Sparkle And Spin
Tuesday, March 25th, 2008
I found this 1993 video of Steve Jobs being interviewed about Paul Rand over on Paul Robinson’s site. It means so much to me when I see/read/hear someone that I admire admiring someone else that I admire.
Towards the end of the interview, Jobs is asked what his favorite Paul Rand work is. His answer is also my favorite – an offshoot of his famous IBM logo. It combines the wit and playfulness of his children’s illustrations with the discipline and craftsmanship of his corporate logos. Rand’s personality shines in this image:
Here are some of the children’s illustrations that I lifted from this post. “Sparkle and Spin” is the title of one of the children’s books he created with his wife, Ann.
And some of the corporate logos we all know too well…
There’s an article on Design Observer with a funny story about how the Enron logo got its green after Paul Rand’s death in 1997. The middle prong of the E was originally yellow. The article describes all the fanfare and celebration that surrounded the unveiling of Enron’s new corporate identity but…
Within hours, the world would laugh it off the stage. Houston faxed the logo to Enron’s offices in Europe. But in transmission the middle, yellow prong disappeared, leaving the new design meant to celebrate Enron’s triumphant ascension looking more like an electric plug. Worse, to the Italians it resembled an obscene hand gesture, one that meant about the same thing as shooting a middle finger at an American. The European executives roared with laughter: now they had a new way to win Italian customers.
Back in Houston, dismay grew: the yellow prong also vanished when run through the copying machine. Somehow, Enron had spent millions of dollars on a new business logo without bothering to check if it worked in business. Soon the hallway signs went down, the new cards and letterheads were shredded. With no fanfare, another logo was introduced, replacing the yellow prong with a green one.
The symbol meant to carry Enron into the next millennium hadn’t lasted a week.
I would love to hear Rand’s comments on this teeny graphic design mishap.
One last treat. The design company, Imaginary Forces, did a great job animating Paul Rand’s work. The animations are inter-cut with clips of Paul Rand speaking about design. They’ve really captured his spirit with these animations.