Early Years
Paula Scher, born October 6, 1948 in Washington, DC., is an American graphic designer, illustrator, painter and art educator in design, and the first female principal at Pentagram, which she joined in 1991.
Scher creates images that speak to an audience with emotional impact and appeal and the images she has created have become visually identical with the culture of New York City. She has developed brand and identity systems, promotional materials, packaging, environmental graphics, and publication designs for a range of clients.
Personal Life
Mr. Chwast, now 74, married Ms. Scher in 1973. They divorced five years later - "time off for bad behavior," Mr. Chwast said dryly - and remarried in 1989. They now live in a modern Chelsea loft right around the corner from Pentagram that they moved into last January. It is furnished with 20th-century classics, including a Le Corbusier lounge chair and dining chairs by Alvar Aalto, and with a rug in a pattern of abstracted U's that Ms. Scher pointed to with delight as her own design. "It's a typographic rug," she said. The walls are decorated with art by Mr. Chwast, including a giant sheet-metal cutout depicting a jumble of shoes, from cowboy boots to high heels, that hangs over the bed.
Ms. Scher paints skewed, text-heavy maps like "South America."
"He hates that I'm always leaving piles of shoes around the house," Ms. Scher said.
She added that she had designed the apartment to be "the opposite of country: clean, no moldings, very anti-object."
Mr. Chwast's collection of toy motorcycles, he said, were one of the few things that "happily survived the recent disdain for decorative objects in favor of modern ones" in the couple's city place. Those and the toys of their two Australian shepherds, Mickie and Mattie, are about the only bits of whimsy in the chrome, red, black and white loft. (During the week, Mattie goes with Ms. Scher to Pentagram every day, Mickie tends to go to Push Pin.)
The couple's house in Connecticut, which has two guesthouses, a garden and a pool, is the stylistic opposite of the New York apartment: a turn-of-the-century Arts and Crafts cottage with a Stickley dining table and chairs, and other furniture that Ms. Scher describes as "overstuffed sloppy." It is also the place where the art gets made.
Ms. Scher and Mr. Chwast often retreat to their respective studios late on a Friday and work all night.
"Paula always has more left over," Mr. Bierut said. "Excess inventory that builds up during the week. All this extra stuff - extra ideas, extra words, extra colors, all these extra square feet of information that the client just isn't able to accommodate."
As close as the paintings may be to her design work, there is a crucial difference for Ms. Scher. "The thing about corporate work is it involves other people," she said. "Painting does not involve anybody."
Not even each other. Both Ms. Scher and Mr. Chwast are adamant that they have no interest in collaborating. "Never," Mr. Chwast said, deadpan. "There's no professional courtesy between us."
Mr. Chwast works in a large studio with lots of windows and light that occupies the entire third floor of the house and overlooks the gardens. Ms. Scher has a converted guest bedroom. But she isn't bitter about the disparity. "He has a lot of space but no walls," she said. Her husband added, "My walls are smaller, so my paintings are smaller."
In the city, however, Mr. Chwast has claimed the prime wall space. Eight of the 53 pieces in his "Brylcreem Man" series, mixed media applied to silk screen, hang above the couple's dining table - at least for now. "That wall was built for 'Africa,' " Ms. Scher said with conviction.
Education
Paula Scher studied at the Tyler School of Art, Elkins, Pennsylvania and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1970.
Tyler School of Art
The Stella Elkins Tyler School of Art, usually just referred to as Tyler School of Art is Temple University's school of art, which confers BFA and MFA degrees. The school was originally founded by sculptors Stella Elkins Tyler (of the Elkins/Widener family) and Boris Blai on a separate 14-acre estate in Elkins Park. In 2009 the school's campus was consolidated to a new purpose-built building on Temple University's main campus in Philadelphia despite objections from alumni, faculty, and students.
The Tyler curriculum encompasses programs in the fine arts, design, art history, art education, and architecture. Tyler students work with a faculty who are teachers, studio artists, and scholars.
Foundation
One of the things that makes Tyler similar to other art schools is the requirement of a Foundation year. Studies for the BFA degree at Tyler begin with a common freshman experience, the Foundation Year. During this year, students are enrolled in studio courses in Drawing, 2-D and 3-D Principles, and Foundation Computer. The Foundation Program is highly structured and intensive. It forms the fundamental basis for studio practice, critical thinking, and the understanding and implementation of principles of visual art expression. The program emphasizes creative and critical thinking, problem solving, visual thinking, perception and observation, as well as presenting traditional vocabulary, theory, media, and techniques of artistic practice. The Foundation Faculty is composed of faculty from all major areas in the School.
Graduate studies
Tyler School of Art's graduate program is highly selective and is considered to house one of the fine arts programs in the country. The school confers MFA, MA, MArch, and PHD degrees in many disciplines including Art History, Architecture, Art Education, Ceramics, Painting, Printmaking, Fibers, Glass, Metals/Jewelry/CAD-CAM, Photography, Sculpture, and Graphic Design. Among these programs, Painting, Printmaking and Sculpture are consistently ranked among the top ten fine arts programs in the country by U.S. News and World Reports, with Photography and Ceramics consistently ranking among the top twenty.[citation needed] Unique to Temple university, graduate students at the Tyler School of Art have the option of studying for one year in Philadelphia and one year abroad at any one of Temple University's extension campuses. Temple University has campus extensions in Rome, Japan, and Scotland.
Rankings
While there is no formal national ranking of undergraduate BFA or BA art school programs, graduate programs are ranked in national surveys. As of 2012, Tyler’s overall ranking is 13th in the nation, rising one spot since U.S.News last ranked fine arts graduate programs in 2008. Tyler’s individual graduate programs, as of 2012, ranked highly in their respective fields: painting and drawing (10th), sculpture (9th), printmaking (10th), ceramics (13th), and photography (20th).
Different art schools have strengths in different disciplines. Some art schools are dedicated art schools, some are affiliated with a particular museum, and others like Tyler are part of a larger university and its associated resources.
