Due to World War II, the world witnessed a shift from Europe to
America. Suddenly Modern design began pouring in with the wave of European
immigrants who were escaping the horrors of the war. “America was now provided
with a first hand introduction to the European avant-garde”. (Meggs & Purvis, 2011)
Since America wasn’t as critically affected
by the war as other countries in Europe, by the 1940’s and 50’s the economic
growth started picking up, attracting individuals of great talent, enabling
them to nurture creativity into a different society, whilst enabling themselves
to realize their own potentials.
Moreover the 1940s brought a radical
change towards design in America. We began to see a shift towards a more
modernist approach. European design was structured and disciplined in
organising space, whilst American design was pragmatic, spontaneous and more
informal in its approach to organising space.
There was also a shift in mentality.
Designers sough to solve communication problems by expressing their own
personal views and styles. They emphasised mainly on the manifestation of ideas
and an open, direct presentation of information.
All these sudden changes and influences
brought on the birth of The New York School. Paul Rand, an American graphic
designer, was at the front of the new American approach, helping to establish
Swiss Design in the United States.
Rand kicked off his
career at 23, creating mainly promotional and editorial work for magazines. His
main inspirations came from exploring the formal vocabulary of the European
Avant Garde movements: Cubism, Constructivism and De Stijl to which he
developed them into a distinctively American graphic language.
 |
| Poster for the film 'No Way Out', Paul Rand |
Rand rejected
traditional narrative illustration and symmetrical layouts in his designs. He
found new ways to make use of the shape, the visual appearance, and how this is
applied onto the surface area of the design to communicate the idea. His
designs were rendered with simplicity and wit. For Paul Rand visual communication
should be the embodiment of form and function. He gradually distanced himself
from the 1920’s functionalism and started concentrating more on the fusion of
the ‘functional and the beautiful’.
 |
| Logo for IBM |
Remarkably,
Rand specialised in logos and trademarks, epitomising the meaning of what is understood
by good design: clarity, sophistication and legibility. Rand understood the
kind of power signs and symbols had on viewers and he used them to visually
communicate a message. In fact Paul Rand forever changed corporate identity and
logo design with his principles still applied today by graphic designers.
Designers nowadays are not specifically inspired by Rand, but
rather influenced by his principles. We continue to see the simple, not
over-complex format of logos, all influenced by the vision of Rand.
Bibliography
California
State University, 2010. New York School. [Online] Available at: http://www.csun.edu/~pjd77408/DrD/Art461/LecturesAll/Lectures/Lecture09/NewYorkSchool.html
[Accessed 2 December 2014].
Meggs, P.B. & Purvis, P.W., 2011. Meggs' History of
Graphic Design. 5th ed. Wiley.
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