This, perhaps, has never been said better than in the book’s most quoted passage, the graceful free verse that begins Rand’s essay “The Beautiful and the Useful.” Graphic design, he says, no matter what else it achieves, “is not good design if it is irrelevant.” But in reality Thoughts on Design is a manifesto, a call to arms and a ringing definition of what makes good design good. Ostensibly, it is nothing more than a how-to book, illustrated with examples from the designer’s own portfolio. As a result, Thoughts on Design is almost as simple as a child’s storybook: short, clear sentences vivid, playful illustrations.
In his day job on Madison Avenue, he had learned the virtues of saying more with less. It was his passion for his subject - the power of design and its capacity to contribute beauty, intelligence and wit to everyday life - that made him such an effective one. Paul Rand admitted all his life that he was insecure as a writer. 33 years old was, perhaps, early for a book, but Rand was ready. So were his induction into the Art Directors Hall of Fame, his receipt of the AIGA Medal, his position on the faculty at the Yale School of Art, and all the awards and accolades that would establish him as his country’s greatest graphic designer by the time he died in 1996. His logos for IBM, Westinghouse and ABC Television - all would be incorporated in the book’s subsequent editions - were still in the future. Classified ads looking to hire designers began specifying a “Paul Rand type.” No one needed to ask what this meant.ĭespite this sudden fame, Rand’s career had barely begun. Rand’s signature appeared on book covers, posters, and ads. just six years before, he was credited with revolutionizing the clichéd and buttoned-down world of Madison Avenue by introducing the bracing clarity of European modernism. Appointed chief art director at the fledging advertising agency William H. The designer, born in Brooklyn as Peretz Rosenbaum and largely self-taught, was already a sensation. When Paul Rand sat down in 1947 to write the book that would become Thoughts on Design, he was 33 years old. Even more unbelievably, I only bought one. Unbelievably, they were selling for a dollar. It was the third edition of Thoughts on Design by Paul Rand. On one of my first trips to New York in the 70s, I was in the bargain basement of a large chain bookstore on Fifth Avenue when I saw a tall stack of square books, so clean and abstract it was almost a piece of sculpture.
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