Paul Rand

Reading up on the masters is a must in the design field just as much as in the fine arts, and Paul Rand is one giant whose meteoritic career, 10 years after his passing, is still a presence and inspiration to designers worldwide. Rand was a natural designer, self-trained thanks to an innate understanding of all aspects of the field. Uncertainty seems to have been absent from his life, and he dealt with clients accordingly, not that they ever regretted yielding to his ideas. We can't all follow his example, but taking a leaf out of his book (or this book, for that matter) paid off on more than one occasion. Heller's biography has that quality: to cover all aspects of Rand's professional life. It offers a substantial amount of text, but show more an even greater abundance of pictures of the designer's work. From work habits to design philosophies to teaching method, it's all covered in this "concisely informative and deeply informed profesisonal appreciation" (to quote the New York Times.) show less

Paul Rand (1914-1996) was a pioneering figure in American graphic design whose career spanned almost seven decades. Always enquiring and investigating, he explored the formal vocabulary of European avant-garde art movements and synthesised them to produce a distinctive graphic language.