“A
Second
and
34 Years”
Graphic
r e h c S a l Pau
Designe
r
1948
Born on October 6th
1970
Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Tyler School of Art. Started graphic design career as a record cover art director for Atlantic and CBS Records in New York City.
1984
Co-founded Koppel & Scher with fellow Tyler graduate Terry Koppel. This was a six year partnership creating book covers, several identities, posters, and many other works in graphic design.
1991 1992
Became a design educator at the School of Visual Arts. (still there today)
Became the first female partner at Pentagram. (still there today)
Today in the world of graphic design most everything is done digitally. This is a fairly recent development in the world of design. In the past, the process of setting type and adding image and all other aspects of design could only be done by hand. Now with the technology available to designers the art of using their hands has become somewhat superfluous. Technology has made it possible to work almost completely digitally. Most designers have embraced this new development in design. Paula Scher is not one of them.
Scher is unique as a designer because she works exclusively by hand. Part of this is due to the fact that she was learning graphic design on the cusp of hand drawn work and digital work. Scher started out by painting album covers, then she would add a layer of acetate over the art to hand draw the typography on. Scher enjoyed the process and craftsmanship of working with her hands. Scher believes that the computer takes away from the whole artistic side of design. When she completes work she leaves the digital process to other people on her team.
Cheap Trick 1977
John McLaughlin 1981
Dee Dee Bridgewater 1976
Dan Hartman 1978
Rolling Stones 1982
“The work needs to get out of your head and onto the table, and it needs to be done from the heart.�
Boston 1976
In her free time Scher hand paints elaborate large scale maps. For her, this is a way to keep her craft from the old school ways of graphic design.
“It took me a few seconds to draw it. But it took me
Clients often think they are paying for time, not the final product. They become unsettled when it takes only a few minutes to come up with something. Scher designed the Citi bank logo during the meeting on a napkin before the meeting was over. To her it seemed simple to merge the two companies together into one simple logo. It took her less than thirty minutes to come up with the idea. For her, some problems just solve themselves in a short amount of time.
34 years to learn how to draw it in a few seconds.�
Citibank logo sketch on napkin
Illustrate with type She struggled with one particular project in school, where they were asked to rub Helvetica font on to paper. Hers never came out the way they should and almost always looked wonky. Her professor told her to try and illustrate the type. This influenced her style and is something that has stuck with her throughout her career. Paula Scher has worked for a range of clients that includes, Bloomberg, Coca-Cola, Bausch + Lomb,Perry Ellis, the Museum of Modern Art, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Ballet, the New York Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, the New 42nd Street, the New York Botanical Garden, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Robin Hood Foundation, Microsoft Windows, and The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.
“Paula Scher Quotes - [sic]Quotes .” [sic]Quotes - Quotes about design, creativity and delight . N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2013. <http://sicquotes.com/people/paula-scher>. “AIGA | Paula Scher.” AIGA | the professional association for design. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2013. <http://www.aiga. org/medalist-paulascher/>. “PAULA SCHER: DESIGNING THE WORLD WE KNOW | Dirty Magazine.” Dirty Magazine | . N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2013. <http://dirty-mag.com/v2/?p=5208>. “Paula Scher - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Scher>. “Paula Scher | Profile on TED.com.” TED: Ideas worth spreading. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2013. <http://www.ted. com/speakers/paula_scher.html>. “Pentagram.” Pentagram. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2013. <http://www.pentagram.com/partners/#/19/>.
Designed by Oshun Quinn Printed and bound by Oshun Quinn, Portland, Maine. Composed in Helvetica, designed by Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann in 1957.