CBS Records
In 1972, she was hired on at CBS Records to the advertising and promotions department. After a year, she left CBS Records to pursue a more creative endeavor at a competing label, Atlantic Records, where she became the art director and designed her first album covers. A year later Scher returned to CBS as an art director for the cover department. During her eight years at CBS Records, she is credited with designing as many as 150 album covers a year. Some of those iconic album cover designs are Boston (Boston), Eric Gale (Ginseng Woman), Leonard Bernstein (Poulenc Stranvinsky), Bob James (H), Bob James and Earl Klugh (One on One), Roger Dean and David Howells (The Ultimate Album Cover Album) and Jean-Pierre Rampal and Lily Laskin (Sakura: Japanese Melodies for Flute and Harp). In addition she received recognition for her designs, including four Grammy nominations. She is also credited with reviving historical typefaces and design styles.
About CBS Records
CBS Broadcasting Inc. (CBS) is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. It is the second largest broadcaster in the world behind the BBC. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of the company's logo. It has also been called the "Tiffany Network," which alludes to the perceived high quality of CBS programming during the tenure of its founder William S. Paley (1901–90).[1] It can also refer to some of CBS's first demonstrations of color television, which were held in a former Tiffany & Co. building in New York City in 1950,[2] thus earning it the name "Color broadcasting system" back when such a feat was innovative.[citation needed]
The network has its origins in United Independent Broadcasters Inc., a collection of 16 radio stations that was bought by William S. Paley in 1928 and renamed the Columbia Broadcasting System.[3] Under Paley's guidance, CBS would first become one of the largest radio networks in the United States and then one of the big three American broadcast television networks. In 1974, CBS dropped its full name and became known simply as CBS, Inc. The Westinghouse Electric Corporation acquired the network in 1995 and eventually adopted the name of the company it had bought to become CBS Corporation. In 2000, CBS came under the control of Viacom, which coincidentally had begun as a spin-off of CBS in 1971. In late 2005, Viacom split itself and reestablished CBS Corporation with the CBS television network at its core. CBS Corporation is controlled by Sumner Redstone through National Amusements, its parent.
CBS Records: Album Cover Designs
BOSTON
ERIC GALE/ GINSENG WOMAN
LEONARD BERNSTEIN/ POULENC STRANVINSKY
“Japanese Melodies for Flute and Harp” by Jean Pierre Rampal and Lily Laskin
Atlantic Records Early Years
Atlantic Records (Atlantic Recording Corporation) is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz.[1] Over its first 20 years of operation Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most important American independent recording labels, specializing in jazz, R&B and soul recordings by African-American artists, a position greatly enhanced by its distribution deal with Stax Records.
In 1967 Atlantic became a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, now the Warner Music Group, and expanded into rock and pop music, signing Cream, Led Zeppelin, Yes and Foreigner. In 2004 Atlantic Records and its sister label Elektra Records merged into Atlantic Records Group.[2] Craig Kallman is currently Chairman of Atlantic Records. Label co-founder Ahmet Ertegün served as Founding Chairman until his death on December 14, 2006 at age 83.[3] The label also has a number of deals with previously independent labels such as Must Destroy (which brought Goldie Lookin Chain and The Darkness into the label)[4] and VP Records in Jamaica, home to reggae artists such as Sean Paul.[5]
Atlantic Records History
Atlantic was formed in 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson in New York City. Atco and Cotillion were subsidiary labels and Clarion was a budget label. Atlantic recorded rhythm and blues, jazz, blues, country and western, rock and roll, gospel, and comedy.
Ahmet Ertegun was born in 1923 in Turkey, and came to the United States at the age of 11 when his father was appointed the Turkish Ambassador to the United States. Ahmet fell in love with the United States, particularly the music. He and his older brother Nesuhi (born 1918) collected over 15,000 jazz and blues 78s. Ahmet went to St. Johns College to study philosophy, and did post graduate work at Georgetown in Washington, DC. During this period, Ahmet and Nesuhi hired halls and staged concerts by Lester Young, Sidney Bechet and other jazz giants. When Ahmet's father died in 1944, his mother and sister returned to Turkey, and Nesuhi went to California. Ahmet stayed in Washington and hung around the Waxie Maxie (Max Silverman's) Quality Music Shop to learn as much as he could about the record business. Ahmet had an aspiration to make records.
Herb Abramson was born in 1917, went to high school in Brooklyn, and was also a jazz and blues record collector. During World War II he promoted jazz concerts, some of them in association with the Ertegun brothers. In 1944, he became a part time record producer for National Records while attending New York University, where he was studying to become a dentist. Because of his jazz background, Herb started producing artists like Joe Turner and Pete Johnson. He signed Billy Eckstine to the National label and produced two big hits, "Prisoner of Love" and "Cottage for Sale" with him. He also produced a big hit with black comedian Dusty Fletcher called "Open the Door Richard". After a couple of years with National, in May, 1946, Abramson started the Jubilee Record label. Shortly afterwards, Jerry Blaine was brought into Jubilee as a partner. The original intention was to record jazz and gospel music, and Abramson did produce one record by gospel singer Ernestine Washington, but Jerry Blaine started making very successful Jewish comedy records which were of no interest to Herb. He asked Blaine to buy him out in September, 1947.
When Ahmet Ertegun decided to go into the record business, he knew he needed to collaborate with someone with a solid background in record production. He thought of Herb Abramson. Ahmet went to New York and stayed with Herb and his wife Miriam. In October, 1947, Ahmet and Herb formed Atlantic Records with financial backing from a Turkish Dentist, Dr. Vahdi Sabit. Herb Abramson was President and Ahmet Ertegun was Vice President of the new company.
From the beginning, Atlantic was different from other independent record companies. Their financier/dentist did not put pressure on them for immediate return on his investment, so Herb and Ahmet were free to make decisions based on their own good musical judgment. They did not cheat performers, as many of the other independent labels did. They gained a reputation for being honest, and that reputation as much as anything was the foundation for the success of the company. Many talented performers were willing to sign long term contracts with Atlantic because they believed that their royalties would be paid. Atlantic's business practices allowed them to hire the best musicians in the business. When it was industry practice to pay royalties below 2 percent -- or in the case of many black artists, no royalties at all -- Atlantic was paying 3 to 5 percent.
