History Of Art : Paul Rand Part 2

Paul Rand: Part 2

Apart from his job at Esquire magazine, he decided he could take on some more work, and so he took a freelance job for a cultural magazine called ‘Directions’. The covers he designed had more or less become a workshop for his development of Bauhaus inspired ideas and those of many other revolutionary artists. In fact, during an interview with Steven Heller in 1990 he had said, “When I was doing the covers of Direction I was trying to compete with the Bauhaus, Van Doesburg, Leger and Picasso. Compete is not the right word, I was trying to do it in the spirit.”

Similarly to Picasso he would adopt a sense of angularity as the artist had done during his cubist period. Rand would incorporate photographs and his own drawings onto the cover creating collages as well as make use of primary flat colours especially red, as well as the colours black and white. He also liked making use of complementary colours to create a unique pattern for his covers.

Around the late 1930’s, the great depression had finally come to an end and so this was the opportune time for many companies to start advertising their products again. Paul Rand had spent 3 years working at Esquire and now that he had had enough and was offered another job he accepted immediately.

In his work he started using the font Futura as opposed to many other designers. Thanks to this, his advertisements looked simpler than those of others, but striking. As he had done with ‘Apparel Arts’ his designs relied on the intelligence of the viewer, but at the same time capable of communicating with the audience so that they know what the advertisement is offering. His designs were very easy on the eyes and he would not allow any necessary details if they were not meant to attract people. By dividing the component of his designs in two by making use of large fonts and of smaller ones, he would first attract the buyers, and then draw them in so that they could read further.

Despite having quite a inimitable style in deign which was easily detectable as his, he would still sign his work which was uncommon practice in the United Sates as many designers operated under the name of an agency.

Paul Rand made use of his own drawings, which he incorporated into the ads he was working on. They were characterized by visual puns, where that in itself was a very exclusive feature of his works. He produced logos for the products he was advertising, which were generally treated as a standard for everything else that followed after. He revolutionized the use of the logo. Rather than put it at the bottom as a trademark as was traditionally the case, he enlarged it and included it as part of the main picture, turning it into the center of attention on the poster.