Lately I’ve been reading Steven Heller’s book “Paul Rand.” I did this sketch and included a quote from the book to try and explore what he was saying. The chair is one in our living room. It’ was my grandmother, and somewhere there is a picture of my great uncle Maurice holding me as a baby while he’s seated in this chair. I’ve lived with this chair for a long time.

The quote says: “I have no particular credo, except that I must insist on the social responsibility of the advertising artist. He can take the easiest way, the primrose path of popular bad taste; he can truckle (great word) to the lower instincts of the herd and for a while, at least he will secure material rewards. But, I do believe, that living and working with the canons of good taste (trust and honesty) he will receive spiritual rewards.” — Paul Rand.

I think I’m drawn to Rand because, in part, in the early days of his career he designed on a shoestring. So he improvised and made a lot of his design by hand, or by collage. I used to do this a lot when I recorded music. I didn’t (and still don’t) have a lot of high-end gear and very few instruments, so I had to make the noises in other ways. I had to make an acoustic guitar sound like a drum, or a steel guitar, or a chair sound like a train.
It occurs to me that the best design, even video design, starts in the analog form. Rand said you have to be very good at rendering in order to be a good graphic designer. The same thing applies to music. You have to be proficient at your instrument, or AN instrument, in order to make a good record.

This is starting to sound like an old rant.

The point is, in this process I’ve been doing a LOT of drawing lately. Basically every day, whether it’s journal drawing or recreating designs myself by hand. It’s helping me understand, from a visual perspective, how these great designs were conceived. My hope is that from this point I can better understand how to integrate hand-done artwork into moving picture designs. In addition to Rand’s work, I’ve also been studying the British Modern designers (designers between the wars).

I’m trying to understand better ways to compose a shot, develop an animation, or develop graphic designs.

Additionally, it’s my hope that by including hand-created elements in EVERY design we develop we’ll create a more unique signature for August Hour and our client. But more importantly, I think by integrating hand-created, analog art into our video, audio and graphic designs we are working with the canons of good taste.