The early Atlantic roster was eclectic, to say the least. It included Stan Kenton band members Art Pepper, Shelly Manne, and Pete Rugolo, guitarist Tiny Grimes, vocal groups such as the Delta Rhythm Boys, the Clovers, and the Cardinals, rhythm and blues singers Ruth Brown, Stick McGhee and Joe Turner, pianists Erroll Garner and Mal Waldron, progressive jazz artists Howard McGhee, James Moody and Dizzy Gillespie, jazz singers Jackie & Roy and Sarah Vaughan, blues singers Leadbelly and Sonny Terry, and café society singers Mabel Mercer, Sylvia Syms and Bobby Short. In spite of this impressive roster, Atlantic was getting most of its revenue from the rhythm and blues recordings by Joe Turner (e.g., "Chains of Love," "Honey Hush," "TV Mama") and Ruth Brown (e.g., "So Long," "Teardrops From My Eyes," "I'll Wait for You").
Atlantic was the first to record Professor Longhair, the legendary piano player from New Orleans. One of the songs "Fess" recorded at his first Atlantic session was "Mardi Gras in New Orleans" which has since become the theme song for the Mardi Gras. On February 17, 1949, Atlantic released "Drinkin' Wine Spo- Dee-O-Dee" by Stick McGhee, a blues novelty number that became a big hit. This was followed in October, 1950, by Laurie Tate and Joe Morris' # 1 R&B record of "Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere". In 1951, Ahmet wrote "Don't You Know I Love You" for the Clovers and it also was a #1 R&B hit. Ruth Brown notched their third #1 R&B hit with "5-10-15 Hours" in 1952.
Atlantic entered the 33 1/3 rpm long play record business very early, issuing it's first album in March of 1949. Ahmet was well aware that a rhythm and blues album had little chance of success, since 78 rpm records dominated that genre. So even though Atlantic was successful with rhythm and blues recordings, their first foray into the album market was with a poetry album, Walter Benton's This Is My Beloved. John Dall provided the narration and Vernon Duke provided the background music. This 10-inch album carried the number 110 which stood for "one 10-inch disc." The matrix numbers on this disc were TLP 11213/11214. The same material was released simultaneously as three 12-inch 78 rpm discs with the catalog number 312-S. The 312 stood for "three 12 inch discs," and the "S" stood for standard speed which at that time was 78 rpm. The individual 78 rpm records were numbered 1201, 1202, and 1203. Atlantic rather quickly dropped this unwieldy numbering system and issued their second and third LPs in May, 1950, as ALS-108 by Joe Bushkin and ALS-109 by Erroll Garner. The first 12 inch LP issued by Atlantic (January, 1951) was ALS-401 which was a recording of scenes from Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" performed by Eva LaGallienne and Richard Waring.
Prior to 1953, Atlantic was basically a three person operation. Herb Abramson was President, Ahmet Ertegun was a Vice President, and Herb's wife Miriam was a Vice President who kept the accounts, paid the bills, and managed the office. Herb Abramson was drafted into the Army in 1953, and although he was away from Atlantic, he stayed on full salary and kept his title as President of the company. With the pending loss of Herb, Atlantic required additional help. Herb and Ahmet brought Jerry Wexler into the company.
Jerry Wexler was born in New York City in 1917. Wexler became interested in black music and started frequenting the jazz nightclubs in Harlem. In 1941, he was drafted into the US Army. During his time in the Army, Wexler started taking correspondence courses from Kansas University, and after his discharge he went to the University full time to obtain a Journalism degree. While at Kansas University, he started writing for the school paper. After obtaining his degree, he and his wife went back to New York City where he got a job at Billboard magazine, a music trade publication. Writing for Billboard, Wexler introduced the term "Rhythm and Blues" as a replacement for the term "Race Music" in referring to black music. Through his work at Billboard, Wexler came in contact with Ahmet Ertegun, who asked him to come to work for Atlantic as a producer. Wexler was made a Vice President of Atlantic, and as part of the deal allowed to purchase 13 percent of the company for $2,063.25. The instruction Ahmet gave Wexler was to produce rhythm and blues music specifically for sale to the black population. Initially, Ahmet had no illusions about crossover hits.
During that same year, Ahmet Ertegun went to the Birdland nightclub to see Billy Ward and the Dominoes, mostly to hear Ward's lead singer Clyde McPhatter. When the Dominoes performed, Clyde McPhatter was missing so Ahmet went backstage to find out where he was. Billy Ward informed him that he had fired McPhatter for breaking group rules. Ahmet left to find McPhatter, and an hour later he located McPhatter in a rented room in Harlem rehearsing a new group. Ertegun signed Clyde McPhatter and his new group, which Ahmet named the Drifters. The Drifters debut release was a song written by Jesse Stone called "Money Honey," and it was huge success in February, 1953. The Drifters -- with many personal changes -- had hits for the next thirteen years on Atlantic.
During the period between 1953 and 1955, a new musical trend developed that had a major impact on Atlantic Records. Pop singers began covering R&B records for the pop market. The pop singers tried to copy the R&B singers, but they sang the songs in a smoother, less soulful manner than the original singers. In fact, the first artist Jerry Wexler produced, LaVern Baker, had a #14 R&B hit with "Tweedle Dee," but the cover version by white singer Georgia Gibbs went to #2 on the pop charts. Another record produced by Wexler and Ahmet Ertegun did the same thing; "Sh-Boom" by the Chords was a big hit on the R&B charts, but it was copied by a Canadian group, the Crew-Cuts, on Mercury Records, and their version buried the Chords' original. The experience with these two records and several others led Ahmet and Jerry to reach the conclusion that it would be possible to expand their market from just the black population, appealing to the young white population who were increasingly buying rhythm and blues based records. This new style was eventually called Rock and Roll.
In May of 1954, Atlantic released the landmark "Shake, Rattle and Roll" by Big Joe Turner. The song was written by Charles Calhoun (a.k.a. Jesse Stone). "Shake, Rattle and Roll" was a big R&B hit and was covered by the then-country group Bill Haley and the Comets. The suggestive lyrics of the song were changed by Haley for the white market, although the most risqué line in the song, "I'm like a one-eyed cat peeping in a sea food store" wasn't changed because Haley didn't know what the line meant. "Shake, Rattle and Roll" by Haley was the big pop hit that really kicked off the Rock and Roll era.
