History of a Typographer

The History of a typographer: Paula Scher

Paula Scher was born October 6, 1948 in Washington, DC. She is a known American graphic designer, typographer and an art educator in design. Scher became the first female principle at Pentagram in the 90s. Scher uses her gifting of designing with type to speak to her audiences, through magazine covers, promotional material, logos and the whole identity for clients like The Public Theater, Bloomberg, Citybank and many else. (Blogspot)

Scher majored in illustration at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, finishing her BFA in 1970. As a student, Scher avoided graphic design because she felt as if she lacked the neatness skill and didn’t like arranging Helvetica on a grid. She didn’t draw well either, but she discovered what she could do: come up with concepts and illustrate them with type. (Meggs History pg. 480)

In 1972, Scher began her career as an art director with CBS records in New York City. During this time music graphics were characterized by generous budgets, elaborate photography and illustrations, and opportunities to experiment. In 1978, the industry crashed as inflation, skyrocketing production costs, and slumping sales took a powerful toll. By 1979, tight budgets often forced Scher to develop typographic solutions based on imagination, art and design history sources, and her fascination with obscure and little used typefaces. Art deco, Russian constructivism, and outmoded typefaces were incorporated into her work. Russian Constructivism provided important typographic inspiration. Scher did not copy the earlier constructivist style but used its vocabulary of forms and form relationships, reinventing and combining them in unexpected ways. Her use of color and space was a lot different than because the floating weightlessness of Russian Constructivism is replaced by a dense packing of forms in space with the weight and vigor of old wood-type posters. (Meggs History pg. 481)

An huge influence on Scher was...