When I was in school, I had a class called Art Direction. The teacher had asked if we knew of any professional Graphic Designers. The class sat in silence. She then gave us the names of top of the line, award winning designers to research and do a presentation on the next week. The name I got was Paula Scher. It was a name that will forever change my view on design as I knew it.
Paula Scher has developed identities, packaging for a broad range of clients that includes, among others, The New York Times Magazine, Perry Ellis, Bloomberg, Target, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, the New 42nd Street, the New York Botanical Garden, and The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. In 1996 Scher’s widely imitated identity for the Public Theater won the coveted Beacon Award for integrated corporate design strategy. She serves on the board of The Public Theater, and is a frequent design contributor to The New York Times, GQ and other publications.
The reason I adore her so much is that she is clever with her ideas and design. While in class, I read she was sitting in on a meeting for a concept development for a new branding of a bank that was associated with travelers. The bank name was citi bank. while doodling on a napkin. she cleverly drew an arc beginning from each dot in the i's, so that way the 't' was the base of an 'umbrella'
As soon as i learned how fast she came up with the idea, how it was just sort of 'natural' i was super impressed, and thought to my self, thats the kind of designer that I want to be. She then stated that being a good, clever designer will not happen over night. It will not happen in a week, or a year. It will happen over time, with lot's of hard work, up's and downs, and most of all, life experience. Instead of doing research and learning about a product, book, clothing designer, immerse yourself in everything you possibly can, so when the day comes that you have to do a branding identity for that clothing designer, you will already have the experience necessary, so it just comes naturally.
She not only changed my view of just how hard you need to work to get worldly recognition, she also taught me to take life by the horns and become well versed, well cultured, and your own encyclopedia. Who knows, maybe I could one day create an effortless, clever and creative logo.
Here are more of her well known pieces that I adore:
http://www.pentagram.com
http://www.aiga.org
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