Paul Rand single-handedly invented modern graphic design in the US, and nobody was better at it. From his first job as magazine art director in 1936 to his latest trademark design 60 years later, Rand brought to his work an originality, clarity, wit - and above all, intelligence - that is rarely matched within the profession he spawned. Rand wrote as well as he designed; any serious studentof communications would be well advised to find Rand's writings and take them to heart. The quote below is the last paragraph of Rand's 1985 book, A Designer's Art (it's the one with the colored stripes on the spine).
Graphic design which evokes the symmetria of Vitruvius, 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.
ELECTRIC WORD
A Designer's Designer
