Paul Rand: a Designer's Art

Very nice. I bit heavy but content is great!

Any student wishing to dig deep and learn about the profession they want to enter into, then start here. Any professional graphic designer who needs a reminder of why they entered the profession in the first place, should read this (again).

excellent

I don't need to say much about this book other than; buy it, it's fantastic! .... it's Paul Rand!!!

In school and apprenticeships, students learn by demonstration or example. The more impactful the example, the better the retention and understanding. Paul Rand’s classic 1985 book, “A Designer’s Art” serves that same function, even though the work represented comes from a period much earlier. Reissued in 2016 after being out of print for 16 years, Rand is the master graphic designer of IBM, ABC, UPS, Westinghouse, and Next identities, well before the term “branding” became more common. He is also a prolific illustrator and writer, thus this “best of" design collection features many key essays written over his career followed by well-crafted examples of art direction to support his thought process. This is NOT a how-to book, nor is it intended to behave like one. It’s a WHAT and WHY book, using his work as examples of HOW the ideas he shared can come to life.Legend had it that when presenting new designs to clients, Rand would compile a robust comprehensive case to defend his conceptual thinking, culminating with a singular design solution. That is a rarity almost unheard in modern day where clients like to pick and choose whatever catches their eye from multiple options (much to the chagrin of professional designers, leaving room for those dreaded frankendesign endings). Call it arrogant, bullheaded or even idealistic, but knowing that Paul Rand felt it was vital to give his clients THE BEST design solution, makes this reader wonder what other side detours there may have been but never shown in this inspiring, timeless collection. (Also, it’s important to remember the period at which he created some of his more important works was not as it is today with thousands of designers, Pinterest boards or wannabes with a laptop. There was no internet, social media, cloud, Apple pro retina screens or Adobe digital tools. Just brains, sharp hand/eye coordination and impassioned, strategic salesmanship.Written densely with thoughtfulness always at its core, it’s the kind of book to “wash, soak & spin.” Read a section, pause to absorb the concepts shared and then make these ideas part of one’s creative toolbox. He discusses interesting topics about design including themes of repetition, humour, abstraction, structure, the power of black and learning to see. The beauty of this book never gets old, particularly the thinking that Rand shares. Theories, observations and confident yet eloquent expository essays bring forth enthusiastic approval as well as "lightbulb-aha" moments relating to design conventions and ideas still relevant today. This new edition concludes with a lovely epilogue of sorts from design historian and author Steven Heller, who shares some beautiful recollections of his final memorable days with the master himself.This is a book that forces you to pay attention, re-read his words to take in the meaning more deeply, and come away feeling more passionate about design than before.

It's only until you get to Steven Heller's Afterword at the back of this book that you get to know something about Paul Rand that isn't revealed in the book he wrote. Some of its reception, when it was published in the mid-eighties, wasn't to his liking and he detested any criticism of his work. Much of this was based on a Post Modernist approach to graphic design which came to full flower when the computer enabled anyone to design anything with a few keystrokes and not bother with decades of craftsmanship from the graphic arts world. Rand told Heller about his first book 'Thoughts on design' (1947) "I knew this was one way to have all your work in one place, so if you ever run into a fire you don't have to worry about your samples".This is one of the problems I have with 'A designer's art'. The text considers the broader aspects of design but only uses his work to illustrate a point. For example: 'The role of humour' chapter has twelve work examples which give a rather poor analysis of humour visually, the 'About legibility' chapter has three book title pages and a spread from an IBM 1977 Annual Report none of which really back up the points he makes in the text and Rand's own approach to legibility is questionable, there are some paperback covers where he uses rather unreadable handwriting (his own?) for the title, author and publisher.Of course there is some excellent design work in these pages, probably the logos are the work any designer would immediately think of when Paul Rand is mentioned, IBM, Enron, ABC TV created in 1962 and with Westinghouse still in use today. The clever UPS logo from 1961 was used up to 2003 then changed to a more skeuomorphic style. He produced some very creative work for his long time client IBM.I was though rather disappointed in the book even though it's considered a design classic. There isn't too much text in the twenty-seven chapters (including nine written between 1946 and 1984) so I regard it as really no more than Rand’s work sampler. Far better is the 'The Vignelli Canon' by Massimo Vignelli, a much tighter and succinct look at design and like Rand's book using Vignelli’s work examples to back up the text.

The book came in perfect condition