Paula Scher
Encyclopedia
Paula Scher, born October 6, 1948, in Washington, DC., is an American graphic designer, illustrator, painter and art educator in design, and the first female principal at Pentagram
, which she joined in 1991. She is the 16th recipient of the School of Visual Art's Masters Series Award and an exhibition of Scher’s work at Visual Arts Museum & School of Visual Arts
that ties in with her book, Make it Bigger.
, Elkins,Pennsylvania and earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts
in 1970.
She was awarded a Doctor of Fine Arts Honoris Causa by the Corcoran College of Art and Design
in Washington D.C. in 2001, the Maryland Institute College of Art
in Baltimore
in 2008, and Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia in 2011.
(Note: No reference/citation)
. After a year later, she left CBS Record to pursue a more creative endeavor at competing label Atlantic Record which she became an art director and where she designed her first album covers. A year later, Scher returned to CBS as an art director of the cover department. During her eight years working at CBS Records, she is credited with designing as many as 150 album cover a year. The 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 she received recognition for her designs including four Grammy nominations and reviving historical typefaces and design styles.
She left CBS to work on her own and in 1984 she co-founded Koppel & Scher with editorial designer and fellow Tyler graduate Terry Koppel. During the six years of their business, she produced identities, packaging, book jackets, and even advertising, including the famous Swatch poster based on previous work by Swiss designer Herbert Matter.
In 1991, after the studio suffered from the recession and Koppel took a position at Esquire magazine and Scher began consulting and joined Pentagram
as a partner in the New York office. Since then, she has been a principal at the New York office of the Pentagram design consultancy
.
In 1992, she became a design educator, teaching at School of Visual Arts
(SVA) in New York. She had received more than "300 awards from international design associations as well as a series of prizes from American Institute of Graphic Design (AIGA), The Type Directors Club (NY), New York Art Directors Club and the Package Design Council. She is a select member of Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI) and her work is included in the collections New York MoMA, the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, the Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich and the Centre George Pompidou".
Scher has developed identity and branding systems, promotional materials, environmental graphics, packaging and publication designs for a broad range of clients that includes, among others, Citibank
, Bloomberg L.P.
, Bausch & Lomb
, Coca-Cola
, Time
, Tiffany & Co.
, Perry Ellis
, The Public Theater, 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
, TheStreet.com
and The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. She is a frequent design contributor to The New York Times
, GQ and other publications. She has served on the board of The Public Theater and in 2006 was named to the Design Commission of the City of New York.
During the course of her career Scher has been the recipient of hundreds of industry honors and awards. Scher has been inducted into the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame (1998), received the Chrysler Design Award
for Innovation in Design (2000), the AIGA Medal from the American Institute of Graphic Arts
(2001), and the Type Directors Club
Medal (2006). In 1996 Scher’s identity for The Public Theater won the Beacon Award for integrated corporate design strategy. Her works are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art
; the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
; the Library of Congress; the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich; the Denver Art Museum; and the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.. Her album designs have earned her four Grammy Award
nominations.
As an artist she is known for her large-scale paintings of map
s, covered with dense hand-painted labeling and information. She has taught at the School of Visual Arts
in New York for over two decades, along with positions at the Cooper Union
, Yale University and the Tyler School of Art.
Print
Paula Scher has contributed to numerous issues of Print. Her first Print cover was with her friend Steven Heller and created the parody issue in 1985, which was a genealogy chart of graphic design.
. In the design, there are words running along the walls; tubes and balconies reflecting with vast letters that gives a joyfully effect to represent the shows performance in the building.
For instance, The United States (1999) was painted in blocky white print and full with list of facts that comprehend when we think about cities. Africa (2003) represented in a stark black and white palette, hinting at a tortured colonial past. The land of the red rising sun represented when we think of Japan (2004).
This was Scher's first solo exhibition as a fine artist and sold every pieces between $40,000 to $135,000. The Maya Stendhal's owner decided to extend the exhibition for four weeks, until January 21. Therefore Scher decided to produce a silk-screened prints of "The World" that contained large-scale images of cities, states, and continents blanketed with place names and other information. It's full with mistakes and misspelling and visual allusions to stereotypes of places such as South American, painted with hot colors and have two ovaries on the sides. It was not created to be a reliable maps but convey a sense of the places that is mediated and mangled.
when she was a senior at Tyler School of Art
. They met each other throughout an interview at Pushpin, arranged by an art director named Harris Lewine, where she took her portfolio to him. In 1973, Scher married designer Seymour Chwast, divorced 5 years later, then remarried in 1986 and got an divorced five years later.
