Paul Rand: Father Of Modern Graphic Design Essay

William H. Johnson was a successful painter who was born on March 18, 1901 in Florence, South Carolina. Johnson began exploring his level of creativity as a child, and it only amplified from there because he discovered that he wanted to be an artist. After making this discovery he attended the National Academy of Design in New York which is where he met his mentor Charles Webster Hawthorne who had a strong influential impact on Johnson. Once Johnson graduated he moved to Paris where he was exposed to different artists, various artistic abilities, and evolutionary creations. Throughout Johnson’s time in Paris he grew as an artist, and adapted a “folk” style where he used lively colors and flat figures. Johnson used the “folk” style to express the experience of most African-Americans during the years of the 1930s and 1940s.

At 11, Wiley’s mother enrolled him and his twin in a small art conservatory program at Cal State, and in the summer of 1989, he was sent to Russia for training in classical painting. After excelling in this program, he went on to earn his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and his MFA for the Yale University School of Art. Although Wiley achieved things beyond his neighborhood, he did not forget the black struggle he was familiar with growing up.

Rand writes about a previous period of time that is referred to as “The Unmentionable Times”.The quote, "They whisper many strange things, of the towers which rose to the sky, in those Unmentionable Times, and of the wagons which moved without horses, and of the lights which burned without flame” by Equality 7-2521, explains how Rand viewed the modern age. She describes skyscrapers, new-aged vehicles, and light bulbs. These are all things that exist in the new world. “The Unmentionable Times” also referred to America. When she was young Rand’s family moved out of the dangerous part of Russia and Rand eventually moved to America. Things such as the skyscraper were things that Rand discovered in America. Rand viewed America as a great and beautiful place. She was a believer in the “American Dream”. This most likely influenced her to base “The Unmentionable Times” on her experiences in America.

The polyphony of words, images, and sounds these luminaries would have generated undoubtedly stimulated Bearden's curiosity and imagination. Bearden studied at the Art Students League with George Grosz, an immigrant to New York from Germany where he had been a major figure in the artistic movement called Dada. The politically charged Dada images would likely have interested Bearden who created a weekly political cartoon for the Baltimore Afro-American for two years in the mid-1930s. Another aspect of Dada practice that later emerged in Bearden's art

He was artistically gifted and awfully bright, consequently he studied at the San Francisco Art Institute, and got his M.F.A from Yale University. I believe the most interesting part about this article, is the author’s description of Wiley’s art epiphany. There is a time in most creative’s journey where they have a life-altering realization and draw most of their inspiration from there. This essential to an artist’s career, Wiley’s was strange. Wiley happens to stumble across a crumbled piece of paper, once unfolding it, he was met with a mugshot of a black male that he described as beautiful. “I see this piece of paper, and I am looking at him, and he’s got these weird necklaces on. He’s got this really beautiful, sympathetic face, and I am like, ‘this has to be a portrait!’” from this

Not long after arriving in New York, Douglas became acquainted with German artist Winold Reiss. He influenced Douglas heavily and encouraged him to look at African-American art for motivation and “develop his own racially representative work.” 1 Reiss believed that an artist should get inspiration from their own experiences and wanted Douglas to identify with his own race.

Wiley grew up one of six children living with under single mom who was also attending Grad school. His family valued education and expression. They lived in South Central Los Angeles, which was not a very great neighborhood, especially during the 80s. His mother wanted to keep her kids off the streets and signed them up for art and literacy classes. At 11 years old, Wiley took a strong liking to the visual arts. Even at such a young age, his skills were far superior to other children’s and he realized that it was something he was very interested in. At 12, he was enrolled in the U.S./U.S.S.R.

Since its introduction to the world in December of 1892 Vogue has gone about as the central form counselor for the socialites of tomorrow, setting up the garments drifts in the interminably developing universe of design. Vogue is presently distributed in eighteen nations, universally extending the legacy and impact of the design wonder. In spite of Vogue's concentrate on the brief form vibes existing apart from everything else, the magazine has kept up its status as the managing voice in first class design styles for almost 120 years.

Paul Rand was well-known to be making use of a wide variety of procedures or methods such as collage, typography, photography, and painting. He combined the elements to create visually distinctive modern image from design for magazine cover to a poster or even corporate logos. At Esquire and Apparel Arts Rand persistently worked as an art director for four years. During the early forties he created astounding covers for a magazine named Direction where he worked on Apparel Arts covers using

He continued his education at the Carnegie Institute in Pennsylvania graduating with a BA in Fine Art. Warhol moved to New York in 1948-49 where he started work as a graphic designer, creating adverts for fashion magazines such as Glamour, Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. Andy Warhol shot to fame and soon became highly respected as a commercial artist. ”Tina Fredrick, then art director of Glamour” says “She was thrilled by Andy’s drawings but could not find a commercial use for them. She told him his drawings were good, but Glamour could only use drawings of shoes at the moment. The next day Warhol came back with 50 drawings of shoes” footwear being an important part of his advertising career until the mid 1960s.

The world’s greatest influence on modern graphic design once said, “[graphic design] is not good design if it is irrelevant.” (Rand 9). Paul Rand passed away in 1996 at the age of 82 but his legacy will live on forever through current and future graphic designers. His work included corporate identities, posters, magazine spreads, book covers, and even wrote his own books. Rands writings and designs set a foundation of principles for the field that has been copied by a countless number of other designers since. The Graphic design industry has changed drastically from when he started until his retirement and Rand was a major factor of that change. Paul Rand is responsible for transforming advertising and corporate branding as well as

The constructivist movement has also influenced Rand’s work. This is evident from the use of space geometrically and colors. The colors; red, white and black were prominently used by Russian constructivist

Graphic design started many years ago. Over time, graphic design skills changed, as well as the implementation of ideas. Different designers from around the world practiced design, and each one had their own way. Designers’ experiences helped them to do more modern work. Some of them brought new ideas to graphic design and developed it. There are many professional designers, but Herb Lubalin and Alexey Brodovitch deserve to be known in the history. They bring creative and modern ideas to the art deco movement.

Meredith Davis’s book “Graphic Design Theory” was published in September 2012 by Thames & Hudson. This book blends a study of historical thinking of design with contemporary / modern approach to it. It also suggests students to critically analyse their work and asks them to adopt the design theories to embellish their practical design work as it will help them construct better work. This book also helps in understanding the consumers and the history of Graphic Design and also talks about a range of theories and introduces a collection of concepts and sources for future use and reference. In this book, Meredith Davis talks about the relationship of visual representation to the contexts of design. It talks about focusing on the broad and long term aftereffects of design and not to design only for the moment and responding to prompt needs.

Anderson was interested in the development of the artist- type, the inner desires of repressed people, the failure of people to communicate their true selves; the way conventions and tradition have twisted and distorted the individual (Doneskey 1-3).