Paul Rand
Paul Rand (August 15, 1914 – November 26, 1996) was an American graphic designer, best known for his corporate logo designs, including the logos for IBM, UPS, Enron, Westinghouse, ABC, and Steve Jobs's NeXT. He was one of the originators of the Swiss Style of graphic design.Rand was educated at the Pratt Institute (1929–1932), Parsons The New School for Design (1932–33), and the Art Students League (1933–1934). From 1956 to 1969, and beginning again in 1974, Rand taught design at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Rand was inducted into the New York Art Directors Club Hall of Famein 1972.
His career began with humble assignments, starting with a part-time position creating stock images for a syndicate that supplied graphics to various newspapers and magazines. Between his class assignments and his work, Rand was able to amass a fairly large portfolio, largely influenced by the German advertising style Sachplakat (object poster) as well as the works of Gustav Jensen. It was around this time that he decided to camouflage (and abbreviate) the overtly Jewish identity conveyed by 'Peretz Rosenbaum,' shortening his forename to 'Paul' and taking 'Rand' from an uncle to form his new surname. Morris Wyszogrod, a friend and associate of Rand, noted that "he figured that 'Paul Rand,' four letters here, four letters there, would create a nice symbol. So he became Paul Rand."
His career began with humble assignments, starting with a part-time position creating stock images for a syndicate that supplied graphics to various newspapers and magazines. Between his class assignments and his work, Rand was able to amass a fairly large portfolio, largely influenced by the German advertising style Sachplakat (object poster) as well as the works of Gustav Jensen. It was around this time that he decided to camouflage (and abbreviate) the overtly Jewish identity conveyed by 'Peretz Rosenbaum,' shortening his forename to 'Paul' and taking 'Rand' from an uncle to form his new surname. Morris Wyszogrod, a friend and associate of Rand, noted that "he figured that 'Paul Rand,' four letters here, four letters there, would create a nice symbol. So he became Paul Rand."
Woody Pirtle
Woody Pirtle is an artist commissioned in 2002 by Amnesty International to design a series of posters focusing on twelve of the individual articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Currently, he heads Pirtle Design, a design consultancy based in New York.Woody Pirtle established Pirtle Design in Dallas, Texas in 1978. Over the next 10 years, the firm created identity programs and marketing materials for Baylor University Medical Center, The Dallas Museum of Art, T.G.I. Friday's, Dallas Opera, Diamond Shamrock Corporation, National Gypsum, Centex Homes, Gerald D. Hines Interests, Simpson Paper Company and NCR, to name a few.In 1988, Woody merged Pirtle Design with Pentagram, an international design consultancy founded in London in 1972, becoming a partner at their New York offices for the next 18 years while continuing to work with some of the firm's most prestigious clients. Between 1988 and 2005, Woody and the office of Pentagram produced work for Brown-Forman, Bacardi Global Brands, Flying Fish Brewing Company, Watch City Brewing Company, Murray’s Cheese, Really Cool Foods, IBM, Champion International Corporation, Fine Line Features, The Rockefeller Foundation, Nine West, Northern Telecom, Knoll International, Wellesley College, Princeton University, Brooklyn Law School, and Amnesty International, plus many others. In 2005 Woody left Pentagram to re-establish Pirtle Design.
Paula Scher
Paula Scher (born October 6, 1948, Virginia) is an American graphic designer, illustrator, painter and art educator in design, and the first female principal at Pentagram, which she joined in 1991.She is the 16th recipient of the School of Visual Art's Masters Series Award and an exhibition of her work can be seen at the Visual Arts Museum & School of Visual Arts, which ties in with her book, Make it Bigger.In 2006, an exhibition at Maya Stendhal gallery in New York City, Paula Scher painted two 9-by-12-foot maps that resembled patchwork quilts from afar, but contain much textual detail. She created lines that represented the separation of political allies or borders dividing enemies. Scher created the maps into layers that reference what we think when we think of Japan, Kenya, or the Upper East Side.For instance, The United States (1999) was painted in blocky white print and full with list of facts that comprehend when we think about cities. Africa (2003) represented in a stark black and white palette, hinting at a tortured colonial past. The land of the red rising sun represented when we think of Japan (2004).
This was Scher's first solo exhibition as a fine artist and sold every piece between $40,000 to $135,000. The Maya Stendhal's owner decided to extend the exhibition for four weeks, until January 21. Therefore Scher decided to produce silk-screened prints of 'The World' that contained large-scale images of cities, states, and continents blanketed with place names and other information. It's full of mistakes and misspellings and visual allusions to stereotypes of places such as South American, painted with hot colors and has two ovaries on the sides. It was not created to be a reliable map but convey a sense of the places that are mediated and mangled.
This was Scher's first solo exhibition as a fine artist and sold every piece between $40,000 to $135,000. The Maya Stendhal's owner decided to extend the exhibition for four weeks, until January 21. Therefore Scher decided to produce silk-screened prints of 'The World' that contained large-scale images of cities, states, and continents blanketed with place names and other information. It's full of mistakes and misspellings and visual allusions to stereotypes of places such as South American, painted with hot colors and has two ovaries on the sides. It was not created to be a reliable map but convey a sense of the places that are mediated and mangled.