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Without knowing it, you’ve been exposed to Paul Rand’s designs your entire life. A true graphic legend, Rand (born Peretz Rosenbaum) is the mastermind behind well-known corporate logos for companies like ABC, IBM, and UPS.

Rand was born in Brooklyn (!!) in 1914 and studied at the Pratt Institute and the Art Students League. This self-taught designer gained international attention at a young age for his page designs, though corporate identities are what he is most remembered for. By age 23, Rand was in charge of designing the fashion pages over at Esquire! Rand is also one of the founders of the Swiss Style of graphic design (read about Swiss Style here). Starting in 1956, Rand taught at Yale University, and was inducted into the New York Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 1972. He continued to work right until late 1996, when he died of cancer.

Random Fact: Rand consciously decided to shorten his overtly Jewish name to the more friendly-sounding Paul Rand. Some say that the “Paul Rand” persona was the very first identity he ever came up with.

Though the UPS logo was recently redone, Rand’s original lasted 40 years. Personally, I think the new logo relies too heavily on current trends. It may fit in perfectly in the design landscape of 2009, but will it be as relevant in 2015? I’m skeptical. Here’s a comparison of the two versions:

Yes, Paul Rand’s logos are simple. But they’re also timeless. Rand himself said that a logo “cannot survive unless it is designed with the utmost simplicity and restraint.” The 1962 ABC logo is just a black circle with ‘abc.’ Pretty simple, right? But think about all that this logo has come to be associated with and what it represents. Anyone with a TV can look at those three letters and have their own ideas about what ABC means to them. “A logo does not sell (directly), it identifies,” said Rand. True dat, Rand. True dat.

Check out this cool video on Rand:

Being a life-long New Yorker, I should probably be ashamed of myself for not having known who Milton Glaser was before my Google search earlier today. Glaser (born 1929) is the designer of one of the most pervasive images in pop culture history: the ‘I Love NY’ logo. Oh, that guy! He designed the logo in 1977 for the New York State Department of Commerce and decades later, it’s still damn popular.

I mean, I got excited when I saw one of my posters displayed in Newhouse’s Food.com cafe last December. I can’t imagine what it would be like to walk down 42nd street and see your work at every corner silkscreened on t-shirts, bags, hats, even coffee mugs. In late 2001, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Glaser updated the ‘I Love NY’ logo to the one below. Note the location of the smudge on the heart: it’s ‘downtown,’ as in where the attacks took place.

But that’s not all, folks! Glaser designed an iconic poster of Bob Dylan for CBS Records, the logo that DC Comics used from ‘97 to ‘05, and the logo for Brooklyn Brewery (more hometown love from me for that one, Milton).

Glaser studied at Cooper Union, was a Fulbright Scholar (he spent time in Bologna at the Academy of Fine Arts). Only three years out of Cooper Union, he started a design firm called Push Pin Studios with some of his classmates. In 1968, the man co-founded ‘New York Magazine’ with Clay Felker. He finally opened up his own studio in 1974, and was even design director of ‘Village Voice’ for a few years. In 1983, he started WBMG, which focused on magazine and newspaper design, with Walter Bernard (former art director of ‘Time’). Together, they designed ‘The Washington Post,’ ‘Money,’ ‘The Nation,’ ‘Esquire,’ and many others. Basically, he’s awesome at everything.

I was reading a few interviews he did, and he talks about how difficult it is for someone to look at a piece of his work and definitely say, “That is a Milton Glaser” because he feels that sometimes the designer should be transparent for the sake of the project. Hey, I agree with ya! However, Glaser thinks that the one unifying thread in all his work is a foundation of illustration. He says he never uses a himself to design (!!!!!!!!!!!), but concedes that it’d be impossible to run a studio without someone using computers. He’s had shows in the Museum of Modern Art here in NYC, and at the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris; he’s won trillions of awards, including some from the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) and the Type Directors Club.

Check out this one Glaser print! I have an affinity for the quirky, and this definitely falls in that category. For a mere (HA!) $100 you, too, can own this poster, which was for Allan Heller’s furniture line of plastic, pasta-shaped pillows. (I feel like this room is missing something, but I don’t know what. Oh, of course! A fettucine-shaped loveseat!!).

A promise, Mr. Glaser: I will never again mistake you for “that board game guy.” My bad.

Happy 2009!

I celebrated at the annual Olivo Family New Years Extravaganza, and it was extra fun this year (though when your family members number in the MILLIONS, it’s hard not to have fun). The festivities also provided something new this year: enlightenment.

Let me set the scene: There I was, in my aunt’s kitchen in New Jersey, with a beer in one hand and a piece of Italian bread in the other (my own personal heaven…minus the Jersey part). I was talking to one of my older cousins, and–as has been happening more and more often lately–he asked about my post-graduation plans. Ugh. This brought about my usual response of a combination shrug-sheepish smile (hey, it’s cute in my head!).

Cousin: So, you’re learning all about design?
Me: Thaaaat’s the plan!
Cousin: Tell me about Milton Glaser.
Me (looking around frantically): Uhhhhh…….isn’t he the board game guy?!?

FAIL.

No, he’s not the board game guy. I then realized I know nothing about anything. Well, this isn’t exactly the enlightened moment I promised earlier. I already knew that I didn’t know anything. I guess it just took me getting design-slapped by business-major-cousin to really sink in.

So, here’s the plan. Every week, I’m going to do a profile on a designer/firm/SOMETHING design-related. Not only will I have to do the research myself, but I’ll have to rehash it somewhat competently here for you (my one reader…who isn’t even in the country right now!!). I’m starting, naturally, with Milton Glaser.

But I’ll start tomorrow…