All a b o Paul Sc ut h e r and her career
3 0 Influen
tio e-Na
Hyp
d BenguiE A man at, of letters
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tial Designers Steven Heller talks with David Senior about THE ELECTROLIBRARY
PAULA MIND OF
SCHER
“Words have meaning and type has spirit”
The beautiful
If ever there was a designer who deserved the term “rock star” it is likely to be Paula Scher. The American graphic designer started her career working with not one, but two of the world’s biggest record labels and at her peak produced some 150 album covers a year – including classics such as Boston’s eponymous 1976 debut album. Scher went on to be the first female principal at illustrious design agency Pentagram and almost single-handedly define the look of New York’s cultural scene in the 1990s and beyond. She has the rock star chutzpah too. When asked to consider a new design for Windows, arguably the world’s biggest brand, she immediately turned round to the client and said: “Your name is Windows. Why are you a flag?” Scher’s style evokes bold imagery and uses typography in an almost illustrative rather than print style and she continues to this day to push design boundaries and her own. Still at Pentagram, where her work continues to delight and surprise, she also works as an educator, writer and fine artist and has world including the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) Medal in 2001 to mark her distinguished career. Paula Scher was born in 1948 in Washington DC and went on to study at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, where she collected her Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts in 1970. From there she travelled to New York where she has made her name, as well as making her mark indelibly on her adopted home town. Her early career included a short stint at publishers Random House before moving to the advertising and promotions department of CBS Records where she spent two years. Her move to CBS’s big competitor Atlantic as an art director in 1974 enabled her to spread her creative wings throught the
Paula Scher
medium of album cover art, and earned her four Grammy nominations in the process. Scher spent five years between 1979 and 1984 working independently, during which time she worked extensively on alternate typographic vocabularies within her work, before joining former classmate Terry Koppel in founding Koppel & Scher. Her work there, including the iconic Swatch poster, re-affirmed her name and talent so that when Koppel dissolved their partnership in 1991, Paula Scher went on to become a partner at the New York office of Pentagram, the world’s biggest design partnership. Scher’s work has included corporate identity and branding for major Wall Street clients including Citibank, Coca Cola and Bausch
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http://www.aiga.org/ medalist-paulascher/
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Paula Scher
Theatre, with its graffiti-like style combined with elements of traditional woodcuts and Victoriana, became a watchword in theatre promotion due to its appeal to an urban population previously inured to the perceived pretentiousness of the arts scene. It also went on to pick up the coveted Beacon Award in 1996. She has also provided all the identity work and design for promotion for the Theatre’s long-running Shakespeare in Central Park series since the early 1990s. Scher has collected awards as diverse as the American Book Award for best book design, The School of Visual Arts Master Series Award, Print Magazine, the AIGA, the Type Directors Club, New York Art Directors Club and the Package Design Council. She holds honorary doctorates from Corcoran in Washington DC and the Maryland Institute and has taught at the School of Visual Arts, the Cooper Union, Yale and her own alma mater in Philadelphia. As well as her graphic design, Scher is internationally renowned for her map pieces which combine the geography of place with dense text detailing the preconceptions of people regarding the subject alongside common knowledge and place names etc. She has been exhibited around the world, with her work having a permanent place in collections in New York, Washington, Denver, Zürich, and Paris. Scher has served on AIGA’s national board and has been installed as a member of the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame.
5 Typography Rules. 1. Leading
Leading is the space between lines of text and is generally measured from baseline to baseline of each sentence. Leading is important when setting paragraphs because it influences the legibility of the text. If there is no leading then lines will feel cramped. If there is too much leading then the space will create disconnected lines. There are different ways to change leading depending on the program you use. The rule of thumb is to use a leading that is 2 pts above the font’s height. For example, if you are using a 10pt font then the leading should be 12pts. This can vary depending on the font – different fonts need different linespacing.