Ray Charles was signed to Atlantic Records in 1952, and his first record was titled "Roll With My Baby". He managed several minor R&B hits in the next two years, but his style was basically derivative of Charles Brown and Nat King Cole. The breakthrough for both Ray Charles and Atlantic occurred in November of 1954. Jerry Wexler went to Atlanta to hear a new band Charles had formed, and upon hearing them, Wexler immediately took the band to the Georgia Tech radio station to record "I Got a Woman." This was the start of the Ray Charles gospel style, and "I Got a Woman" became the first Ray Charles smash hit. Charles had applied R&B lyrics to sixteen-bar gospel chord progressions, which was a radical departure from the twelve-bar blues-based structure of the black music of the day. "I Got a Woman" is considered by some to be the birth of Soul Music.
When Sam Phillips at Sun Records decided to sell Elvis Presley's contract in 1955, Atlantic entered into the bidding for him. Atlantic bid $30,000, but was outbid by RCA Victor who paid $40,000. Wexler loved Presley's singing and bid aggressively, although he later admitted he didn't know how Atlantic could have raised the $30,000 if their offer had been accepted. It's interesting to speculate what would have happened to Presley's career if he had gone to Atlantic, with the great R&B musicians at the Atlantic studios and sympathetic production by Wexler. Perhaps Presley's performances would not have sunk to the mediocre level they did in the 1960s.
In 1955, Nesuhi Ertegun, who was still in California, mentioned in a phone call to Ahmet that he was going to work for the Los Angeles based Imperial Records. He was to head up a jazz record line and develop a catalog of LPs. Imperial was Atlantic's biggest competitor, and had an established talent roster. Hiring Nesuhi, who was well known as an expert in the jazz field, would make Imperial even stronger. The two brothers had not been close for many years, but when Nesuhi told him he was going to join Imperial, Ahmet became very upset. Ahmet and Wexler immediately went to California to talk Nesuhi out of joining Imperial, insisting that he join Atlantic. All of the existing partners kicked in stock, and Nesuhi Ertegun was made a partner and came to work for Atlantic.
Nesuhi Ertegun was put in charge of the development of the Atlantic jazz catalog and given responsibility for all long playing albums. By 1955, LP sales were starting to gain momentum. Customers wanted better quality recordings, and the major record companies were supplying the demand. The independent companies were having trouble entering the LP market because it required a large investment. Anyone who looks at an Atlantic album from the late fifties can see the results of Nesuhi's work. An Atlantic album's quality was even better than the majors, and a far cry from the cheap albums issued by the other independents. Atlantic album covers were constructed of heavy white cardboard, were coated with glossy plastic to resist stains and dirt, had well written liner notes with recording information. Most of the records had fourteen songs instead of the standard twelve, and were pressed on thick quality vinyl. The albums just projected "class". Nesuhi also brought to Atlantic many of the West Coast jazz artists he had seen in California, including Shorty Rogers, Jimmy Giuffre, Herbie Mann and Les McCann. Nesuhi's most important contribution was championing and producing the Modern Jazz Quartet; the MJQ recorded twenty albums for Atlantic and was the backbone of their jazz catalog.
Soon after Nesuhi took over the album catalog, he deleted the 100 and 400 series of 10-inch albums, because the 12-inch format was becoming the standard. He also deleted the early 12-inch albums in Atlantic's catalog. Nesuhi started the new Atlantic long play catalog with album 1212. This 1200 album series carried a $4.98 list price, and at first the series contained both jazz and R&B albums. In 1956, a new 8000 popular series was started with a list price of $3.98. The few rhythm and blues albums in the 1200 series were reissued in the 8000 series, and the 1200 series became exclusively a jazz series.
For the two years Herb Abramson was away in the Army, Atlantic had enjoyed unprecedented success. In 1955, when he was discharged from the Army, he found a lot of changes at the Atlantic office. Nesuhi was overseeing the jazz catalog. Jerry Wexler had taken Herb's production seat and his success meant he would be staying. Also straining relations in the office was the fact that Herb's marriage to Miriam was over. In order to maintain peace it was decided that a new subsidiary named Atco (ATlantic COmpany) would be established for Herb Abramson to run.
In November 1955, Atlantic acquired the Spark Record Company of Los Angeles. The owners of the Spark Record Company were Lester Sill, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. Leiber and Stoller, two young white songwriter/record producers were also the principle assets of the company along with a black vocal group named the Robins. Nesuhi had become aware of Leiber and Stoller while living in California and brought them to the attention of Jerry and Ahmet. Although both were in their early twenties, Leiber and Stoller had written many R&B songs including "Kansas City" (as K.C.Lovin') for Little Willie Littlefield, "Hound Dog" for Big Mama Thornton and a hit song for the Robins called "Smokey Joe's Café".
Two of the members of the Robins, Carl Gardner and Bobby Nunn, left the group and came east with Leiber and Stoller to join Atlantic as the foundation of a new group called the Coasters (for West Coasters). The Coasters, with Leiber and Stoller writing and producing, had unprecedented success for Atco in the period from 1956 to 1961 with "Young Blood", "Searchin'", "Yakety Yak", "Charlie Brown", "Along Came Jones", "Poison Ivy," "Little Egypt," and others. Each of the Coasters hits were humorous mini-soap-operas.
By 1957, recording technology had reached the point that stereo tape had been available for years, and it was only a matter of months before stereo on vinyl was a reality. Atlantic was one of the first independents to record in stereo, using a portable stereo machine to record multitrack tapes at the same time the mono recordings were being made. Some of the early stereo hits were "Lover's Question" by Clyde McPhatter, "What Am I Living For" by Chuck Willis, "I Cried a Tear" by LaVern Baker, "Splish Splash" by Bobby Darin, "Yakety Yak" by the Coasters, "What'd I Say" by Ray Charles, along with many others. The stereo versions of these hits, for the most part, remained unreleased until 1968, when a fabulous stereo album called History of Rhythm and Blues, Volume 4 [Atlantic SD-8164] unveiled them for the first time.
Leiber and Stoller operated as independent producers for Atlantic, so they were free to make made records for other labels in addition to Atlantic. But they probably had their greatest success on Atlantic. In addition to the Coasters, they wrote and produced songs for LaVern Baker, Ruth Brown, Clyde McPhatter, Ben E. King, and the Drifters. In 1958, Leiber and Stoller were the first to apply strings to an R&B record when they produced "There Goes My Baby" with the Drifters. Ahmet Ertegun didn't like it, and Jerry Wexler called it "dogmeat." There was little to like upon hearing it cold. The tempo was odd, the backup singers sounded off key, and it was recorded in mono in a less-than-wonderful studio. The Atlantic brass refused to release it for almost a year. But somehow, the song grew on you, and when they finally relented to Lieber and Stoller's pressure and released it in April, 1959, it shot to #1 and was one of the biggest hits in Atlantic history.
