Design History Book

to learn how to draw it in a few seconds.

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3

DESIGN YEARS

SCHER

PACKAGING

IDENTITY

S

ENVIRONMENTAL

GRAPHICS

P

DESIGN PAULA

PAULA

SCHER PUBLICATION

It took me a few seconds to draw it, but it took me

B

orn in 1948, Paula Scher grew up during a time of economic growth, traditional gender practices, and much political and social conservatism. Even though Scher aspired to pursue art school, her mother made her get a teaching license first as something to fall back on if art school didn’t work out. Paula’s mother disagreed with her going to art school in New York saying, “Don’t do anything like that, it sounds like it takes talent.” Scher challenged the traditional conventions and went on to earn a BFA from the Tyler School of Art and a Doctor of Fine Arts Honoris Causa from the Corcoran College of Art & Design.

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After art school, her first design experiences came at CBS Records and Atlantic Records, designing record album covers and ads using illustration. At these corporations she felt undermined and frustrated by the corporate bureaucracy. Because she was a lower level designer, her work had to be approved by several layers of bosses. By the time it was approved, it looked nothing like her original design.

In short, the corporate structure was depressing. She believed the purpose of graphic design was to help people see everyday objects in a more intelligent and creative way. Her drive to produce and implement groundbreaking design allowed her to impact the world through packaging design, identity design, publication design, and environmental graphics.

Paula Scher was able to create innovative packaging design once she co-founded the design firm Koppel & Scher in 1984. With her business partner Terry Koppel, their mission was to take their editorial and entertainment backgrounds and apply them to the design of promotional and packaging projects. Their main selling point would be their flexible, expressive typography.

To stimulate their business, they mailed out thousands of small promotional books entitled “Great Beginnings” to potential clients. The book featured the first two paragraphs of famous novels with each page styled to fit the period style the novel had been written in. This approach proved successful as they gained new clients for their firm. While this proved successful, I think it also gave some potential customers a limited view of what they could do.

Scher was approached by two Swedish entrepreneurs about designing packaging and identity for their chain of candy stores that they were planning to open in shopping malls along the East Coast. This company’s main focus was selling their environment and experience because they did not actually make the candy.

Scher suggested changing the original company name from Sweetwave to Öola. In the first mall they targeted, Scher chose the color palette and designed the interior and exterior signage, creating an unforgettable user experience that ultimately put the main competitor, Fanny Farmer, out of business.

Even though Öola ran into grave financial trouble, the project allowed Scher to understand the power of graphic design in the retail marketplace. It became obvious that good design played an important role in enticing the customer to buy the product. I appreciate the fact that Paula Scher did competitive analysis before designing the Öola brand. In my opinion, it is the most important thing to do before creating a brand. This project was a great experience for Scher because she only had to deal with two decision makers who trusted her as a designer.

While Koppel & Scher did produce other innovative designs, during the recession of 1990, Koppel left for a full time job and Scher looked for a change of pace.

Background: Öola Brand Packaging

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I especially like how the

DOMINATES

N

ise.

brands such as Nike or Coca Cola.

In fact, Scher’s identity design has become a

MODEL

FOR MODERN

NEW RE-BRANDING of classic YORK American CITY. brands.

THE

CITI LOGO

is probably the

logo Scher will ever design,

0

TYPOGRAPHY

the ads and gives the viewer a sense of

The advertising campaign proved very successful

SYNONYMOUS WITH

IMMEDIATELY IDENTIFIABLE

MOST

entity became

SINAGE,

REPRODUCED

as The Public Theater

LOGO DESIGN, CREDIT-CARD DESIGN, AND

for the merging of

IN

Integrated Corporate Design Strategy

19 96. Id

VISIBLE,

FOR

AND URBAN.

AWARD

After convincing companies to trust her

Scher achieved her goal of making the logo fit in with the

LOUD,

and a water tower ad.

.

The identity design won the coveted BEACON

TRAVELER’S

BOARDS,

subway posters, street paintings,

All of these advertising components were extremely

T also stood for

BILL

The show Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk was promoted throughout New York City in a series of

Traveler’s.

to inform the public about

THE PUBLIC THEATER

IN

NYC

DESIGN

into a new company.

