16 Quotes & Sayings By Paul Rand

Paul Rand was born in New York City in 1906. He grew up in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York. He studied at the Cooper Union Art School and the Yale University School of Art and Architecture. After graduating from Yale, he entered the advertising industry and became a successful writer and creative director Read more

In 1960, he wrote an article for Fortune magazine about how he had designed his own corporate identity system which began with matching visual elements to the different aspects of the company's slogan: "A mind is like a parachute: It doesn't work if it is opened too much." This led to the establishment in 1963 of Paul Rand & Company, Inc., a leading graphic design firm.

1
The artist is a collector of things imaginary or real. He accumulates things with the same enthusiasm that a little boy stuffs his pockets. The scrap heap and the museum are embraced with equal curiosity. He takes snapshots, makes notes and records impressions on tablecloths or newspapers, on backs of envelopes or matchbooks. Why one thing and not another is part of the mystery, but he is omnivorous. Paul Rand
2
You will learn most things by looking, but reading gives understanding. Reading will make you free. Paul Rand
3
Design is the method of putting form and content together. Design, just as art, has multiple definitions, there is no single definition. Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that’s why it is so complicated. Paul Rand
4
Don’t try to be original, just try to be good. Paul Rand
5
Graphic Design, which fulfills aesthetic needs, complies with the laws of form and exigencies of two-dimensional space; which speaks in semiotics, sans-serifs, and geometrics; which abstracts, transforms, translates, rotates, dilates, repeats, mirrors, groups, and regroups, is not good design if it is irrelevant. Paul Rand
6
If I was influenced by anything, it was architecture: structure having to do with logic. If you don't do it right, the whole thing is going to cave in. In a certain sense, you can carry that to graphic design. Fortunately, however, nobody is going to die if you do it wrong. Paul Rand
7
In the Orthodox religion, you don't draw the human figure. It's against the rules. Paul Rand
8
Simplicity is not the goal. It is the by-product of a good idea and modest expectations. Paul Rand
9
Design is a way of life, a point of view. It involves the whole complex of visual communications: talent, creative ability, manual skill, and technical knowledge. Aesthetics and economics, technology and psychology are intrinsically related to the process. Paul Rand
10
To design is much more than simply to assemble, to order, or even to edit: it is to add value and meaning, to illuminate, to simplify, to clarify, to modify, to dignify, to dramatize, to persuade, and perhaps even to amuse. To design is to transform prose into poetry. Paul Rand
11
Pictures, abstract symbols, materials, and colors are among the ingredients with which a designer or engineer works. To design is to discover relationships and to make arrangements and rearrangements among these ingredients. Paul Rand
12
Design is everything. Everything! Paul Rand
13
Design is the method of putting form and content together. Design, just as art, has multiple definitions; there is no single definition. Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that's why it is so complicated. Paul Rand
14
Graphic design, which evokes the symmetria of Vituvius, the dynamic symmetry of Hambidge, the asymmetry of Mondrian; which is a good gestalt, generated by intuition or by computer, by invention or by a system of coordinates, is not good design if it does not communicate. Paul Rand
15
Good design doesn't date. Bad design does. Paul Rand