2. Tracking and kerning
Tracking and Kerning are similar in that they both refer to the adjustment of space between type. So, what’s the difference? Tracking is the adjustment of space between a GROUP of letters. Kerning is the adjustment of space between individual letters. Tracking should be adjusted so letters don’t run into each other during the printing stage. It also helps by improving the readability and density of text. Tracking Kerning is effective and improves the overall readability for headlines, ALL CAPS, and logos. Kerning can be helpful, but don’t get carried away. If a company’s name is meant to be one word, don’t make it look like two.
3. Serif vs san-serif fonts
Serifs are those dash-structures added at the end of letters and symbols. When it comes to lengthy books or magazines, using a serif type is the best. Serifs sit better on the baseline and help lead the reader’s eye to the next word. This makes reading more sustainable for longer periods of time. San-serifs are typefaces without serifs. San-serifs look simpler and are easier to read at lower-resolutions. Web designs often use san-serif fonts such as Verdana, Arial, etc. http://practicaltypography.com/typography-in-ten-minutes.html
4. Number of typefaces Pairing different type faces can make your layout dynamic, but using too many can be distracting. When too many fonts are used the viewer becomes unclear of what elements are important. The general rule is to use three or less fonts per project. For example, two fonts are used for the headline and body text. The fonts could then be bolded, italicized, and sized for subheadings, CAPTIONS, and other design elements. The longer the design document, the more fonts you can use. However, when it comes to brochures, ads, or any other short documents it is better to use one or two fonts.
5. Length of text lines When looking at a newspaper, you might notice the articles are divided into columns. Shorter lines of text help break up the articles so they are easier to read. The human eye naturally tires when it reads long lines of text. Although the exact character count is difficult to predict, the general rule is to have no more than 50-60 characters on each line. This is a standard number and should be altered depending on the design project. The same rule can apply to headlines. Although headlines are generally less than 50 characters, shortening the one-line sentence can be beneficial. For example, if you are working with the heading, “Hundreds of Design Opportunities at Your Fingertips,” you can make it easier to read by breaking it apart: Line Length Make sure to cut the sentence so it keeps a flow in the viewer’s reading. Also, don’t be scared to play with font siz so the lines match up.
The Beginning of Some of Ed Benguiats Fonts Ed Benguiat • ITC Barcelona
Ed Benguiat (born Ephram Edward Benguiat, October 27, 1927) is an American typographer. He has crafted over 600 typefaces including Tiffany, Bookman, Panache, Edwardian Script, and the self-titled typefaces Benguiat and Benguiat Gothic. He also designed logotypes for The New York Times, Playboy, Sports Illustrated, the original Planet of the Apes film, Super Fly and countless others. From TYPO: “He is also known for his designs or redesigns of the logotypes for Esquire, the New York Times, Coke, McCall’s, Ford, Reader’s Digest, Photography, Look, Sports Illustrated, The Star Ledger, The San Diego Tribune, AT&T, A&E, Estee Lauder, …the list goes on and on. You name it, he’s done it.” Benguiat grew up in Brooklyn, NY. He was once a very prominent jazz percussionist playing in several big bands with the likes of Stan Kenton and Woody Herman. In an interview Benguait stated this of his chosen career as a designer: “I’m really a musician, a jazz percussionist. One day I went to the musician’s union to pay dues and I saw all these old people who were playing bar mitzvahs and Greek weddings. It occurred to me that one day that’s going to be me, so I decided to become an illustrator.” Benguait is an avid pilot and enjoys flying his personal plane, with his wife Elisa. Benguiat teaches at the School of Visual Arts in his native New York.
• ITC Benguiat • ITC Benguiat Gothic • ITC Bookman • ITC Caslon No. 224 • ITC Century Handtooled • ITC Edwardian Script • ITC Modern No. 216 • ITC Panache • ITC Souvenir • ITC Tiffany
Collaborations:
• ITC Avant Garde (condensed styles only) • ITC Bauhaus (with Victor Caruso) • ITC Cheltenham Handtooled (with Tony Stan) • ITC Korinna (with Victor Caruso) • ITC Lubalin Graph (with Herb Lubalin)
Ed Benguiat Font Collection (House Industries)
• Ed Brush • Ed Gothic • Ed Interlock • Ed Roman • Ed Script • PL Benguiat Friskyw
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