On April 3, 1998 the School of Visual Arts held a Paul Rand Symposium in New York City. To commemorate the event Nathan Garland, Georgette Ballance and I edited a keepsake titled "Paul Rand: A Designer's Words," a collection of many Rand quotes from various sources. It was printed by Rand's favorite printer, Mossberg & Co., typeset by his favorite typesetters, PDR (A Division of AGT), and produced with his favorite paper, Mohawk Superfine. Nathan Garland's design was true to Rand's typographic aesthetic.
What is instructive about this thin volume is the critical mass of inspiring ideas and off-hand comments forging a designer's philosophy. In fact, in the section on "Philosophy" he said:
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. (Graphis, 1981)
Only 500 copies of the keepsake were printed, given free to the symposium participants and sold through Emigre, among other limited venues (only a few rarities remain). Now, I would like to make it available to all via PDF. If you would like to download go here or here.
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Steven, Thank you for making this PDF link available. Always an inspiring read from your posts.
Steven,
Thank you, thank you, thank you. This is very poignant to my life at this time. When a designer seeks inspiration, who better to turn to than Paul Rand? Well, perhaps you, but I digress.
Kind regards,
Will
a true thought leader. thank you for sharing.
Rand was so eloquent, so wise. I have one of the original copies, and I've shared these quotes with my students for years. I tack them on walls and distribute them in handouts, so they've continued to inform and inspire. Thank you for creating a pdf - what a great idea!
Thank you for sharing this pdf! Rand is a source of great inspiration. Won't you consider a reprint?
THANKS STEVE!!!! YOU ROCK, SIR!!!!
Very Respectfully,
Thank you for sharing this book. I look forward becoming more familiar with Rand.
Thanks for sharing! This is great.
Thank you! I think I shall print and bind a book of my own for this fine material!
Golden! Looking forward to sharing with the SHC design students this fall.
Thanks, for the much needed reminder to all Graphic Designers that our work creates new meaning nomatter how simple.
Thank you. I look forward to printing and reading the document.
Cheers!
JDML
Paul Rand is Genius. Another book added to my ever growing WANTED list!!
I had the privilege to work directly as the design program contact with Paul during the last few years of his relationship with IBM. There is not a day that goes by that I don't think of something that Paul said. He was one of the most insightful individuals I have ever personally encountered.
I wish I had the opportunity to share some of these for this publication.
Thank you kind sir.