Paul Rand Collectibles and Curiosities
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 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 Collectibles and Curiosities
Materials
Plastic
Vintage IBM Small "Think" Notebook
By Paul Rand, IBM
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 Collectibles and Curiosities
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 Collectibles and Curiosities
Materials
Paper
$340 / set
Vintage Like New IBM "Think" Sign in Irish / Gaelic "Smaoinigh" - Rare
By Paul Rand, IBM
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 Collectibles and Curiosities
Materials
Plastic
Vintage Like New IBM "Think" Sign in Finnish "Ajattele" - Rare
By Paul Rand, IBM
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 Collectibles and Curiosities
Materials
Plastic
Vintage IBM "Think" Sign in Greek
By Paul Rand, IBM
Located in San Diego, CA
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...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Paul Rand Collectibles and Curiosities
Materials
Plastic
Vintage Like New IBM "Think" Sign in Turkish "Düşün" - Rare
By Paul Rand, IBM
Located in San Diego, CA
Rare and collectible vintage IBM "Think" sign in Turkish "Düşün" in the manner of Paul Rand’s corporate graphic design system for IBM, circa 1960s. A wonderful and bright nostalgic ...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Paul Rand Collectibles and Curiosities
Materials
Plastic
Vintage Like New IBM "Think" Sign in Norwegian "Tenk" - Rare
By Paul Rand, IBM
Located in San Diego, CA
Rare and collectible vintage IBM "Think" sign in Norwegian "Tenk" in the manner of Paul Rand’s corporate graphic design system for IBM, circa 1960s. A wonderful and bright nostalgic...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Paul Rand Collectibles and Curiosities
Materials
Plastic
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Located in Belfast, Northern Ireland
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Title:
Large Vintage Cartier Jewelry Elephant Silk Scarf with Irish Linen Cushion Pillow
Description:
Large custom made one-of-a-kind luxury cushion (pillow) created from an exquisite rare vintage pure silk Cartier fashion scarf in a striking print named ‘La Route des Indes’, translating to English as ‘The India Road’. It illustrates exotic elephants in procession adorned with fabulous opulent jewels. They spiral around the square frame one behind the other whimsically ascending in scale. The most magnificent of all leading at the front in a statuesque pose and elaborate decoration. Their eyes are pave set with previous stones of emerald and amethyst and the gold elephants continue along the boarder as well.
Cartier is a luxury Parisian empire which originated in 1847 with Louis-François Cartier and is recognised all around the world for their high end creations. The lavishly bejewelled exotic oriental creatures appear to be a reference to the brand’s signature necklaces, bracelets and earrings; ‘Tanjore’, and ‘Djigar’ necklaces, “Rajastan’ bracelet and ‘Gupta’ brooch. This particular peachy coral pink with jade green accents and a glorious subtle sheen is one of the most spectacular examples we have come across.
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On a sumptuous silk soft to the touch.
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Small Library of Ten Volumes of Vintage Fishing Books Largely First Editions
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Salvador Dali Rare Hand Signed Midcentury Book A Study Of His Art In Jewels 1959
By Salvador Dalí
Located in Studio City, CA
A quite scarce and coveted hardcover book in slipcase - "Dali: A Study of His Art-In-Jewels (The Collection of the Owen Cheatham Foundation)".
Bound into the book are color photographs of 28 jewels designed by Dali with comments and captions written by the artist himself. The book was published by The New York Graphics Society in 1959 - a quite collectible first edition/first printing (with no other printings noted) of the art book.
The book is boldly hand-signed and dated (in the year of publication - 1959) by Dali on the lower corner of the first blank page/ front free endpaper. As such, exceedingly rare (we only know of two other existing copies, and only one was also signed in the year the book was published).
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Previously Available Items
Paul Rand: A Designer
s Eye (Limited Edition)
By Paul Rand
Located in New York, NY
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Vintage IBM "Think" Sign
By Paul Rand, IBM
Located in San Diego, CA
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 Collectibles and Curiosities
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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 ...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Paul Rand Collectibles and Curiosities
Materials
Plastic
Vintage IBM "Think" Sign
By Paul Rand, IBM
Located in San Diego, CA
Collectible vintage IBM "Think" sign in the manner of Paul Rand’s corporate graphic design system for IBM, circa 1960s. A wonderful and bright shelf nostalgic piece of corporate Ame...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Paul Rand Collectibles and Curiosities
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Plastic
IBM 1401 Computer Models and Memorabilia
By Eliot Noyes, IBM, Paul Rand
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.
This collection includes:
Sky Blue 729 tape unit model
1401 Flame Red processing unit model
The 1401 Reference Manual, designed by Paul Rand
Two IBM Think...
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The Stork Club Bar Book
By Paul Rand
Located in New York, NY
First edition, first printing of this classic Madmen-era mixology tome from one of New York's storied nightclubs. 136 pages, 8vo hardcover with price-clipped dust jacket. Cover and t...
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Paul Rand Cigar Box
By Paul Rand
Located in New York, NY
"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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1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Paul Rand Collectibles and Curiosities
Paul Rand collectibles and curiosities for sale on 1stDibs.
Paul Rand collectibles and curiosities are available for sale on 1stDibs.
Creators Similar to Paul Rand
Questions About Paul Rand Collectibles and Curiosities
- 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.