Both companies assumed that the merger would be represented by two

IDENTITY

where she continues to work today.

Towards the beginning of her time at Pentagram, she was hired to do

Scher noticed that the lowercase t in the word Citi functioned as the handle of an umbrella.

LOGOS JOINED TOGETHER IN SOME OBVIOUS, EQUAL WAY.

recieved two great opportunities as an equal design partner at the design studio

LOGO CITIGROUP &

PENTAGRAM,

PAULA

SCHER

Another innovative design opportunity came when Pentagram was asked the design the

PENTAGRAM

offered Paula Scher the opportunity to gain experience in

REDESIGNING PUBLICATIONS.

PUBLICATION DESIGN THROUGH

CHARACTER

She liked the

challenge of creating a magazine with its own

STYLE

& POINT OF

VIEW Scher’s BIGGEST

that doesn’t try to imitate another publication.

CHALLENGE with

METROPOLIS, size in c ed u ELL” incorporated to make it easier for the reader to find the actual

which made the advertisers angry.

CONTENT OF THE

BYPASS ALL OF THE ADS

GR I

PAGES to be used for

THE

ADS

so that the reader would see them

if they were to flip through

BOOK.

to the magazine, which left all of the freedom to the art airector.

1

NO

SET

In an effort to please the advertisers, Scher allowed all the RIGHT-HAND

st

the feature well, there was

D

&

NEWSSTANDS. Besides

A“

so that it could be sold at

W E was also

TUR FEA

MAGAZINE

a design magazine, was

R

g the

In my opinion, this was perhaps the greatest move that Scher could have made, because even though there have been five different art directors, the magazine always looks like itself.

To ensure her continual growth as a designer, Scher began doing architectural collaborations and creating environmental graphics.

Scher was asked to do the exterior and interior signage for the New 42nd Street Studios in New York City. This was a new building that housed a small theater, The Duke, and nine floors of rehearsal space rented to developing Broadway shows and not-for-profit theaters. Scher realized that actors and actresses are accustomed to looking at the ground to take their stage positions. Also, New Yorkers often look down when they walk. With this knowledge, she started to utilize the floor as a basis for signage. This use of signage proved to be incredibly innovative and functional. I believe this was a smart way to naturally grab attention and guide the eye upward to read the signage.

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Another situation in which Scher used her expressive typographic treatment as environmental graphics was at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. The building had already been remodeled; however, something needed to be done at minimal cost to make the building look like an inspiring place to study the performing arts.

The building looked highly institutional.

By experimenting and rescaling the typography, Scher was able to utilize the nooks and crannies of the castlelike structure as a way to inform the public about what took place in the building while complementing the building architecture. This project is Scher’s favorite example of maximum impact with minimum means. It was achieved because there was a client willing to attempt something outside of the norm for a dramatic effect.

Background: New 42nd Street Studios Environmental Graphic

YOU CAN PUSH,

has forever influenced her design. That comment was “Illustrate with Type.”

Illustrative typography has become her trademark. Her identity design for Citibank and Tiffany & Co. have become guides for classic American brands looking to rebrand. Most importantly, it is truly inspirational to see a woman who was able to break out of the traditional societal norms and develop amazingly innovative solutions to various design problems.

INVENT, GROW. that you can

that’s how you

that you can

ABOUT,

FIND OUT WHAT

the next thing is that

fail with,

and that you can

with. that you can

ARROGANT

OOL

that you can be

ABOUT,

F

BE A

BECAUSE IN

BE

THE END,

IGNORANT

U

ltimately, Scher’s innovative approaches to packaging design, identity design, publishing design, and environmental graphics have allowed her to remain at the forefront of the graphic design industry for four decades. The many awards she’s been given include being named to the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 1998 and the prestigious Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design in 2000. Her designs are always iconic, smart, and very accessible.

It seems that early in her career while in the record industry, she looked to styles such as Constructivism, 50s design, and De Stijl for inspiration.

However, as she has progressed in her career, she has developed a style of her own. A comment made from a teacher from art school, Stanislaw Zagorski,

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ALLIE BOWES