OmE April 13th

American Corporate Design, besides branding with promises identity systems became the means of making complex organizations seem like a single entity with distinct personas. Paul Rand understood the value of imented forms for both symbolic and communicative ends, through skillful analysis of the context. Lester Beal helps define the emerging corporate design movements of the 1950-60's. Branding was seen as a major way to shape a reputation for quality and reliability through "brand promise". Good designs is good business. Paul designed many identities that are still in use today.

Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar created the "early design office" with strong aesthetic background through educational diversity of the partners.  They went on to creating major post war identity in america. Vignelli Associates Designed the unigrid system for the united states national park services. They designed programs so rational and rigorously systematized that they became virtually foolproof as long as the standards were maintained. They also designed the NYC subway system.

Saul Bass had the NYC design stability and to LA film industry form motion pictures to design programs and famous corporate identities. Designers were no longer confined to static images and pioneers of motion graphics used timing and sequence. He created the first print and tv ad. for the movie Exodus. In the 1950's a revolution in editorial design occurred in part by design classes taught by Alexis Brodovitch.  Henry Wolf designed covers for Harpers Bazar and Esquire, the covers were made up of photos that caught everyones eye. Then conceptual strategies for typography was unified with photography by Boyle Done Bernbach. George Lois was thought to be be and advertising genius, with his conceptual power of images, his text and images became completely interdependent. Then in the 1970's Herb Lubalin designed the Ebony magazine. Photo-typography had a profound impact on the direction and the look of design influenced advertising as well as editorial design. The not until the 1960's did graphic design slowly become a national profession through the merging of the international style of typography and american corporate design with their large "image" factories.