Paul Rand

  Born in Brooklyn, New York in the year 1914, Paul Rand was exposed to art at a very 

young age. He would have to create signs, posters and various other items to try to attract 

more people to his father’s grocery store. He would also do projects like this for the school 

he attended. Rand was basically a self taught designer due to the fact that he attended 

schools, which taught him skills for different career paths. He never went to schools where 

is creative mind could wonder because his father did not believe that his son could make a 

living creating designs. 

Although Paul Rand is mostly known for his design of corporate logos, he did take 

certain steps to get there. In his earlier years, he would supply stock images for magazines 

and newspapers. He then moved on to designing front covers of magazines with full 

creativity and freedom, which ultimately lead to taking the place as art director for the 

Esquire magazine. This was a huge accomplishment within his career, but he was not 

finished yet. 

Eye-Bee-M (IBM) - Paul Rand

ABC - Paul Rand

Later on, Rand created some of the most successful company logos to date. To name 

a few that he designed: UPS, IBM, ABC, Westinghouse and many others. Within all of 

designs, Paul always demonstrated that a design does not have to be original in order to 

be exciting. Before his death in 1996, most people considered Rand to be “the greatest 

living graphic designer.” 

Paul Rand