Paul Rand Quotes
Wednesday, 5 December 2007 @ 12:21I typed out the quotes from the Paul Rand piece that Imaginary Forces did because I think studied in type you get to really ingest what he was saying rather than just hearing it. I also thought some of you would like it as a reference:
“When you say design, everybody has their own definition of design which doesn’t correspond to yours. One good definition is the synthesis of form and content. Without content there’s no form, and without form there’s no content.”
“A work of art is realized when content and form are indistinguishable.”
“When form predominates meaning is blunted, when content predominates, interests lag. The genius comes in when both of these things fuse.”
“Without the aesthetic means that it’s not done with love, or for some ulterior motive. Because it sells, because it’s popular, because it’s crazy - you know all this stuff.”
“Graphic design is one of those phrases that doesn’t mean anything. Because anything that is graphic is graphic. Painting or dancing if you see it, writing if you see it it’s graphic. The genre of art, of graphic design, of painting is art, that’s the genre it’s all art!”
“The vacabulary or the language of art or of aesthetics: order, variety, contrast, symmetry, tension, balance, scale, texture, space, shape, light, shade, and color. This is the language of form.”
“Don’t try to be original just try to be good. That sounds sort of naive but it’s true.”
“Without aesthetics you can’t find the truth, to do things with quality. I think in a big sense this is what aesthetics means.”
“Art is an idea that is never in it’s perfect form. There are too many possibilities. No matter how perfectly you do something it can still be improved.”
Very nice. Thanks for posting this, Ben.
I love the idea about trying to do good work, not original work. I showed the video to my students hoping this would sink in. I’m teaching an interactive design course and my students are always trying to come up with an “original” website layout, and every time, it’s not only, not original, it’s also not good.
Thanks for the post.
This is a great quote, and is really what sets apart great designers/artist from just graphic designers:
“A work of art is realized when content and form are indistinguishable.”
This is really what piques the interest of people who aren’t artists, when they seem something. They don’t realize why it is good, and we all know they are terrible about articulation. But, when they see the fusion of image and message, they know that it is a good piece.