Abstract the Art of Design

Season 1, Episode 6: Paula Scher, Graphic Designer

In the first sentence Paula quotes "I walk outside and see typography everywhere" she lives in New York describes the city as the good, bad and ugly of type, however even the bad designs can strike insparation she lives for typography "painting with words". She enjoys the big city atmosphere and wouldn't have it any other way as she collects inspiration for projects by just looking around.

Paula's has 40+ years of designing she is seen as the worlds best female typographer. She is currently a member of the Pentagram where there is no designer better than the rest, were they all share one big passion but have there own alternative style and way of working. She describes her style as "making type talk"

Here is a logo Paula designed for a theatre company 'The Public' were her inspiration came from dissected type, by playing with weight and hight she wanted to make all the letters different as she wanted to attract all different audience mediums. I recon this is a cleaver way of incorporating what the public want and need into a logo design.

Paula loves getting practical with designs and has a book published on different maps around the worlds big cities. The book 'Maps' took Paula years to paint as she wanted the designs to look as compact as they can, however realistically the maps are really simple to understand.. plot twist. Here is an example of a map Paula has painted

Paula wanted the readers of this book to have to sit and dissect the information, like a gigantic puzzle.

Paula's main influences came from contemporary artists, inspired by music record covers eventually became a designer of many. However Paula preferred designing for artists and bands with little profile as she had more freedom with designing. However the more successful she came the bigger the client, this is where Paula found her love for typography as she always had more freedom and control.

From watching and analysing this documentary on Paula Scher, I've realised how passionate she is within design and hates to be constraint. She only needed one big break to become successful, from this I have realised the more experiance you have the more people believe in the design message your trying to put forward.

For example when Paula designed the new logo for Citi, she knew this was the logo that was best for the brand however it took 2 years of convincing everyone else so.

Paula finishes the documentary with the message "I am always driven by the hope that my next piece will be my best". Just shows no matter who you are or how much experience you have you should never settle at anything less than the best.