There are very few print artifacts designed by Paul Rand that are still unknown, at least to scholars and collectors of Rand’s work. But here is one that I knew nothing about until stumbling across it in the drawer of a rare bookseller a few weeks ago. Created in 1960 for the AIGA 50 Books show, this cover revisits Rand’s sketchy renderings for Direction magazine, where he experimented with montage, collage, drawing and hand lettering. Direction informed many of his later book covers and jackets, and obviously this book theme is no exception.
