Classic Identity Design by Paul Rand

International Business Machines

Westinghouse

Hub TV

The American Broadcasting Company

Harcourt Brace 

Gentry

UPS

Ford (not used)

Enron

NeXT

24

Computer Impressions

Yale

USSB

The Limited

SKF Large

Servador

PDR

Monell 

John David

Mossberg

IITRI

IBM XGA

IDEO

First English

Creative Media Center

Dunhill

Color Forms

Columbus Visitors Center

Esquire

The deceased but recognized Paul Rand was an American graphic designer who contributed to much of the great brand identity work that we see today, with some of his most notable being IBM, UPS, Enron, and ABC.  I could bore you with minutia from his life and things that he liked to eat for breakfast in the mornings but it would only be a disservice to him and his career work if I did that without focusing on his splendid logo design.

Corporate identity design is serious business, as I'm sure most of you already know.  I feel that with the frequent updating and modifying of logos from established brands today like Starbucks and Pepsi, the original design work is almost lost--discredited over the years as other people change the kerning of the letters or take text out from the logo, building on top of the original identity design.  Everything has to start from something, and as far as Paul Rand's logo designing goes, he helped to create not only clear, appealing logos that have stood the test of time, but he helped in creating these brands as we know them to be today by associating a company's whole perception into one visual piece.

I'd have to say that some of my favorites would be his logos for Westinghouse, Yale, and the could have been Ford logo.

-LINKS-
Paul-Rand.com
Wikipedia
Pictures via Gutowsky's Flickr