n Estados Unidos le llaman popularmente "PapaLogo" Diseñador Gráfico (New York 15/08/1914 - Norwalk, Conn. 26/11/1996), uno de los más innovadores e influyentes dieseñadores gráficos del siglo XX. Empleando la simplicidad del modernismo, con su tipo y uso geométricos limpios del espacio blanco, él creó algunas de las indentidades corporativas más reconocibles de los E.E.U.U. - entre ellas, la de IBM, Westinghouse, United Parcel Service, ABC...
Autor de varios libros en el proceso gráfico del diseño. A partir de 1935 él funcionó su propio estudio en Nueva York. A partir de 1956 él era profesor del diseño gráfico en Yale. Él continuó diseñando
hasta una gran parte de los años 90. En su biografía 1999 del Rand, Stephen Heller escribe: "él era el canal a través de el cual el arte y el diseño modernos europeos - Constructivism ruso, dutch De Stijl y el alemán Bauhaus - fueron introducidos al arte comercial americano". En 1984 le concedieron la medalla del TDC, la concesión del tipo directores Club presentado a ésos "quiénes han hecho contribuciones significativas a la vida, al arte, y al arte de la tipografía"

Exploró el vocabulario formal de los movimientos de vanguardia europeos y desarrolló un estilo gráfico único que fue caracterizado por la simplicidad, el ingenio y un acercamiento racional a las soluciones del problema. Educado en Nueva York en el "Pratt Institute" a partir de 1929-1932, En la "Parson's School of Design" a partir de 1932-1933 y la "Art Student's League" a partir de 1933-1934, Rand era una fuerza importante en diseño editorial. Fué director de arte de "Esquire" y de "Apparel Arts" (llamada después GQ:Gentleman's Quarterly) a partir de 1935-1941 y de las cubiertas para el "Directions cultural journal" entre 1938 y 1945. Rand ha sido influyente como consultor del diseño, también, los sistemas de la identidad que se convertían para las corporaciones importantes tales como IBM y Westinghouse. A partir de la 1956-1969 y del agin que comenzaba en 1974, Rand enseñó diseño en la universidad de Yale en New Haven, Connecticut. Rand fue incluido en el "New York Art Directors Club Hall of Fame" en 1972.

Paul Rand is now 82 years old. His lifetime approach to design may be described as rigidly modernist and unyielding to new experimental approaches. He has worked from his studio in Weston, Connecticut for the last 30 years during which he was also on the Yale faculty from 1961 to 1992, a position from which he eventually resigned from because of disdain for contemporary design approaches.
At the age of 23 he was art director of Esquire magazine, and then went on to
produce advertisements for El Producto cigars, Duboneet, Ancient Age, and Disney hatmakers. His recent work includes identities for Next Computers, The Limited, IDEO, and AdStar. He is said to have enjoyed the fast pace of his early jobs where work had to be executed in a number of hours for the following day's publications. Ironically Rand currently believes there is a lack of good design
today, especially corporate design (which he pioneered) because of "a lack of good business leaders and good designers."
Rand pioneered corporate identity as well as advertising in the 40s, 50s, and
60s. He was a pioneer of "the New Advertising", where the spectator was active in deciphering the meaning of the advertisement, and used their own intelligence to complete the meaning. He found that in the design of logotypes, advertisements, and packaging, that simplicity and restraint lead to fexibility, freedom, and economy of utilizing a graphic image forthe present as well as the future. In addition to this, he was interested in applying the style and concepts of European modernists such as
van Doesburg, Leger, and Picasso through the use of montage and collage, as well as utilizing the color systems of Matisse. Perhaps it is these well rounded interests and infuences that allowed him to be so successful:
Art is an idea which has found its perfect visual expression.
And design is the vehicle by which the expression is made possible.
Art is a noun, and design is a noun and also a verb.
Art is a product and design
is a process.
Design is the foundation of all the arts.
Rand is interested purely in form, which is primarily the reason why he is so dissolutioned with current trends in design, and why he eventually left his teaching position. He believes that the design room is no place for the discussion of political and social issues.
Probably his best known work, the IBM logotype and identity, is stripped of all possible unnecessary forms. It is its simplicity that makes it so easy to remember and allows it to be adapted to so many uses, both practical and decorative. The slightest suggestion of blue stripes says "IBM" by having only the edge of the "I" poking into
the page. By scattering tiny multi colored ibm logos over a large white 75 on it, Rand's IBM 75th anniversary poster evokes confetti and celebration without being literal. Displaying images through the knocked out forms of the stripes, and embossing as well as silver stamping are applications that speak for themselves in how versatile a simple graphic image can be.
The Westinghouse logo is another example of a "modification" of an already existing
logo into something more modern as well as unique. Another example would be the
Cummins logo. One might reasonably conclude that Rand's designs are so simple because
none of his decisions are arbitrary; every one of them has logic to it:
Here is what a logo is and does:
A logo is a fag, a signature, an escutcheon, a street sign.
A logo does not sell (directly),
it identifes
A logo is rarely a description
of business.
A logo derives its meaning from the quality of the thing it symbolizes, not the other way around.
A logo is less important than the product it signifes; what it represents is more importance than what it looks like. The subject matter of a logo can almost be anything
A great deal of Rand's success can be attributed to how well he combines the business side of a graphic design business such as persuading business executives with his own personal aesthetic goals. As a result, he has created some of our times ' most popular designs .
His groundbreaking advertisements from the 40s and 50s for Coronet, Jacqueline Cochran, Stafford Fabrics, and his Direction and Esquire magazine covers among other
projects show a tremendous sense of play and freedom. Utilizing white space to give the forms on the page strong contours, the objects, often cut by hand, lead the eye from one part of the page to the other. He made type strategically and assymetrically placed to make it appear is if it was spoken, not written. This was a truly revolutionary break from conventions of advertising which still persist even to today, where the designer insists that the viewer is a passive spectator, and merely combines an image with a slogan to reinforce the appeal of the product. Rand's advertisements invite the viewer to closely examine the meaning of the ad and actually makes the viewer think to understand it. When examining Rand's creative process, which he describes in his books, I wonder how he was able to succeed in coercing his clients to give himsuch creative freedom in a business environment in which time is money and more is better.
Design is a personal activity and springs from the creative impulse of an individual. Group design or design by committee, although occasionally useful, deprives the designer of the
distinct pleasure of personal accomplishment and self realization. It may even hinder his or her thought processes, because work is not practiced under natural, tension free conditions. Ideas have neither time to develop nor even the opportunity to occur. The tensions encountered in original work are different from those caused by discomfort or nervousness.
Rand firmly believed in the designer working alone would produce the best results, something that I fnd not always applicable especially in times when deadlines are to be met, and the quality
of the design is less important than the quantity produced. However, Paul Rand lays down some wonderful guidelines that often fall short because they are too rooted in an idealistic vision. Personally telling Paul Rand that he has a style would probably offend him. This is so because after viewing his work, I believe that the way he uses images, type, and graphic forms are timeless. Nevertheless, Rand's appropriation of modernist techniques of assymetrical typography, collage, and montage as well as his stripped down creative process and method of working with primary colors has actually become a visual style that has been copied by many, but often not really understood. I am not saying that Rand's work is antiquated, but it is much fresher and engaging that the work of many of his contemporaries, but when looking at it, it does seem dated.
-Christopher Tokar