“You can be a great manipulator of form, but if the solution is not apt, it’s
for the birds.”
The surprising juxtaposition of visual elements and universal
symbols was born of necessity. Messages had to be conveyed quickly and
efficiently. Since there was no budget for materials he often used
handwriting instead of type for many of the covers. He even pieced
together the stenciled masthead (a precursor of the stenciled IBM logo,
perhaps) from letters in type catalogs. His images were often assembled
from various elements. “Collages don’t imitate reality,” he stated. “The
machine aesthetic dictated that you don’t do things by hand anymore.”
Nevertheless, the Directioncovers did not slavishly conform to such modern
principles, and hand drawing was used on occasion.
Rand was the first to confess that these breakthrough covers were
not entirely unique. “I never claimed that this was great original stuff,” he
confided. “Other guys in Europe were doing this kind of thing.” But even
though he admitted to paying homage both to Picasso and the surrealist art
magazines Ve r v eand Minotaur, Rand created a unique visual vocabulary—
and a collection of memorable magazine covers—that was unlike anything
being done in the United States at that time, or for a long time after.
tuis.
(Tuis.)
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