Herb Abramson signed Bobby Darin to the Atco label and produced several songs that had little success. He was on the verge of dropping him when Darin approached Ahmet Ertegun and asked to record a song he had written that Herb refused to use. Ahmet agreed, and Darin had an immediate smash hit with "Splish Splash." Bobby Darin was the first pop act for Atlantic Records. When Darin recorded the Sinatra-styled "Mack the Knife" and "Beyond the Sea" and both became big hits, Darin moved from his teen idol status to a mainstream pop singing star.
Atco proved to be a profitable venture with the Coasters and Bobby Darin as artists, but even the establishment of the Atco label failed to solve the problems between Herb Abramson and Ahmet. The last straw came when the partners decided to replace Abramson as President of Atlantic with Ahmet Ertegun. This precipitated a walkout by Herb, and after protracted negotiations, his ownership share in Atlantic was bought out in December, 1958, for $300,000. Shortly thereafter, the stock owned by Miriam Bienstock (formerly Abramson) and the silent partner Dr. Sabit was purchased, leaving Atlantic with just three owners, Ahmet Ertegun, Jerry Wexler and Nesuhi Ertegun.
After leaving Atlantic, Herb Abramson started a short lived label called Triumph with a subsidiary label Blaze that issued a few singles in 1958 and 1959. Abramson released the first Gene Pitney record in 1958 (using the name Billy Bryan) "Going Back to My Love/Cradle of My Arms" (Blaze 351). In 1960, he started the Festival label, which issued one album by comedians Butterbeans and Susie, distributed by King Records (See King Discography). During the 1960s and '70s Herb owned the A-1 Recording Studio, where he produced Titus Turner, Tommy Tucker, Otis Blackwell and Louisiana Red, releasing the recordings through other record labels. His biggest success came in 1963 with his production of "Hi- Heel Sneakers" by Tommy Tucker, which Abramson leased to Checker Records. It reached # 11 on the R&B list. By the 1980s, Abramson had relocated to California and was living in poverty, but he was still dabbling in the recording business, hoping for one more hit record. Herb Abramson died in Henderson, Nevada on November 9, 1999, at the age of 82.
During the late 1950s, with the success of the Drifters, Clyde McPhatter, Joe Turner, LaVern Baker, Ruth Brown, Ray Charles, and the Coasters, Atlantic became a success in the crossover record market. The young white record buyers were no longer content to purchase the cover records of R&B hits, they wanted the real thing. And Atlantic provided it.
The future "Wall of Sound" producer Phil Spector worked for Atlantic in 1960 and 1961. Spector was producing records in California for Lester Sill and Lee Hazlewood on their Atlantic-distributed Trey label. When Spector became restless with the limitations of the West Coast recording scene, he asked Lester Sill for an introduction to his former associates at Spark Records, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. In May, 1960, Spector moved to New York to work for Leiber and Stoller. Initially, they used Spector as a session guitarist on Atlantic singles by the Coasters, Ben E. King and the Drifters. Later, Spector's guitar solo was heard on the Drifters' "On Broadway". Leiber and Stoller then assigned Spector to produce Ray Peterson's "Corrine, Corrina" and Curtis Lee's "Pretty Little Angle Eyes" on the Dunes label, and both were big hits. Atlantic took note of Spector's work and signed him as a staff producer. He produced a group called the Top Notes with the original version of "Twist and Shout," although "Twist and Shout" was one of Spector's glaring failures. The record stiffed, and Bert Berns, the song's writer, was incensed when he heard it. Berns felt Spector had ruined his song, and went out to show Spector how the song should be done. Berns recorded the Isley Brothers doing it the way he thought it should sound, and it was a huge hit. Spector also produced Jean DuShon, Billy Storm, LaVern Baker and Ruth Brown during his short stay at Atlantic, to moderate success at best. Spector left Atlantic in 1961 to form Philles Records with ex-boss Lester Sill.
In 1960, a Memphis pressing plant operator named Buster Williams contacted Wexler and told him he was pressing enormous quantities of the record "Cause I Love You", a duet between Carla Thomas and her father Rufus Thomas, on a small local label called Satellite. Wexler contacted the owner of Satellite, Jim Stewart, and with a handshake deal leased the record and obtained an option for future Satellite product for $5000. "Cause I Love You" was not a big hit on Atlantic, but a year later Carla Thomas recorded a song she had written called "Gee Whiz". The record came out on Satellite, but Wexler immediately exercised his option and claimed it for Atlantic. "Gee Whiz" was released nationally on Atlantic and went to Billboard #5. Satellite soon changed it's name to Stax, and Atlantic had an eight year association with the label. Atlantic began manufacturing and distributing Stax product and Wexler sent the brilliant Atlantic studio engineer Tom Dowd to Stax to improve their recording equipment and facilities. Wexler was impressed with the easy un-pressured atmosphere in the Stax studios where singers worked with the house band (Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper, Al Jackson, Duck Dunn, Wayne Jackson and Andrew Love) to write, arrange and produce the records. Wexler started taking Atlantic artists to Memphis to record in the Stax studios.
In the early '60s, Atlantic was hit with the loss of Ray Charles to ABC-Paramount and Bobby Darin to Capitol. Darin and Charles together accounted for a third of Atlantic's revenue. Luckily for Atlantic, in the fall of 1961, Solomon Burke showed up at Jerry Wexler's office unannounced. Wexler was a fan of Solomon Burke and had wanted to sign him earlier, but found he was under contract to Apollo Records. When Solomon showed up and told Wexler his Apollo contract was up, Jerry told him "You're home. I'm signing you today". The first song Wexler produced with Burke was the country and western song "Just Out of Reach" which became a big hit in September, 1961. Burke's foray into C&W predated Ray Charles by more than 6 months, who recorded "I Can't Stop Loving You" in 1962. Solomon was a consistent big seller and had many hits on Atlantic into 1968.
In 1964, Ahmet, Jerry and Nesuhi decided to sell Progressive Music, the Atlantic publishing company, to Hill and Range in order to reap some of the fruits of the long years of work building up the company. When they sold Progressive, they established a new publishing company called Cotillion. Cotillion was later used as the name of a subsidiary record label which issued southern rock, soul and gospel.