Pentagram
A pentagram is the shape of a five-pointed star drawn with five straight strokes...
, which she joined in 1991. She is the 16th recipient of the School of Visual Art's Masters Series Award and an exhibition of Scher’s work at Visual Arts Museum & School of Visual Arts
School of Visual Arts
The School of Visual Arts , is a proprietary art school located in Manhattan, New York City, and is widely considered to be one of the leading art schools in the United States. It was established in 1947 by co-founders Silas H. Rhodes and Burne Hogarth as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School and...
that ties in with her book, Make it Bigger.
Education
Paula Scher studied at Tyler School of ArtTyler School of Art
The Stella Elkins Tyler School of Art, usually just referred to as Tyler School of Art is Temple University's school of art, which confers BFA and MFA degrees. The school was originally founded by sculptors Stella Elkins Tyler and Boris Blai on a separate 14-acre estate in Elkins Park...
, Elkins,Pennsylvania and earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts
Bachelor of Fine Arts
In the United States and Canada, the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, usually abbreviated BFA, is the standard undergraduate degree for students seeking a professional education in the visual or performing arts. In some countries such a degree is called a Bachelor of Creative Arts or BCA...
in 1970.
She was awarded a Doctor of Fine Arts Honoris Causa by the Corcoran College of Art and Design
Corcoran College of Art and Design
The Corcoran College of Art and Design, , founded in 1890, is the only professional college of art and design in Washington, DC, located in the Downtown area. The school is a private institution in association with the Corcoran Gallery of Art.The Corcoran Gallery of Art is Washington's first and...
in Washington D.C. in 2001, the Maryland Institute College of Art
Maryland Institute College of Art
Maryland Institute College of Art is an art and design college in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. It was founded in 1826 as the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, making it one of the first and oldest art colleges in the United States. In 2008, MICA was ranked #2 in the nation...
in Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
in 2008, and Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia in 2011.
(Note: No reference/citation)
Career
Paula Scher moved to New York City and took her first job as a layout artist for Random House children's book division. In 1972, she got accepted to the advertising and promotions department for CBS RecordsCBS Records
CBS Records is a record label founded by CBS Corporation in 2006 to take advantage of music from its entertainment properties owned by CBS Television Studios. The initial label roster consisted of only three artists; rock band Señor Happy and singer/songwriters Will Dailey and P.J...
. After a year later, she left CBS Record to pursue a more creative endeavor at competing label Atlantic Record which she became an art director and where she designed her first album covers. A year later, Scher returned to CBS as an art director of the cover department. During her eight years working at CBS Records, she is credited with designing as many as 150 album cover a year. The 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 she received recognition for her designs including four Grammy nominations and reviving historical typefaces and design styles.
She left CBS to work on her own and in 1984 she co-founded Koppel & Scher with editorial designer and fellow Tyler graduate Terry Koppel. During the six years of their business, she produced identities, packaging, book jackets, and even advertising, including the famous Swatch poster based on previous work by Swiss designer Herbert Matter.
In 1991, after the studio suffered from the recession and Koppel took a position at Esquire magazine and Scher began consulting and joined Pentagram
Pentagram
A pentagram is the shape of a five-pointed star drawn with five straight strokes...
as a partner in the New York office. Since then, she has been a principal at the New York office of the Pentagram design consultancy
Pentagram (design studio)
Pentagram is a design studio that was founded in 1972 by Alan Fletcher, Theo Crosby, Colin Forbes, Kenneth Grange and Mervyn Kurlansky in Needham Road, West London, UK...
.
In 1992, she became a design educator, teaching at School of Visual Arts
School of Visual Arts
The School of Visual Arts , is a proprietary art school located in Manhattan, New York City, and is widely considered to be one of the leading art schools in the United States. It was established in 1947 by co-founders Silas H. Rhodes and Burne Hogarth as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School and...
(SVA) in New York. She had received more than "300 awards from international design associations as well as a series of prizes from American Institute of Graphic Design (AIGA), The Type Directors Club (NY), New York Art Directors Club and the Package Design Council. She is a select member of Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI) and her work is included in the collections New York MoMA, the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, the Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich and the Centre George Pompidou".
Scher has developed identity and branding systems, promotional materials, environmental graphics, packaging and publication designs for a broad range of clients that includes, among others, Citibank
Citibank
Citibank, a major international bank, is the consumer banking arm of financial services giant Citigroup. Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, later First National City Bank of New York...
, Bloomberg L.P.
Bloomberg L.P.
Bloomberg L.P. is an American privately held financial software, media, and data company. Bloomberg makes up one third of the $16 billion global financial data market with estimated revenue of $6.9 billion. Bloomberg L.P...
