Nour Abou Ibrahim
201104212
Research paper
Paula Scher
BRIEF OPENING
Paula Scher, also known as America’s first design lady, is a graphic designer, illustrator and art educator. The Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia is where Paula Scher majored in illustration and finished her BFA in nineteen seventy. As a student Scher abstained from graphic design as she was short of the required tidiness artistry, and she did not like aligning Helvetica on a framework. “The act of organizing the Helvetica type-face on a grid reminded me of cleaning up my room,” she admitted. Drawing was her tender spot, so she adopted an approach which was to illustrate using type Stanislaw Zagorski who was her teacher. He was the one to give her that advice which was profoundly substantial for her career. Shcer describes in her book “MAKE IT BIGGER” that the Zigzag rolling paper and album covers, especially the Beetles’ covers where her major inspiration during the sixties. This influence can be noted in some of the work she did at CBS, like the cover for Ralph MacDonald, fig:1, the way feet are place bears resemblance to the Beetles cover, fig:2.
During the nineteen seventies, there was an increase in political awareness, which initially stared in 1960, along with the economic liberty of women and the dimming of the hipster movement. Nineteen seventy was also the year Paula Scher graduated, it has been called the “golden days of illustration”. There were well established arts at that time, like Miltion Glaser, Seymour Chwast, James McMullen, Pual Davis whom Paula perceived as inspiration. Paula’s work doesn’t have many distinct features that display the influence of the artist above on her work, since she has a style of her own, but there are some corresponding color pallets.
STYLE
Common components of her work * Use of bright colors * Use of hand written text * Use of bold strokes * Domination of type
Paula Scher’s designs are