Things I learned from Paul Rand: 4 – The Red Thread
Aside from being an amazing artist, Paul was also a wonderful storyteller. Being who he was, a lot of the stories were naturally related to art and design. Here is one of the many that stuck with me:
A Story About a Tailor
I heard Paul tell this story a few times. It’s about the time he brought his gray pants into a tailor to get hemmed. (Knowing Paul, it was probably not just any pants, but probably a nice pair of suit pants with a brand name. Everything he dealt with, he wanted them to be aesthetically pleasing to him, which meant the highest level of design and quality.)
Few days passed and he went to pick up his clothes. But to his dismay, he found out the tailor used a red thread to hem his gray pants.
He asked, “A red thread? Why in the world did you use a red thread?”
To which, the tailor replied, “Red thread, gray thread, what’s the difference?”
Then Paul shrugged while staring me in the eye, and after a pause asked rhetorically, “What do you do?”
What is your red thread?
My observation is that Paul’s life was constantly full of disappointments and annoyance. I heard him complaining about something or someone not nearly meeting his expectation of visual standards (including the work done on his house/property) all the time.
But especially for those who are designers themselves, I’m guessing most of us have our own “red thread” — something that is very difficult to accept, or something that is incredibly disappointing or annoying that could easily be done better. What is your “red thread?”