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Four days ago I wrote "Lately I've been obsessing over Paul Rand's book jacket designs" and "I've set my mind to trying to gather up a small collection of his early graphic design." Today I have made my first bit of progress towards that goal.
My musings were in regards to a video I saw on the internet about Rand's book cover designs. The author of the video, Steven Heller, shows a number of Rand's designs ... including this particular cover, of which he notes an example recently sold for a considerable sum of money in an internet auction. Of course that one probably had the dust jacket and was likely much less beat up than the one I found today. All that aside, I am still thrilled with the find.
The three color design on the front cover of the book is quite indicative of Rand's work of this era. Large simple color fields come together to make up an image highly influenced by surrealist and modernist artists of the time. The inside, however, nods towards his future designs as well. All the section titles are in the designer's scrawling hand writing, a visual device he would continue to use through the next 40 years of his career.
Found on January 26, 2008 in Farmer City, IL.
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