Kepes and Rand: Competing Models of Design at Mid-Century Open Access
Paltaratskaya, Veranika (Spring 2020)
Abstract
Georgy Kepes and Paul Rand were two massively influential designers at mid-century. Kepes who was a student of the Bauhaus, wrote Language of Vision, a book that would be used as the textbook for college graphic design classes. Rand wrote Thoughts on Design, and his work for major companies such as IBM, UPS, and Westinghouse would establish the major design trends of his lifetime. Kepes used Rand’s images to elaborate on the claims which he presented in Language of Vision even though, as I argue, Rand’s vision of design ran largely in opposition to Kepes’ own.
According to Kepes, art was, at its core, a sensory experience. If images could be made with human biology in mind, they could have the ability to transfer sensory content to anyone with a fully functioning perceptual apparatus. Understanding, on these terms, would be universal. It functioned in a dynamic equilibrium, a metabolic structure that comprised the essence of all things and could be understood by everyone. An artist could capture dynamic organization in an image and by doing so transfer his experiences to the spectator. The image would then be experienced by the viewer as an extension of their reality. The formal elements used to create the design would act without the constraints of natural representation, and contextual elements could be eliminated because the language of the image would be understood through the viewers biology.
Rand, on the other hand, stressed the contextual dimension of an image. Art was not an unconscious sensory experience as it was for Kepes, but a dialogue between the image, and spectator, within a particular historical and social setting. Instead of a single universal understanding, the literal meaning could change according to context even if the formal qualities remained the same.
Both of these men played an important role in shaping how artists approach their work. Kepes perpetuated art as a multidisciplinary practice of observation and creation. Rand in turn explored the complexity of image making that could communicate with an audience.
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Bibliography ……………………………………………………...………..37
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