Paul Rand Furniture
American, 1914-1996
Paul Rand (born Peretz Rosenbaum; August 15, 1914 – November 26, 1996) was an American art director and graphic designer. He was best known for his corporate logo designs, including the logos for IBM, UPS, Enron, Morningstar, Inc., Westinghouse, ABC, and NeXT. He was one of the first American commercial artists to embrace and practice the Swiss Style of graphic design. Rand was a professor emeritus of graphic design at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut where he taught from 1956 to 1969, and from 1974 to 1985. He was inducted into the New York Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 1972.
Though Rand was a recluse in his creative process, doing the vast majority of the design load despite having a large staff at varying points in his career, he was very interested in producing books of theory to illuminate his philosophies. László Moholy-Nagy may have incited Rand's zeal for knowledge when he asked his colleague, at their first meeting, if he read art criticism. Rand said no, prompting Moholy-Nagy to reply "Pity."Steven Heller elaborates on this meeting's impact, noting; "from that moment on, Rand devoured books by the leading philosophers on art, including Roger Fry, Alfred North Whitehead, and John Dewey."These theoreticians would have a lasting impression on Rand's work; in a 1995 interview with Michael Kroeger discussing, among other topics, the importance of Dewey's Art as Experience, Rand elaborates on Dewey's appeal:
[... Art as Experience] deals with everything — there is no subject he does not deal with. That is why it will take you one hundred years to read this book. Even today's philosophers talk about it[.] [E]very time you open this book you find good things. I mean the philosophers say this, not just me. You read this, then when you open this up next year, that you read something new.
Dewey is an important source for Rand's underlying sentiment in graphic design; on page one of Rand's groundbreaking Thoughts on Design, the author begins drawing lines from Dewey's philosophy to the need for "functional-aesthetic perfection" in modern art. Among the ideas Rand pushed in Thoughts on Design was the practice of creating graphic works capable of retaining recognizable quality even after being blurred or mutilated, a test Rand routinely performed on his corporate identities. From: Wikipediato
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Creator: Paul Rand
Vintage IBM "Think" Sign with Pad
By IBM, Paul Rand
Located in San Diego, CA
Rare and collectible vintage IBM "Think" sign and pad in the manner of Paul Rand’s corporate graphic design system for IBM, circa 1960s. A wonderful and bright nostalgic piece of co...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Paul Rand Furniture
Materials
Plastic, Paper
$675 / set
Vintage Like New IBM "Think" Sign
By IBM, Paul Rand
Located in San Diego, CA
Rare and collectible vintage IBM "Think" sign in the manner of Paul Rand’s corporate graphic design system for IBM, circa 1960s. A wonderful and bright nostalgic piece of corporate ...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Paul Rand Furniture
Materials
Plastic
Vintage IBM Small "Think" Notebook
By IBM, Paul Rand
Located in San Diego, CA
Rare and collectible vintage IBM "Think" pad in the manner of Paul Rand’s corporate graphic design system for IBM, circa 1960s. The pad is in very good unused condition and measures ...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Paul Rand Furniture
Materials
Plastic
Paul Rand IBM Packaging Collection
By Paul Rand
Located in Cincinnati, OH
A collection of packaging from the IBM corporation by iconic graphic artist Paul Rand , colorful and direct containing materials for IBM office machines . The collection includes pap...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Paul Rand Furniture
Materials
Paper
$340 / set
Vintage Like New IBM "Think" Sign in Irish / Gaelic "Smaoinigh" - Rare
By IBM, Paul Rand
Located in San Diego, CA
Rare and collectible vintage IBM "Think" sign in Irish / Gaelic "Smaoinigh" in the manner of Paul Rand’s corporate graphic design system for IBM, circa 1960s. A wonderful and brigh...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Paul Rand Furniture
Materials
Plastic
The Dada Painters and Poets
By Robert Motherwell, Paul Rand
Located in New York, NY
First edition of The Documents of Modern Art, Vol. 8, edited and with an introduction by Robert Motherwell. Cover and typography by Paul Rand. Published in 1951 by Wittenborn, Schultz Inc. With texts by Richard Huelsenbeck, Hugo Ball, Kurt Schwitters, Jacques Vache, Tristan Tzara, Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, George Hugnet, Andre Breton, Jean Arp, Paul Eluard, Louis Aragon, Gabrielle Buffet-Picabia, and Hans Richter. Illustrations by (or after) Jean Arp, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Raoul Hausmann, Paul Klee, Marcel Janco, Man Ray, Francis Picabia, Tristan Tzara, Kurt Schwitters, Kasimir Malevich, Pablo Picasso, Sophie Tauber...
