Paula Scher

Paula Scher Typography & Architecture

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You may have heard the name before, Paula Scher is a renowned graphic designer. Born October 6th, 1948. She has been working as a designer at Pentagram in New York City since 1991. Scher is most well known for her maps series and logos for companies such as Citi Bank. She has also been known to use her amazing typographical work within buildings and architectural structures. She eloquently meshes the two mediums in a way which is unimaginable. The typeface Helvetica often appears in her work. Although much of her work is hand drawn letterform rather than typed.

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ceiling in hallway of the middle school (above and below)

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Achievement First Endeavor Middle School

stairway in middle school

stairway in middle school

doorway in middle school

In 2010, The Achievement First Endeavor Middle School, of Brooklyn, recruited Paula Scher to design the inside of their charter school which serves kids in grades five through eight. Typography and bright colors now line the halls of the middle school. There are slogans that are written though the school which were inspired by the teachers. Scher took the inspirational words from the teachers and plastered them throughout the school. In one hallway (see pg.

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New Jersey Performing Arts Center Paula Scher designed both the inside and outside of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. She lines the walls, tubes and balconies with type. The air conditioning ducts became something beautiful, their own piece of artwork, rather than an ordinary piece of a building.

“There was something sadly institutional about it, particularly the brown and beige paint that permeated the hallways and bathrooms.� -Scher (referring to the building prior to her renovations)

exterior of building (before & after) 6 exterior of building

Scher places her typography in ways that almost give it a sense of movement. The type being on angles and placed on different planes makes it pop out and give it a third dimension. Her ability to do such a thing is unique. It really fits into the idea of having type be on the side of a theater.

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Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh

sign in play area

sign in bathroom

sign locating bathrooms

Paula Scher created playful signage in the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh. Her signs are used in fun ways for things such as locating the bathrooms.

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Bloomberg Parking Garage

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Scher designed the staircase in the Bloomberg Parking Garage in a very unique way. Rather than putting small signs that no one pays any attention to anyways, she put larger than life numbers on each platform. At first glance it may be hard to recognize what the dark form on the white wall actually is, but after a second, it becomes very clear.

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What Makes Scher So Unique?

Scher is a designer who thinks in a different way than most. She is a quick thinker who can come up with a design in seconds. Once at a meeting for Citi Bank, Scher scribbled down the logo on a napkin while someone else was presenting. It was decided, the design that Scher had quickly jotted down would be the Citi Bank logo. It is amazing that someone can work that quickly and come up with such wonderful designs.She experiments with things that she normally wouldn’t and keeps an open mind. When an opportunity is thrown her way, she gives it her all. Scher is a very determined designer who is very open to new ideas.

She has been commissioned to do projects that are not ideal to her, but she goes for it anyways. She has been asked to design logos for establishments that she necessarily wouldn’t, but throws her own spin on them. For example, the North Side of Pittsburg asked Paula Scher to design a logo for their section of town. Scher was unsure of that idea and said that logos for towns and cities are normally very uninteresting and don’t entice people to want to go there. She suggested instead that an installation is placed on a bridge because the bridges are not pleasant to the eye. The town accepted Scher’s proposal and the people responded positively. Scher is a designer whose work will certainly live on beyond her time.

bridge proposal idea in Pittsburgh

“I said why can’t the signage be on the floor?

New Yorkers look at their feet!” -Paula Scher

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Moira O’Sullivan Graphic Design 102 Spring 2013