Paula Scher

For Scher, expressibility is fundamental. I really admire how she developed her unique typographic solution based on Art Deco and Russian Constructivism without copying its style but only using its vocabulary of form. She went so far as to incorporate old-fashioned typefaces into his work. Her maniacal passion for lettering draws inspiration from the “Sans-Serif” family, with a no-frills cut, optimised for readability, strictly in block letters.

Her works are an example of the female, but not only, and the human capacity to dare, go beyond and be honest. Additionally, what I learned from her is the way she stays active during her creative process and not by only sitting in front of her computer. She states that ideas come “out and about”. “Ideas come in all kinds of ways. I get my best ideas in taxicabs, you know, like sitting in traffic, drooling.

I’m allowing my subconscious to take over so that I can free associate,” remarks Scher, “You have to be in a state of play to design. If you’re not in a state of play you can’t make anything.”

“The best way to accomplish serious design is to be totally and completely unqualified for the job”.

Lastly, she shares her secret: for Scher, “The best way to accomplish serious design … is to be totally and completely unqualified for the job”.

I really see myself in her words. Whenever I begin working on a new project, I sense that I have no idea how to start and that even if I do have some ideas, they are very awkward!

I believe it is because I am new in this field, so I see everything differently. She explains that understanding too well something might be a limit as one takes everything for granted.

I love how she proposes starting a new project with the eyes of a child; from ignorance, one could come up with things that might be obvious but that no one thought. She observes that design is a process of “invention, change, rebellion – not perfection”. Abandoning the fear of failure and keeping up the motivation to originate new designs is what I most respect about her creative process. Maybe feeling inadequate is not such a bad thing after all!