The alliance with Stax was really starting to show results about the same time. The Stax-produced material by Booker T. and the MG's, Carla Thomas, the Mar-Keys, Eddie Floyd, William Bell, and most of all Otis Redding, was selling well. Jerry Wexler signed Sam and Dave to an Atlantic contract but took them to Memphis to record at Stax. In an unusual arrangement, the Sam and Dave material was even released on the Stax label.
In 1964, Wexler signed Wilson Pickett. At first he had Bert Berns from Bang Records produce him, but the results were poor, so Wexler took Pickett to the Stax studios. According to Wexler, he put Wilson Pickett and Stax guitarist/producer Steve Cropper in a hotel room with a bottle of Jack Daniels whiskey and told them to "write". The result was "In the Midnight Hour" which was recorded at the Stax studio and was a smash hit for Pickett. Wilson Pickett continued to make hits for Atlantic through 1972.
In 1965, Wexler informed Jim Stewart that there was a possibility that Atlantic would be sold and in order to protect Stax, their handshake deal for Atlantic distribution should be formalized with a written contract. Atlantic lawyers drew up the new contract, at the insistence of Stewart, it included a "Key Man" provision, that should Atlantic be sold or Jerry Wexler leave Atlantic, the contract would be re-negotiated. Stewart signed the contract without having had it reviewed by his lawyer because he trusted Jerry Wexler implicitly.
In time, Jim Stewart became tired of having his studio tied up making hits for Atlantic and the relationship between Stewart and Wexler cooled. Wexler still wanted to be able to make records the innovative way it was done at Stax, so he went to Muscle Shoals, Alabama and hooked up with Rick Hall and his Fame studios. One of the first artists Wexler took to Fame was Aretha Franklin. In 1967, Aretha Franklin's contract at Columbia was up. She had had a lackluster career at Columbia, doing pop records and a little jazz, but Columbia never quite knew what to do with her. Jerry Wexler knew she was a tremendous talent and signed her to Atlantic. The first song Aretha recorded was "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)." In what must have been a magical moment in recording history, everything came together, the song was a smash and Aretha followed that up with "Respect", "A Natural Woman", "Chain of Fools" and many others on her way to becoming the "Queen of Soul" and arguably the greatest female singer of the 20th Century.
While Wexler was making history with R&B music, Ahmet Ertegun was moving Atlantic into white rock. In 1965 he signed an unknown husband and wife singing duo who had once been called Caesar and Cleo. Under their new (and in fact, real) names, Sonny and Cher, they had a #1 hit that year with "I Got You Babe" which was followed by many more hits.
Ertegun also saw the significance of the British invasion and signed Cream, King Crimson, Yes and the Bee Gees. (Later, Ahmet signed the British band Led Zeppelin and had great success in the album market with them. He also developed an arrangement with the Rolling Stones, giving them their own label which was distributed by Atlantic.) In 1966, Nesuhi and Wexler went out to Long Island to see a performance by a new band called the Young Rascals. Both of them were impressed with the band, but by this time many labels were trying to sign them. Ahmet invited them out to his summer place in Southampton and told them "war stories" of the early days of R&B, charming them into signing a contract with Atlantic. The Young Rascals (later, just the Rascals) recorded the classic "Groovin'", "Good Lovin'", and many more hits for the label.
Atlantic also signed Buffalo Springfield in 1966, and they had several albums on Atco and a big hit with "For What It's Worth". The group, made up of Stephen Stills, Dewey Martin, Richie Furay, Neil Young and Bruce Palmer, self-destructed in 1968, but Atlantic kept Stephen Stills as a solo artist.
In 1967, the three owners of Atlantic; Ahmet, Jerry and Nesuhi were approached by Warner Seven Arts Corporation about selling Atlantic. Warner Seven Arts offered $17,000,000 in Warner stock plus high paying jobs at the new company for each of the senior Atlantic executives. They agreed to the sale. Atlantic/Atco Records, along with Warner Brothers/Reprise Records, were to be operated as separate record companies under the ownership umbrella of the Warner-Seven Arts Corporation.
One of the most controversial situations in Atlantic history occurred in 1968 with the breakup of the relationship between Stax and Atlantic. Because of the sale of Atlantic, the provisions of the 1965 contract called for the re-negotiation of the agreement to manufacture and distribute Stax records. The owner of Stax, Jim Stewart, wanted to improve the contract. His leverage with Atlantic was that if a new agreement was reached, Atlantic could continue to distribute the very lucrative Stax back catalog. To his horror, Stewart was informed by Atlantic lawyers that the agreement he had signed in 1965 contained a clause giving Atlantic ownership of all of the Stax material that had been released while the distribution agreement was in place. In essence, Stewart learned that in the 1965 contract he had signed away the entire Stax catalog for one dollar. Jim Stewart was left with almost nothing with which to negotiate a new deal, and he eventually sold Stax to Gulf+Western. In his autobiography, Jerry Wexler says that he was unaware of this devastating clause in the Stax distribution contract as it had been inserted unbeknownst to him by Atlantic lawyer Paul Marshall. Wexler says that he felt lousy about what was happening and felt that Jim Stewart should have ownership of the records he had produced in his own studio. Wexler argued with the new Atlantic owners on Stewart's behalf but Wexler, now an employee and not an owner of the company, could not convince the corporate bosses to return valuable property to Stewart that was a key part of the overall Atlantic assets. As Wexler says in his autobiography, "There was no righting this wrong, Jim was screwed, and I feel bad about it to this day."
In 1969, Stephen Stills' manager David Geffen came to Jerry Wexler and asked for Stills' release from his Atlantic contract. Geffen wanted to take a new group Stills had joined to Columbia Records. Wexler lost his temper and threw Geffen out of his office. The next day Geffen called Ahmet Ertegun, and Ahmet suggested that instead of taking Stills to Columbia, let Atlantic sign the group. Ahmet's smooth charm had brought the megastar group Crosby, Stills and Nash to Atlantic. David Geffen became a protégé of Ahmet Ertegun, and eventually started the very successful Asylum Record Label under the Warner-Elektra-Atlantic umbrella, and even later Geffen Records.
