Paul Rand

Paul Rand was an extremely influential graphic designer in the 20th century. He is known for bringing Swiss Style to American design along with creating memorable corporate logo designs. He was also a teacher for many years at Yale. 

"From 1937–1941, he worked in media promotion and book design; from 1941–1954, he focused more on advertising design; and from 1954 on, he began to concentrate on corporate identity programs, producing some of the most iconic logos and identity marks of the modern age including logos for IBM, Westinghouse, UPS, and ABC television."

A quote

“The sincere artist needs not only the moral support that his belief in his work as an aesthetic statement gives him, but also the support that an understanding of his general role in society can give him. It is this role that justifies his spending the client's money and his risking other people's jobs, and it entitles him to make mistakes. Both through his work and through the personal statement of his existence he adds something to the world: he gives it new ways of feeling and of thinking, he opens doors to new experience, he provides new alternatives as solutions to old problems.” Excerpted from his article “Advertisement: Ad Vivum or Ad Hominem?” 

http://library.rit.edu/gda/designer/paul-rand
http://www.paul-rand.com/foundation/biography/#.VA5HD0tsBBU