THE

Greats
Design
OF

Mid - Century
April 1st - July 31st 2014
El Paso Museum of Art

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Applied good taste is a mark of
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from of anarchy... ugly cities, ugly
advertising, ugly lives produce bad
citizens.
Lester Beall

THE

Greats
Design

OF

Mid - Century
April 1st - July 31st 2014

I want everything we do to be beautiful. I dont give a damn whether the

client understands that thats worth anything, or that the client thinks its
worth anything, or whether it is worth anything. Its worth it to me. Its the
way I want to live my life. I want to make beautiful things, even if nobody
cares.
Saul Bass
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

History

Lester Beall

6-7

Saul Bass

8-9

Paul Rand

10 - 11

Legacy

12

Conclusion

13

Notes/Bibliography

14

Colophon

15

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INTRO

HISTORY

raphic design has been around since the dawn of

modern art era. America didnt really believe it the modern

time. Our earliest recognition of design comes from

art they were more traditionalists. It wasnt until Tschicholds

the cavemen and the drawings they would put in the

Elementare Typographie was publicized in America that

caves that started it all. Since then design and in particular

designers call it a typographic revolution. With this publi-

graphic design has grown exponentially. The El Paso Art Mu-

cation, designers saw new light and were ideas of inspiration

seum has come up with a fantastic way in which to showcase

that influenced the Mid-Century. The impact of the European

graphic design through the centuries particularly the Design

migration to America as a result of WWI/WWII was one of the

of the Mid-Century Modernism. Mid-Century Modernism was

key components happening during this century that is import-

a big part of the graphic design movement. It helped push

ant to graphic design. With this brought new designers like

movements like the American Modern, the influence of the

George Salter (1897 1967) and Alexander Liberman (1912

European Immigrants, The New York School, and The new

1999). They help bring new ideas to America and more im-

American Advertising. The exhibition will explore some of the

portantly the Mid-Century Modern movement.

famous graphic designers that were part of the movement as

well as the history of Mid-Century Modernism, and its legacy.

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to this point are influenced by European art. Paul Rand, an

earliest recognition of design comes from the cavemen and

Before we talk about the history of Mid-Century Modernism,

the drawings they would put in the caves that started it all.

lets first set the background to what has already happened

Since then design and in particular graphic design has grown

in the graphic design world up to now. We had the nineteenth

exponentially. The El Paso Art Museum has come up with a

century, which was started with the industrial revolution when

fantastic way in which to showcase graphic design through

we see such movements like the Arts and Crafts Movement,

the centuries particularly the Design of the Mid-Century Mod-

and the Art Nouveau. Moving along to the Early Modern Twen-

ernism. Mid-Century Modernism was a big part of the graphic

tieth Century, we have movements like Expressionism. During

design movement. It helped push movements like the Amer-

Twentieth Century Modernism, we had important movements

ican Modern, the influence of the European Immigrants, The

exhibition will explore some of the famous graphic designers that were part of the movement as well as the history of
Mid-Century Modernism, and its legacy.

The next key movement during the Mid-Century was

the New York School movement. Most of the design ideas up

Graphic design has been around since the dawn of time. Our

New York School, and The new American Advertising. The

like Futurism and Art Deco which all are significant leading up
to the graphic design movements of the Mid-Century Modern.
One of the most important things that were going on during
the Mid-Century was World War I and II. With this came things
like the Great Depression. This is important to the designer
because it brought a move called the The American Mod-

extraordinary graphic designer, was one of the pioneers for

the New York School movement. This movement was all about
the importance of visual and symbolic contrast in the designs.
The idea was to blend and incorporate something ordinary
and make the design extraordinary. The New York School was
a new design of geometric types, symbols, shapes, forms,
and colors to make different designs like posters and magazines. Last but not least, another important movement during
the Mid-Century was the new American Advertising movement. Advertising needed something new to reach their clients; they used design to influence the way the client saw
the message. The designers where able use such things like
integrating words and phrases in free organization, and also
by using visual communication.

ern, the influence of European Immigrants. This is important

to understand because America at the time did not like the

4.

5.

LESTER BEALL
Lester Beall had a certain style to his design. He developed a
new vision or form that was influenced by European avant-garde. One of the people that influenced him was Fred Hauck;
he is the one that gave him the ideas and showed Beall the
Bauhaus design. Of course, he is part of the modern era in
particular the Mid-Century. Beall helped influence representation of art, typography and illustrations. Ultimately Beall was
able to put all of his ideas and influences together to come up
with his own graphic style.

esigner Lester Beall was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1903 and passed away in 1969. He attended the University of Chicago and also took classes

at the Art Institute of Chicago. Beall moved to New York to

start his graphic design career. From there, he moved to
Wilton, Connecticut. This is where some of his most famous
and most powerful designs came to mind. Beall worked for

many companies like the Chicago Tribune, Sterling Engrav4

ing, Time Magazine, just to name a few. Beall was part of The
Directors Club of New York. Some of Mr. Bealls most famous
work was a series of posters designed for the U.S Governments
Rural Electrification Administration basically aimed to increase the number of Americans who would use electricity
in their homes.

6.

7.