Under Warner-Seven Arts, Atlantic and Warner-Reprise operated independently until Warner-Seven Arts itself was purchased by the Kinney Corporation in 1969. Kinney was a conglomerate made up of parking lots, office cleaning companies, rental cars, magazine distribution and funeral parlors that was seeking to branch out into the entertainment business. Under Kinney's ownership, Warner Brothers and Atlantic were brought together, Ahmet Ertegun was given considerable power in the new operation and he, along with both the President and Chairman of Warner Brothers Records, served on a committee to oversee the record business. In 1970, one of their first recommendations was that Kinney purchase the Elektra Record Company and that the resulting record division establish it's own distribution branches in each major region of the United States. By taking control of it's own distribution from the independents that had previously distributed their product, Warner-Elektra-Atlantic (WEA) had established itself on a level with the majors like Columbia and RCA. One of the reasons that Kinney (which eventually became Warner Communications) was successful in running record companies where other conglomerates failed miserably (for example, Gulf+Western with Stax and Dot, Transamerica with Liberty and United Artists), was that they continued to rely on the seasoned record men in the company like Ahmet Ertegun at Atlantic, Jac Holtzman at Elektra, and Mo Ostin and Joe Smith at Warner Brothers to continue to run the companies. The three record divisions continued to compete with each other for artists and record sales, but Warner Communications provided distribution and capital.
Atlantic continues to operate today as part of Time-Warner, one of the few independent record companies from the 1940s and '50s to survive. The Warner labels today have a large share of the world recorded music market, even more than the two former market leaders, Columbia (owned by Sony) and RCA (owned by BMG). Ahmet Ertegun is still there, although his duties were reduced in 1996 when he became Co-President of the company. Ahmet Ertegun was instrumental in founding the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. A biography of him was written in 1990 by Dorothy Wade and Justine Picardie, titled "Music Man: Ahmet Ertegun, Atlantic Records, and the Triumph of Rock 'n' Roll". Jerry Wexler is retired and living in Florida. He published his autobiography in 1993, appropriately titled "Rhythm and the Blues". Nesuhi Ertegun was head of the Warner Records International Division until he retired in 1987; he died in 1989 at the age of 71.
The rise of Atlantic Records demonstrates that it was possible for people with ethics, good taste and a love and understanding of music to build a very successful record company.
The above Atlantic history is based on information from "Rhythm and the Blues" by Jerry Wexler and David Ritz, "Making Tracks: Atlantic Records and the Growth of a Multi-Billion-Dollar Industry" by Charlie Gillett, "Music Man: Ahmet Ertegun, Atlantic Records, and the Triumph of Rock 'n' Roll" by Dorothy Wade and Justine Picardie, "Follow the Music" by Jac Holzman and Gavan Daws, "Soulsville U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records" by Rob Bowman and "The American Record Label Directory and Dating Guide, 1940-1959" by Galen Gart.
The Atlantic and associated label discography was compiled using our record collections, Schwann Catalogs from 1953 to 1982, a Phono-Log from 1963, and various other sources. We are indebted to René Wu for providing information about the early 10 and 12 inch Atlantic releases that he obtained by actually going through the New York Atlantic master files. Tracks are listed in order they appear on the albums, when known. The double slash (//) is indication of the separation between sides. Titles listed without a double slash (//) are listed as printed in the Phono-Log, and the separation between side one and side two is unknown. Titles with an asterisk (*) in front of the number have the titles listed alphabetically since track order is unknown. For those albums where the track-by-track stereo content is indicated, (S) means true stereo, (E) means electronic (fake) stereo, and (M) means mono.
The discography covers the Atlantic label and it's subsidiaries Atco, Cotillion, and Clarion. Also covered are the Atlantic-distributed labels: Alston, Astro, Capricorn, Carla, Carrere, Chimneyville, Clean, Dakar, Dial, Dunwich, Embryo, Hilltak, Karen, Little David, Mirage, Modern, Moonglow, Nemperor, Niktom, Pacific, Pompeii, Prophesy, Rabitt, Radio, Rolling Stones, San Francisco, Scotti Brothers, SGC, Signpost, Swan Song, Trey, Westbound, and Win or Lose. There is also a National Records discography, the company Herb Abramson was with prior to starting Atlantic. The Atlantic discography covers the first 35 years of the Atlantic label starting in 1947 and going to 1982.
Establishment of Koppel and Scher Company
In 1984 she co-founded Koppel & Scher with editorial designer and fellow Tyler graduate Terry Koppel. During the six years of their partnership, she produced identities, packaging, book jackets, and even advertising, including the famous Swatch poster based on previous work by Swiss designer Herbert Matter.
In 1982, Paula left CBS Records to start her own design firm with a focus on magazine and publishing companies. She was retained by Time Inc. for two developmental publications: Quality and Together. In 1982 she also began teaching at New York’s School of Visual Arts. In 1984 she and Terry Koppel formed Koppel & Scher. They thought her entertainment background and his experience as an art director at the Boston Globe made them marketable.
She designed the identity for Capitol Records’ new East Coast label Manhattan Records. A poster from a Swatch ad campaign generated more controversy from the design world that any of her work to date. Simon & Schuster; Random House; and Holt, Rinehart & Winston; and other major publishing companies hired Koppel & Scher to design book jackets that comprised a quarter of Koppel & Scher’s business. She calls her identity and packaging work for Oola, a Swedish candy store, the best purely commercial project of her career. This is where she “begun to understand the power of graphic design in the retail marketplace”. Other projects at Koppel & Scher included projects for Champion Papers, Print Magazine, New York’s School of Visual Arts, Ambassador Arts, Mohawk Papers, and more. She also contributed to work for the American Institute of Graphic Arts.
In the 1990 recession, Koppel & Scher suffered. Terry Koppel took a staff position at Esquire which left Scher to run the business solo.
Starting at Pentagram
In 1991, after the studio suffered from the recession and Koppel took a position at Esquire magazine, Scher began consulting and joined Pentagram as a partner in the New York office. Since then, she has been a principal at the New York office of the Pentagram design consultancy.