, Bausch & Lomb
Bausch & Lomb
Bausch & Lomb, an American company based in Rochester, New York, is one of the world's leading suppliers of eye health products, such as contact lenses and lens care products today. In addition to this main activity, in recent years the area of medical technology has been developed...
, Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
, Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, Tiffany & Co.
Tiffany & Co.
Tiffany & Co. is an American jewelry and silverware company. As part of its branding, the company is strongly associated with its Tiffany Blue , which is a registered trademark.- History :...
, Perry Ellis
Perry Ellis (brand)
Perry Ellis is a clothing brand owned by Perry Ellis International and founded by designer Perry Ellis.-History:After finding praise for his previous women's sportswear line, called Portfolio, Perry Ellis, together with his parent company The Vera Companies', founded his own fashion house, Perry...
, The Public Theater, the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
, Jazz at Lincoln Center
Jazz at Lincoln Center
Jazz at Lincoln Center is part of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. JALC's performing arts complex, Frederick P. Rose Hall, is located at West 60th Street and Broadway in New York City, slightly south of the main Lincoln Center campus and directly adjacent to Columbus Circle. Frederick P....
, the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
, the New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Leon Barzin was the company's first music director. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company...
, the New York Philharmonic
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Detroit Symphony Orchestra
The Detroit Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Detroit, Michigan. Its main performance center is Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit's Midtown neighborhood...
, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, the New 42nd Street, the New York Botanical Garden
New York Botanical Garden
- See also :* Education in New York City* List of botanical gardens in the United States* List of museums and cultural institutions in New York City- External links :* official website** blog*...
, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust history...
, the Robin Hood Foundation
Robin Hood Foundation
The Robin Hood Foundation is a charitable organization, which attempts to alleviate problems caused by poverty in New York, United States.-History:Founded in 1988, Robin Hood was the brainchild of hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones...
, TheStreet.com
TheStreet.com
-History:TheStreet.com, Inc., was co-founded in 1996 by Jim Cramer and Martin Peretz. It is traded on the NASDAQ Global Market. The company is headquartered at 14 Wall Street in New York City. Its stock was made public in May 1999 under the direction of past Chairman and Chief Executive Officer...
and The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. She is a frequent design contributor to The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, GQ and other publications. She has served on the board of The Public Theater and in 2006 was named to the Design Commission of the City of New York.
During the course of her career Scher has been the recipient of hundreds of industry honors and awards. Scher has been inducted into the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame (1998), received the Chrysler Design Award
Chrysler Design Award
The Chrysler Design Awards celebrate the achievements of individuals in innovative works of architecture and design which significantly influenced modern American culture.- 2002 :*Red Burns*Mildred Friedman*Steve Jobs*Phyllis Lambert*Murray Moss...
for Innovation in Design (2000), the AIGA Medal from the American Institute of Graphic Arts
American Institute of Graphic Arts
AIGA is an American professional organization for design. Organized in 1914, AIGA currently has more than 22,000 members throughout 66 chapters and more than 200 student groups nationwide...
(2001), and the Type Directors Club
Type Directors Club
The Type Directors Club is an international organization for those devoted to excellence in typography in all its forms. Created in 1946, the organization’s mission is to raise the standards of typography and related fields within the graphic arts. The TDC supports research and education, and...
Medal (2006). In 1996 Scher’s identity for The Public Theater won the Beacon Award for integrated corporate design strategy. Her works are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
; the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
Cooper–Hewitt, National Design Museum, a subsidiary of the Smithsonian Institution, is the United States' national museum of design history and contemporary design and the only museum in the U.S. whose collection is solely focused on contemporary and historic design...
; the Library of Congress; the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich; the Denver Art Museum; and the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.. Her album designs have earned her four Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
nominations.
As an artist she is known for her large-scale paintings of map
Map
A map is a visual representation of an area—a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of that space such as objects, regions, and themes....
s, covered with dense hand-painted labeling and information. She has taught at the School of Visual Arts
School of Visual Arts
The School of Visual Arts , is a proprietary art school located in Manhattan, New York City, and is widely considered to be one of the leading art schools in the United States. It was established in 1947 by co-founders Silas H. Rhodes and Burne Hogarth as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School and...
in New York for over two decades, along with positions at the Cooper Union
Cooper Union
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly referred to simply as Cooper Union, is a privately funded college in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States, located at Cooper Square and Astor Place...
, Yale University and the Tyler School of Art.
