As part of our passive aggressive
effort here at Global Wahrman to educate youth, we feature today one
of the greatest American graphic designers, Paul Rand (1914-1996).
You have seen his work all your life.
In 1992, Paul Rand, resigned from the
faculty of Yale University as part of a protest against postmodernist
theory. Exactly what good his resignation could possibly accomplish
is a mystery to me, but no doubt it was a noble gesture. When he resigned, he wrote an essay,
"Chaos and Confusion: The Seduction of Comtemporary Graphic
Design". (See
http://www.paul-rand.com/foundation/thoughts_confusionChaos/#.UO0TS-Sw-Gk)
Complaining about postmodern criticism, which is truly worst case academic drivel, is like complaining that we live in a shallow society: of course we do. In the case of postmodern criticism we just have that manifestation of shallowness that comes from a self-entitled community of elitist shallow people in contrast to the other types. And this particular type of shallow people have the career imperative to publish, and furthermore to publish in journals that encourage that kind of shallowness. Its a positive feedback loop, some would argue, the arts criticism equivalent of the peacocks tail feathers leading to preferential selection by sex-crazed peahens leading to an even more flamboyant set of tail feathers in the next generation. One day it may disappear in a puff of smoke and itself become the topic of PhD thesis trying to explain the phenomenon.
Since we at Global Wahrman wish to
honor the noble and futile sacrifice of one's career in order to make
an ethical stand, here is a paragraph or two from this essay.
