PAULA
SCHER
moved to New York City and took her first job as a layout artist for Random House’s children’s book division. In 1972, she was hired by CBS Records to the advertising and promotions department. After two years, she left CBS Records to pursue a more creative endeavor at a competing label, Atlantic Records, where she became the art director, designing her first album covers. A year later Scher returned to CBS as an art director for the cover department. During her eight years at CBS Records, she is credited with designing as many as 150 album covers a year. Some of those iconic album cover designs are Boston (Boston), Eric Gale (Ginseng Woman), Leonard Bernstein (Poulenc Stranvinsky), Bob James (H), Bob James and Earl Klugh (One on One), Roger Dean and David Howells (The Ultimate Album Cover Album) and Jean-Pierre Rampal and Lily Laskin (Sakura: Japanese Melodies for Flute and Harp). In addition her designs were recognized with four Grammy
1
The Best Of Paula Scher
DECEMBER 2013
BESTOFPAULASCHER.com
1
nominations. She is also credited with reviving historical typefaces and design styles. In 1992, she became a design educator, teaching at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York. She is a select member of Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI) and her work is included in the collections of New York MoMA, the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, the Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich and the Centre Georges Pompidou”. As an artist she is known for her large-scale paintings of maps, covered with dense hand-painted labeling and information.
Koppel & Scher
Oola Candy Store, 1986 Swedish entrepeneurs approached Scher about designing an identity and some packaging for a chain of candy stores that were planning to open in shopping malls on the East Coast.
in 1984 she and her business partner, Terry Koppel, founded Koppel & Scher design and advertising firm. During that time they authored a typographical inspired book called Great Beginnings which demonstrated how to use type in an emotive and energetic way using the copy from well-known novels. Their most recognizable work came from Swatch, especially Herbert Matter’s photo-montage poster for Swiss tourism. The original poster was done by Swiss designer Herbert Matter. His use of photography was both original and creative in the 1950’s. The Swiss, being a design-savy culture, hailed Matter’s unique style of design and his popularity prompted Switzerland’s department of tourism to commission him to create posters for use as promotional material at their offices.
Swiss Tourism Poster, 1934 Herbert Matter (Bottom Left) Swatch, 1984 Koppel & Scher (Bottom Right)
2
THE
LOGOS
How can a multi-billion dollar organization base their identity off of a second? Answer: “it’s a second done in 34 years” says Paula Scher for her napkin sketch of the Citi logo. The questioning came when Paula Scher first introduced her initial sketch of the Citi logo on a napkin during a client meeting. At the time, Citigroup had just changed their name to Citi, signifying the union with insurance giant Travelers, the largest merger at the time. Met with resistance to the new logo and identity design, Pentagram proposed multiple illustrations depicting the change from Citigroup and Travelers to the red arched Citi logo over a 14 year period. Through all the opposition, Citi’s consumer banking operations and cards divisions welcomed the new identity with enthusiasm. With their support, the new logo and identity implementations were underway.
3
The Best Of Paula Scher
DECEMBER 2013
As Microsoft prepare for the launch of Windows 8, the new version of its operating system, it has announced a bold new identity that takes the iconic Windows logo back to its roots—as a window. Designed by Pentagram’s Paula Scher, the logo re-imagines the familiar four-color symbol as a modern geometric shape that introduces a new perspective The answer is the brand started as a window, but over the years, as computing systems grew more powerful and graphics more complex, evolved into a flag. Scher made the assumption that the waving flag was probably a result of typical industry comments that a plain window looked too static, and that straight lines were too severe.
BESTOFPAULASCHER.com
FAMOUS SCHER LOGOS INCLUDE: • Windows 8 (Top right) • CitiBank (Top Left) • Tiffany & Co. (Bottom) • Microsoft Office 2010 • NYC Ballet • The PUBLIC THEATER NYC • Weightwatchers • Bausch + Lomb • Metropolitan Museuem of Art
“Identities are the beginning of everything. They are how something is recognized and understood. What could be better than that?�
THE
MAPS
In the early 1990s, celebrated graphic designer Paula Scher began painting maps of the world as she sees it. The larger her canvases grew, the more expressionistic her geographical visions became. Displaying a powerful command of image and type, Scher brilliantly transformed the surface area of our world. Paintings as tall as twelve feet depict continents, countries, and cities swirling in torrents of information and undulating with colorful layers of hand-painted boundary lines, place-names, and provocative cultural commentary.
5
The Best Of Paula Scher
DECEMBER 2013
BESTOFPAULASCHER.com
Scher used to do her branding and design work by day, relegating her painting— representations of maps that are packed with little words and phrases related to the location—to a hobby. But then, at the Queens Metropolitan Campus, she was able to marry the two, blowing up a map she had made of the five boroughs to a larger-thanlife size and zooming in on the students' home borough.
A principal at design consultancy Pentagram, Scher has a miles-long resume with one project, in particular, that we love: her 2010 work on the atrium of the Queens Metropolitan Campus in Forest Hills, a space shared by two schools. In it, she plastered one of her detailed, signature typographical maps all over the walls, giving students a sense of place via unconventional means.
It took me a few seconds to draw it, but it took me 34 years to learNing how to draw it in a few seconds. -PAULA SCHER