Paul Rand was a stickler for the details that God is supposed to be in. As precise as he was in his own work, he was twice as precise in how others used his logos. His insistence on quality was best stated by Rand in an article in Print magazine in 1969: “Quality deals with the judicious weighing of relationships, with balance, contrast, harmony, juxtaposition, between formal and functional elements—their transformation and enrichment.”
He attempted to lay down his rules of the qualitative road in a booklet for IBM, Use of the Logo / Abuse of the Logo: The IBM Logo, Its Use in Company Identification (no, not “branding”). This is a companion to another booklet The IBM Logo. Here is an excerpt from the latter — Rand’s 1982 introduction. (Click the images for a full-size view.)
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For more iconic logo designs, check out Identify: Basic Principles of Identity Design in the Iconic Trademarks of Chermayeff & Geismar.