Paula Scher
By Rachel Jorgensen
Paula Scher is currently working as a partner at Pentagram in New York and has been there since 1991. Scher began her career, however, in the 1970s and early 80s. Back then Scher worked as an art director and soon gained recognition for her work with typography. Scher earned a BFA from the Tyler School of Art and a Doctor of Fine Arts Honoris Causa from the Corcoran College of Art and Design. She is highly decorated with many awards and tons of recognition for her influential style. You might recognize a recent work of hers, the logo for Windows 8.
Paula Scher has worked a ton with typography, usually decorating it with themes from the past while merging it with more modern fonts and that is what boosted her career. She worked a long time for CBS as a creative director and has taught all over the world at some of the most prestigious institutions. I want to take a closer look at her maps however because those are something that Scher does for herself and not for her clients.
Above: “The World” 1998 – Acrylic – 56.5×77
Scher explains how the concept for her maps began on the backs of notebooks, she was just fooling around with the idea and then thought to herself that these maps would look marvelous if they were done huge. So she created them as large as she could, keeping with her motto: Make it bigger.
Paula Scher’s work is incredible, and her maps are breath taking and huge, she has achieved so much success with her work but it is her philosophy on art that I am attracted to. Scher is known for being an unabashed populist, she explains clearly how she likes to make art that can be enjoyed by everyone not just the limited demographic represented by the art community. Scher is quoted saying “I’d rather be The Beatles than Philip Glass – they’re both qualitative, it’s just that one has a broader appreciation from audiences than the other does.”
A second part of Scher’s philosophy that appeals to me is that she doesn’t seem to have any fear. No apprehension. In fact, quite the opposite of fear, Paula Scher embraces her mistakes.
“I try to force myself to grow by doing things I don’t know how to do very well. Sometimes I fail utterly at it; sometimes I make breakthroughs.” – Paula Scher
If you are interested in design and especially typography even slightly than Paula Scher is certainly someone you want to take a closer look at. This woman gained tremendous success by doing things her way, and continues today to follow that strategy which I find really impressive.
References:
http://www.pentagram.com/partners/#/19/
http://www.aiga.org/medalist-paulascher/
http://www.paulaschermaps.com/
http://www.creativebloq.com/paula-scher-learning-design-mistakes-9094215