Amanda Sandstrom

VIS 1218.100

Professor Romero

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Featured Designer

A large part of graphic design is how you use typography to convey a message. Paula

Scher is known for her obscure use of bold text and patterns to make an image stand out. She has

impacted the world of graphic design with her innovative designs, and this is why she is one of

my favorite graphic designers.

Paula Scher is an American graphic designer, painter, and art educator in design. Paula

was born October 6, 1948 in Washington D.C. She studied at the Tyler School of Art, in Elkins

Park, Pennsylvania and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1970. Paula met Seymour Chwast at

the Tyler School of Art through an interview at Pushpin. In 1973 she and Seymour married,

divorced five years later, then married again in 1989.

Early in Paula’s career she was hired by CBS Records to the advertising and promotions

department. Two years later she moved on from CBS to pursue a more creative art director

position at a competing label, Atlantic Records. One year later Paula returned to CBS as an art

director for the cover department where she was credited with designing as many as 150 album

covers a year. In 1984 she co-founded Koppel & Scher with fellow designer Terry Koppel. Over

the course of the six years they were in partnership, she produced identities, packaging, book

jackets, and advertising. In 1991 Scher began consulting and joined Pentagram as a partner in the
New York office, following the recession and end of Koppel & Scher. In 1992 she became a

design educator, teaching at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York. In 1994 Paula was

the first designer to create a new identity and promotional graphic system for The Public Theater,

which was a program that became the turning point of identity in designs that influence much of

the graphic design created for theatrical promotion along with cultural institutions. In 1994,

Paula created the first poster campaign for the New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park

production of The Merry Wives of Windsor and Two Gentlemen of Verona, and was borrowed

from the tradition of old-fashioned English theater style. This laid the foundation for the new

overall identity and visual language that came to define the Public Theater for the rest of the

decade and beyond.

Paula Scher has received many awards and recognitions throughout her career. She has

been recognized with four Grammy nominations and is also credited with reviving historical

typefaces and design styles. She has received over 300 awards from international design

associations as well as a series of prizes from the 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 of New York MoMA, the Library of Congress in Washington D.C., the Museum

für Gestaltung, Zurich and the Centre Georges Pompidou. She was also granted The School of

Visual Arts Master Series Award, showcase of Make It Bigger, along with winning Print's

Regional Design Annual 2011 for Shakespeare in the Park 2010 campaign, Map Murals for

Queens Metropolitan Campus, and Environmental Graphic for Parking Garage at 13-17 East

54th Street.
 Works Cited

Bigman, Alex. “Get to Know Paula Scher, Titan of Postmodern Design.” 99designs,

99designs, 10 Mar. 2018, 99designs.com/blog/famous-design/paula-scher-titan-of-postmodern-

design/.

“Paula Scher.” History of Graphic Design, www.historygraphicdesign.com/the-age-of-

information/postmodern-design/207-paula-scher.