In a graphic design lecture last week, a BYU-Idaho professor shared an experience of meeting Paul Rand. Rand had come to the Art Center where this professor was studying graphic design to meet with an associate whom Rand was mentoring. When students gathered to meet Mr. Rand, the first question sputtered into the air and from what I gather, the conversation went something like this.
“Mr. Rand, what would you suggest designers do to come up with creative ideas?”
Disgustedly, Rand scoffed his reply, “This generation, always looking for an easy way out. I’m not even going to answer that.”
Just in case you didn’t already know, Paul Rand was an influential American Graphic Designer best known for his contribution to several company identities we still recognize because of logos and brand images created in part by Rand’s designs. Some of these companies included IBM, UPS, and ABC.
He is certainly someone worth looking into to gain additional history and insight into the process and life of Graphic Design. (You can start with his website at www.paul-rand.com/) No matter how grumpy he was that day at The Art Center.
Graphic designer Louis Danziger said of Rand, “He almost singlehandedly convinced business that design was an effective tool. [. . .] Anyone designing in the 1950s and 1960s owed much to Rand, who largely made it possible for us to work. He more than anyone else made the profession reputable. We went from being commercial artists to being graphic designers largely on his merits.”
What Paul Rand brought to light for many professionals in the business world is that design is more that just decoration. Design should be done with a purpose to solve problems. For example, in creating a company logo, a designer defines what that company is about, their characteristics, and their practice or products.
Rand encouraged companies to use design to enhance their image and make statements in a unseeingly indirect, but proven effective way of communicating: through design. In the first paragraph of his New York Times published article “Failure by Design” Rand expresses the misunderstanding of design and addresses it’s impact and meaning.
“Because design is so often equated with mere decoration, it is safe to assume that few people understand what design means or the role it plays in the corporate world. Graphic design pertains to the look of things — of everything that rolls of a printing press, from a daily newspaper to a box for corn flakes. It also pertains to the nature of things: not only how something should look but why, and often, what it should look like.” (Click here to continue reading “Failure by Design” by Paul Rand.) http://www.paul-rand.com/thoughts_failureByDesign.shtml
The simple lesson he teaches presented through the video above is the balance between form and content. Form can be described as the overall look of a project; whereas, the content is the actual message within that project.
My explanation of what he is saying is as follows: Rand indicates that if form overpowers a work the message or content will be lost. If the content is what overwhelms the page, viewers and readers will be lost. In the balanced combination of the two, a work will have visual appeal and content to get an audience to take the message.
This is an important lesson to find that balance. But how is it done?
THREE SIMPLE TIPS TO LEARN BALANCE OF FORM AND CONTENT:
Show as many people your work as you can. In constructive criticism there are two steps. (1) Get someone to give you feedback. (2) Take it. This means you either need to take their ideas and work with them, or just listen and consider suggestions. Also, getting more criticism is better. From a variety of people’s feedback you can start to see any trends from what people think. If they’re good, great! If not, you’ll know what you need to fix.
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Just because you can create illustrations of elaborate flowers and swirls doesn’t mean you should overpower a pamphlet with them. When you’re contemplating adding more fluff and frill ask yourself if it serves a purpose. If it is essential in conveying the message, keep it. If it’s not, ditch it quick.
Take a break. Although in the fast pace world of design, you may get projects with next day, hour, minute sort of deadlines and it’s hard to find time to break from a project. But when possible, taking time to get a way from one project to let ideas sit and your mind step away from what you put on the page can get you to give a new perspective of your form and content. After a break you might see things differently and realize what’s not working for your design. Consider your audience and the purpose, consider the flow of the document and readability, and consider the central message. Make sure what needs to be clear is clear.
You’ll also come up with new ways as you work on more designs, but the three principles above can get you started on discovering where form and content should meet.
I really enjoyed this post. Although, I do not, by any means, consider myself a graphic designer, I enjoyed reading of Paul Rand and the three tips you offered. Since, your blog is about graphic design I find it fitting that a post be devoted to learning from Rand. My one suggestion would be to give the list of tips some color. Make the headings stand out more, so that they are easier to locate. We I read blogs I look for headings by color and size. When I first scrolled through the post I didn’t realize there were tips. Other than that, magnificent post.
this is some really great advice, and i love the youtube clip. i also like how you organized some of this info into lists.
I’ve never looked very far into the field of graphic design, but this post definitely peaked my interest. You’ve got a great balance of entertainment (with Mr. Rand’s grumpy attitude) and good information, this guy surely knows what he’s talking about. I love your list format for suggestions, and the detail you use in explaining what you learned from him.