Book of the Month – March

Paula Scher: Works
Chosen by Nick Plant

‘Paula Scher is the most influential woman graphic designer on the planet’
Ellen Lupton
Abstract: The Art of Design, Netflix

This choice for Book of the Month marks International Women’s Day with a heavyweight monograph celebrating the work of a heavyweight of the design industry.

Paula Scher became the first and, for long time, only female partner of Pentagram in 1991. During her four decade long career her eclectic typography style has become highly influential and she has created countless iconic pieces of graphic design. Scher has received more than 300 awards from international design associations, is a former president of Alliance Graphique Internationale and her work is included in the permanent collections of New York MoMA and the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. In 2006 she was awarded the Type Directors Club Medal, the first woman to receive the prize.

My personal taste in graphic graphic design often learns towards the minimal but I make an exception for Scher’s work which can be fantastically busy and full of an energy reminiscent of her home of New York City. I wonder what effect a designer’s home city has on their work? Would Scher create the style of work based in Zurich, spiritual home of the aforementioned minimal Modernism? That sounds like a subject for my next blog…