SAUL BASS

aul Bass a famous graphic designer, part of Mid-Cen-

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tury Modernism, Saul Bass was born on May 8, 1920,

The Bronx, New York City, NY, and died in April 25,

1996 in Los Angeles, CA. Bass was an American graphic

designer and Academy Award winning filmmaker, best known
for his design of motion picture title sequences, film posters,
and corporate logos. Bass went part-time to the Art Students
League in Manhattan, and then moved on to Gyorgy Kepes at
Brooklyn College.

Saul Basss work consists of poster and title sequences for such filmmakers as Alfred Hitchcock and John Whitney. Bass also
came up with a new type of kinetic typography called Vertigo. What made Bass most famous was his innovative, and revolutionary work like The Man with the Golden Arm in 1955 and Psycho. He also created the most iconic corporate logos in North
America including the original AT&T bell logo in 1969, and then later the globe logo in 1983. He also created the logo for
Continental Airlines in 1968 and United Airlines in 1974.

8.

9.

PAUL RAND

aul Rand, another influential graphic designer during the Mid-Century Modernism. Paul Rand was born August 15,
1914, in Brooklyn, NY and later passed away on November 26, 1996, in Norwalk, CT. Rand went to the school of Pratt
Institute, Parsons The New School for Design, and Art Students League of New York. He is best known for his corporate

logo designs like ABC, UPS, and IBM. His first job was a part-time position for a syndicate that supplied graphics to various
newspapers and magazines.

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Paul Rand was one of the originators of the Swiss Style of Graphic Design. Rand was inducted into the New York
Art Directors Club Hall of Fame. Rand was most influenced by Paul Cezanne to Jan Tschichold in their ideology and
application in graphic design. Paul Rand has a huge influence in the Mid-Century sensual visual contrasts marked in his works.
Rand took many risks by exploring unproven ideas. Rand wanted to engage the audience with his typography mixed with
different shapes and colors.

10.

11.
10.

LEGACY

he legacy of the Mid-Century had to do a big part with

its graphic designer like Paul Rand, Saul Bass, and
Lester Beall. I think one of the biggest contributions to

the movement was the fact that the machines and technology
were getting better and the need for new ideas and designs
was needed to help revolutionize the industries at hand. As

CONCLUSION

n conclusion I first want to thank you for coming to the

exhibition here at the El Paso Museum of Art. The Greats
of Design Mid-Century. Whether you are a student or

artist inquiring for inspiration or just a person who loves art,

we hope you enjoy the exhibit and the history it has helped to
create/shape for the entire graphic design world.

it says above with the enormous impact of European immigration, Americans appropriated their ideas and philosophies
design and art, which in turn opened the doors for American

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designers to come up with there own unique designs. Graphic design was not the only thing that was influenced during
the Mid-Century but all new different types of designs were
being built such as architecture, interior design, and many
other types of design were all influenced by the Mid-Century.
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As I look around, I still see many designs in magazines and

advertisements that resemble the works of some of the great
designers of the Mid-Century.

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COLOPHON

NOTES/BIBILOGRAPHY
0 . Lester Beall, Will there be war? c. 1939.
1. Paul Rand, American Braodcasting Company trademark, c. 1965.
2. Paul Rand, IBM Trademark, 1956.
3. Joe Rosenthal, Rasing the Flag on Iwo Jima c. 1945.

Remington, R. Roger, and Lisa Bodenstedt. American Modernism:

graphic design, 1920 to 1960. New Haven, CT: Yale University
Press, 2003.
Meggs, Philip B., and Alston W. Purvis.Meggs history of graphic
design. 5th ed. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2012.

4. Portrait of Lester Beall, year unknown.

Lester Beall Bio. Art 4561 Research Blog. http://art4561blog.

wordpress.com/lester-beall-bio-2/ (accessed March 15, 2014).

5. Lester Beall, poster for the Rual

Electrification Administration, c. 1937.

Wikimedia Foundation. Saul Bass. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Bass (accessed March 15, 2014).

6. Lester Beall, poster for the Rual

Electrification Administration, 3rd series, c. 1941.

Saul Bass Art of the Title. Art of the Title RSS. http://www.
artofthetitle.com/designer/saul-bass/ (accessed March 15, 2014).

7. Portrait of Saul Bass by Harry Verstappen. yeat unkown

Paul-Rand.com. Biography. http://www.paul-rand.com/founda-

8. Saul Bass, Bell Telephone logo, 1969.

9. Saul Bass, Psycho movie poster, 1960.
10. Saul Bass, film titles for The Man With the Golden Arm, 1955.
11. Portrait of Paul Rand, year unknown.
12. Paul Rand, United Parcel Service (UPS), 1961.
13. Paul Rand, Eye Bee M poster, 1981.
14. Paul Rand, Westinghouse Logo, 1956.
15. Paul Rand, cover of a American Indian Theme, 1939.

tion/biography/#.UyY_Kq1dW5g (accessed March 15, 2014).

1/100 Copies
100 copies of The Greats in Design
Printed on Epson Matte Paper.
Size 8x8
Spread 8x16
The typography and design where thought out by
Aaron Rye.
The typefaces consist of Helvetica,
Futura, and Gill Sans with 9 pts. / 16pts. Leading.
This Catalog was printed at Office Depot in 2014.
Aaron Rye would like to thank the University of
Texas at El Paso, and the El Paso Museum of Art
for their continued contributions to the Graphic
Design world.
All rights reseverd 2014

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