?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
PAUL RAND (1914-1996) IBM. 1982. 35 3/4x23 3/4 inches, 91x60 1/2 cm. Condition A- / B+: minor abrasions at edges; scratches in image. Paper. Hand-signed and inscribed by the artist. Rand was first employed by IBM in 1956 to redesign the company's logo. He continued consulting for the company for more than thirty years, redesigning their logo at least twice more. In 1981, to announce the in-house IBM Golden Circle award, he designed a rebus version of the company's logo. It was initially shunned by IBM management who "thought that it would be an invitation to in-house designers to engage in tomfoolery. They also claimed it was not IBM and failed to recognize that in one fell swoop Rand had humanized the corporation" (Rand, p. 156). It took a year for the company to actually use the design in promotion, at which point they printed it as a poster, with small text at the bottom explaining the significance of each element of the rebus. It has become one of the most famous and recognizable corporate identity statements of the twentieth century. MOMA 520.1983, Modern Poster 211, Encyclopedie de l'Affiche p. 106, Modern American Poster 100.
