Name: Cummins Engine poster color variant
Brand: Paul Rand

Paul Rand: The Art of Design 13 September 2018

In 1961, after an introduction from Eliot Noyes, Paul Rand began consulting for the company. Principally, Cummins hired Rand to introduce an updated modern graphic identity. Unlike IBM, Rand was given the limited focus of the annual report to start, but saw his role broaden to develop the greater firm’s graphic identity as time passed. Rand would later go on to create a trademark for the Columbus Visitor’s Center and other materials for distribution that celebrated the urban revitalization of city. Rand's work with Cummins would continue until he died in 1996.

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Paul Rand

Paul Rand 1914–1996

Paul Rand was born Peretz Rosenbaum in Brooklyn in 1914 to Orthodox Jewish immigrants. His father owned a small grocery store, for which Rand often painted signage and advertisements. As a young man, Rand studied at Parsons School of Design and Pratt Institute but never finished a degree. He found the courses unstimulating, as many of the era’s arts programs were stuck in very classical methodologies. Independently, Rand studied early 20th century European modernism, which influenced much of his early designs. He drew influence from the Bauhaus, Constructivist, Cubist and de Stijl movements, as well as the art of Paul Klee, Alexander Calder and Joan Miró.

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