The Public Theater
Paula Scher and her Pentagram team had created promotional campaigns for The Public Theater’s 1995 session. Scher’s scheme was inspired by Victorian playbills and street graphics to create cacophony of disparate woodtypes, silhouetted photographs and bright flat color for the theater's posters and billboard. Scher limits colors to two or three while highlighting the play’s title and not the actor’s name. She sometimes incorporates photographs of the actors sandwich between bold text. The design was to appeal to a broad audience from the inner cities to the outer boroughs, especially those who haven’t been attracted to theater.New Jersey Performing Arts Center
In 2001, Paula Scher created an interior design for the New Jersey Performing Arts CenterNew Jersey Performing Arts Center
The New Jersey Performing Arts Center , in downtown Newark, New Jersey, United States, is the sixth largest performing arts center in the United States...
. In the design, there are words running along the walls; tubes and balconies reflecting with vast letters that gives a joyfully effect to represent the shows performance in the building.
Maya Stendhal
In 2006, an exhibition at Maya Stendhal gallery in New York City, Paula Scher painted two 9-by-12-foot maps that resembled patchwork quilts from afar. At a closer look, it revealed more details that resemble our understanding of the world that fills with rich colors. She also created delineate lines that represented the separation of our political allies or borders dividing enemies. Scher created the maps into layers of reference to what we think when we think of Japan, Kenya, or the Upper East Side.For instance, The United States (1999) was painted in blocky white print and full with list of facts that comprehend when we think about cities. Africa (2003) represented in a stark black and white palette, hinting at a tortured colonial past. The land of the red rising sun represented when we think of Japan (2004).
This was Scher's first solo exhibition as a fine artist and sold every pieces between $40,000 to $135,000. The Maya Stendhal's owner decided to extend the exhibition for four weeks, until January 21. Therefore Scher decided to produce a silk-screened prints of "The World" that contained large-scale images of cities, states, and continents blanketed with place names and other information. It's full with mistakes and misspelling and visual allusions to stereotypes of places such as South American, painted with hot colors and have two ovaries on the sides. It was not created to be a reliable maps but convey a sense of the places that is mediated and mangled.
Personal life
In January of 1970, Paula Scher first met Seymour ChwastSeymour Chwast
Seymour Chwast an American graphic designer, illustrator, and type designer.Chwast was born in Bronx, New York, and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Cooper Union in 1951. With Milton Glaser, Edward Sorel, and Reynold Ruffins, he founded Push Pin Studios in 1954...
when she was a senior at Tyler School of Art
Tyler School of Art
The Stella Elkins Tyler School of Art, usually just referred to as Tyler School of Art is Temple University's school of art, which confers BFA and MFA degrees. The school was originally founded by sculptors Stella Elkins Tyler and Boris Blai on a separate 14-acre estate in Elkins Park...
. They met each other throughout an interview at Pushpin, arranged by an art director named Harris Lewine, where she took her portfolio to him. In 1973, Scher married designer Seymour Chwast, divorced 5 years later, then remarried in 1986 and got an divorced five years later.
Awards
- Awards for graphic design; American Book Award nominations for best book design, and for best compilation of written and graphic material, both 1981, both for The Honeymoon Book: A Tribute to the Last Ritual of Sexual Innocence.
Books
- Scher, Paula. (2002) Make it Bigger. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, ISBN 1-56898-332-8
- Scher, Paula. (2011) Maps. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, ISBN 978-1-61689-033-9
Magazine articles
- Opinionated Maps – Typographic Paintings, by Paula Scher, Baseline 19Baseline (magazine)Baseline magazine is a magazine devoted to typography, book arts and graphic design.-History:Since Baseline 19, which appeared in 1995, Baseline has been published by Bradbourne Publishing, co-edited by Mike Daines and Hans Dieter Reichert and art-directed by HDR Visual Communication. It is...
, edited by Mike Daines & Hans Dieter Reichert, Bradbourne Publishing, 1994.
Further reading
- HelveticaHelvetica (film)Helvetica is an independent feature-length documentary film about typography and graphic design, centered on the typeface of the same name. Directed by Gary Hustwit, it was released in 2007 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the typeface's introduction in 1957 and is considered the first of...
(2007 film) includes an interview with Scher
External links
- Paula Scher: Recent Exhibitions at Stendhal Gallery New York (2006-2010)
- Paula Scher bio at AIGA.org
- Paula Scher bio at pentagram.com
- Paula Scher Curriculum Vitae (CV)
- Hillmancurtis feature Paula Scher: Type is Image (QuickTimeQuickTimeQuickTime is an extensible proprietary multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. The classic version of QuickTime is available for Windows XP and later, as well as Mac OS X Leopard and...
) - Art Directors Club biography, portrait and images of work
- Paula Scher: Great design is serious at TED