Maeda's SIMPLICITY

Paul Rand Commercial

A special nectarine pit sits on my mantle.

In my effort to remain focused on the iPod, I realize that I have no real restrictions (like finances linked to this blog) that prevent me from going astray a bit. So I may as well insert a kind of 'commercial' inbetween the main strand of thought. I figure if people can have companies sponsor their blogs, I can have voices from the past sponsor my blog. Heaven knows I'm in deep debt to a lot of people from my past.

On the web I've read various accounts of Paul Rand. Some of them are kind, some of them are not. Some people say he was an egotistical maniac, some say he was a humble fellow. If you are what other people say about you, then I think that can be a terrible existence. It's better to be alive and remembered for what you are as that is the only real truth in one's being.

In the opening to his last book From Lascaux to Brooklyn Rand summarizes a long life (he died at 82 years of age) in his dedication, "To my friends, and my enemies." Life is easily encapsulated in a nutshell when you consider this popular saying. If you stand for anything then you're bound to have both. Anyways, this particular book is special to me as I visited Rand at his studio when he was just finishing it. I was only going to visit with him briefly, but his assistant had not arrived that day and he was impatient. He told me, "You're going to have to work for me today."

I did the final set of mechanicals (essentially refinements in placement of photographs and type, tracing of illustrations, and so forth) for his book over the period of five hours. While I was working, he cut a nectarine in half and said in a gruff tone, "Here!" I said, "That's okay." He insisted, "HERE!" So I took it.

There were some issues I had with the layout, which upon my pointing these out to him he replied in a not-so-quiet-voice, "IF I SAY IT IS RIGHT, THEN IT IS RIGHT!" Needless to say, I left it the way he wanted it. I'd like to think it wasn't an issue of correctness of form, but more an issue of how he wanted to execute the form. It was his book after all and he certainly deserved that right to make it about him. To be bound to our own mistakes is the ultimate expression of freedom. Thus a person that dwells on mistakes is never truly free.

At the end of the day he said, "Don't think I'm going to pay you anything." I said, "No problem." And then he said, "You can put your name in my book as payment." I had begun my journey away from technology because of Rand and one of his books, thus this moment was quite special to me. My life had suddenly come full circle as I typed my name into his book. It was quite a magical feeling.

So was Paul Rand a grumpy, cantankerous, braggart? Sure. He was also a brilliant, caring, and humble man at the same time. If people were simple they wouldn't be that interesting; they are best when they are complex. Finally, I was most impressed with the affection Rand showed for his wife Marion. In his studio he would spontaneously hug Marion and express his admiration for her mind. And on the drive back from his talk to MIT, they held hands all the way back to Connecticut. With 82 years of making a name for himself, firmly rooting his school of thought, and to at the end love and be loved ... could anyone ask for more?

Design educator Julie Curtis in Massachusetts lends a nice personal story, "Rand was easy to dislike, and when young I quarreled with a classmate about the quality of some of his work, which I used to find overly...SIMPLE. Ironically, Rand has the last laugh: I now find myself turning to his work constantly to open students eyes and minds. Nothing he made was without a concept, however simple the means and appearance." Julie also adds, "You may know this, but there's a quote attributed to Rand that is something like: 'If you can't make it good, make it BIG. If you can't make it BIG, make it RED!' Someone added to this after Rand's death: 'If you can't make it red, make it MOVE!'"

Posted by maeda at March 23, 2005 09:19 AM