpose. In these eloquently written reports, what was perhaps most striking was his decision to expose the design process. The writing is a lyrical mix of intention, comparison, description and analogy: here, Rand celebrated the integration of reasoning with the presentation of graphic design. Rather than minimizing the impact of his conclusions, such thoughtful discourse reinforced his visual thinking by positioning his ideas within a broader cultural context. By removing his argument from the immediate corporate climate it was intended primarily to address, and by distancing it from the broader demographic audience it was intended ultimately to reach, he gestured to a larger, more universal world. In the process, Rand used a clear formal vocabulary in precisely the way his mentors would have intended, as an international language: cross-cultural, timeless, and accessible to all. Rand called these reports the 'musical accompaniment' to design.

Back to top