Category
1950s American Modern Vintage Paul Rand Furniture
Materials
Paper
Vintage Like New IBM "Think" Sign in Finnish "Ajattele" - Rare
By IBM, Paul Rand
Located in San Diego, CA
Rare and collectible vintage IBM "Think" sign in Finnish "Ajattele" in the manner of Paul Rand’s corporate graphic design system for IBM, circa 1960s. A wonderful and bright nostalg...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Paul Rand Furniture
Materials
Plastic
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Think Big Giant Matches and Matchbox
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Previously Available Items
Vintage IBM "Think" Sign
By Paul Rand, IBM
Located in San Diego, CA
Rare and collectible vintage IBM "Think" sign in the manner of Paul Rand’s corporate graphic design system for IBM, circa 1960s. A wonderful and bright nostalgic piece of corporate ...
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Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Paul Rand Furniture
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Vintage IBM "Think" Sign in Greek
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Rare and collectible vintage IBM "Think" sign in Greek in the manner of Paul Rand’s corporate graphic design system for IBM, circa 1960s. A wonderful and bright nostalgic piece of c...
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Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Paul Rand Furniture
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Plastic
Vintage Like New IBM "Think" Sign in Norwegian "Tenk" - Rare
By Paul Rand, IBM
Located in San Diego, CA
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Vintage Like New IBM "Think" Sign in Turkish "Düşün" - Rare
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Rare and hard to find vintage IBM "Think" sign in the manner of Paul Rand’s corporate graphic design system for IBM, circa 1960s. A wonderful piece of corporate American history wit...
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Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Paul Rand Furniture
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Paul Rand: A Designer's Eye (Limited Edition)
By Paul Rand
Located in New York, NY
Limited edition, #363/1000, of J.P. Williams’s ode to his Yale mentor Paul Rand, chronicling Rand’s lifetime of collecting “something in nothing”— ephemeral examples of the beautiful...
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IBM 1401 Computer Models and Memorabilia
By Eliot Noyes, Paul Rand, IBM
Located in San Diego, CA
A collection of rare vintage IBM items from the estate of a former IBM employee. The two vintage computer models are made of a heavy plastic. The IBM 1401 Data Processing System transformed the world of computing and it became one of the most popular computers of all time. The 1401 computer was introduced in 1959 and weighed about five tons and had about 16 kilobytes of memory. The last 1401 was delivered in 1971. Elio Noyes, a longtime designer at IBM was involved with designing the casings and color system for the computer system.
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Sky Blue 729 tape unit model
1401 Flame Red processing unit model
The 1401 Reference Manual, designed by Paul Rand
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Paul Rand Cigar Box
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"El Producto" cigar box (for 50 cigars) designed by pre-eminent American graphic designer Paul Rand, produced c. 1950's. Rand did the corporate identity work for "El Producto" durin...
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Paul Rand furniture for sale on 1stDibs.
Paul Rand furniture are available for sale on 1stDibs. These distinctive items are frequently made of paper and are designed with extraordinary care. There are many options to choose from in our collection of Paul Rand furniture, although beige editions of this piece are particularly popular. If you’re looking for additional options, many customers also consider furniture by Saul Bass, Reynold Brown, and Keith Haring. Prices for Paul Rand furniture can differ depending upon size, time period and other attributes — on 1stDibs, these items begin at $2,500 and can go as high as $2,500, while a piece like these, on average, fetch $2,500.
Creators Similar to Paul Rand
Questions About Paul Rand Furniture
- 1stDibs ExpertJanuary 19, 2025Opinions may vary on what Paul Rand's most famous work is. However, the American artist is best known for his corporate logos. Over the course of his career, he designed iconic graphics for IBM, UPS, Enron, Morningstar, Inc., Westinghouse, ABC and NeXT, among others. Explore a variety of Paul Rand art on 1stDibs.