About Pentagram
Pentagram was founded on the premise of collaborative interdisciplinary designers working together in an independently owned firm of equals. Theo Crosby claimed the structure was suggested to him by his experience of working on the seminal late-1950s exhibition This is Tomorrow: "it was my first experience at a loose, horizontal organisation of equals. We have brought it ... to a kind of practical and efficient reality at Pentagram".[1] The firm currently comprises 16 partner-designers in 4 cities, each managing a team of designers and sharing in common overhead and staff resources. The partners in each office share incomes equally and all the partners own an equal portion of the total firm. This equality, along with the tradition of periodically inviting new members to join, renews the firm while giving even the newest members an equal footing with the partners of long standing. This 'flat' organization (there are no executive officers, CEO, CFO or board, other than the entire group) along with the self-capitalized finances of the business, allows equal participation and control of the group's destiny by the members.
In 1978 Colin Forbes formed the New York office, eventually adding both graphic designers Peter Harrison and Woody Pirtle as partners. In 1990-91 Michael Bierut, Paula Scher, graphic designers and James Biber an architect, joined the New York office and eventually moved to a building at 204 Fifth Avenue, a building designed by C.P.H. Gilbert, where the office still resides. Now in the New York office there are seven partners including Bierut, Scher, Michael Gericke, Abbott Miller, Luke Hayman, Lisa Strausfeld and Eddie Opara.[2]
In London, all the founding partners, along with David Hillman and John McConnell have departed, leaving a second and third generation of partners working in the Needham Road office. John Rushworth, Daniel Weil (an industrial designer), Angus Hyland, Justus Oehler (running the Berlin branch), Harry Pearce, Domenic Lippa, along with architects Lorenzo Apicella, Naresh Ramchandani and William Russell now comprise the London office.
In Austin, DJ Stout runs a single partner office.
Scope and clientele
Pentagram does work in graphic design, identity, architecture, interiors and products. They have designed packaging and products for many well known companies, such as Tesco, Boots, 3Com, Swatch, Tiffany & Co, Dell, Netgear, Nike and Timex. They have also developed identities for Citibank,[3] United Airlines, and The Co-operative brand in the UK, winning a silver award from the Design Business Association. In 2007, they updated the visual identity of Saks Fifth Avenue.
In addition to graphic design work, the firm has partners working on architectural projects such as the Harley-Davidson Museum, the Alexander McQueen shops, Citibank interiors, the Adshel and Clear Channel buildings in London, a host of private residences including the Phaidon Atlas of Architecture listed Bacon Street Residence, the new London club Matter, along with a host of interior, retail, restaurant and exhibition projects.
Pentagram was hired to redesign the American cable television program, The Daily Show's set and on-screen graphics in 2005.
Outside of commercial work, Pentgram also does pro bono work for non-profit organizations. On February 12, 2008 the President's Council on Service and Civic Participation awarded Pentagram the "DNA" award for incorporating pro bono services into business culture. Recently, Pentagram has done work for the One Laptop Per Child.
Pentagram also supports up-and-coming artists. Angus Hyland was a notable early supporter of illustrator Christine Berrie, and organized a display of her work at the Pentagram main office.
On December 13, 2010, the Big Ten conference unveiled their new logo designed by Pentagram.
Paula’s Life at Pentagram
Scher left CBS Records in 1982. She formed the studio Koppel & Scher with Terry Koppel in 1984, where she embraced the pressures of working on her own. The experience taught her the challenge of keeping her own clients and “paying [her] own phone bill, a situation distant from that of a corporation like CBS. In 1991, Scher became a partner in the New York office of Pentagram. This unique business environment makes each partner responsible for maintaining his or her own clients and design teams while sharing accounting services, overhead, and profits with the other partners. The sole woman among 15 partners, Scher describes herself as “the only girl on the football team. That doesnt make her a cheerleader or a trophy date, but an equal player in a pack of heavy-hitters. The Pentagram environment continually forces her to hold her own and stay on top, both creatively and economically.
The move to Pentagram marked a major shift in Scher’s career. This world-class, large-scale studio brought Scher a new level of visibility, and cultural and economic clout. She now had access to clients and projects that would not have ordinarily come to a smaller studio, especially not to one run by a woman. The years at Pentagram have allowed Scher to sharpen her typographic wit and her knack for conceptual solutions into a powerful approach to identity and branding. Whereas Scher’s earlier work often centered around the creation of a neatly contained package for a specific cultural product, she now confronts the much broader challenge of conveying a visual personality across a range of media, from posters, advertisements, and packages to physical spaces.
Among her most spectacular achievements has been the institutional identity she generated for the New York Public Theater in 1994. From large-scale billboards, down to the logo and stationery, Scher used a rhythmic mix of sans serif letterforms to construct a visual vocabulary that is both diverse and coherent—like the theater’s programming. Other clients include The New York Times Magazine, Champion International Corporation, Philips Van Heusen, and The American Museum of Natural History.
Assessing her work, Scher says, “I’ve always been what you would call a ‘pop’ designer. I wanted to make things that the public could relate to and understand, while raising expectations about what the ‘mainstream’ can be. My goal is not to be so above my audience that they can’t reach it. If I’m doing a cover for a record, I want to sell the record. I would rather be the Beatles than Philip Glass.”
Paula Scher is among the best designers of her generation. She cut a path for herself through the billboard-jungle of Pop, creating an approach to design that is articulate yet unpretentious, open to influences yet decisively individualistic. Through her astonishing visual work as well as her generous efforts within our profession as a teacher, advocate, and agitator, Scher has helped put an intelligent face on the field of graphic design.
Pentagram: Dialogue with Interviewer
CA: How has your role at Pentagram changed over the years?
PS: Well, ironically, it hasn't changed over the last 18 years. When you're a partner, you manage a team and your team is like a little business. You do everything you'd do in your own business, which is: be concerned about which projects are in, how they're staffed, who's doing what, relationships with clients and managing jobs. Then you're also dealing with your partners - sort of the central issues to the whole office.
CA: Is that still exciting? Do you ever want to slow down?
PS: Well, whether it's fast or slow isn't of interest to me one way or the other. All that's interesting is the work evolving - does it challenge me and is it forcing me to do things differently?
CA: And is it still doing that?
PS: It depends on the jobs I have in-house at a given moment. I try to force myself to grow by doing things I don't know how to do very well. Sometimes I fail utterly at it; sometimes I make breakthroughs. Right now I'm doing things I don't know how to do, so that's interesting to me.
CA: Is a lot of that your maps?
PS: No, I'm talking about design work actually. I'm working on some interactive materials on websites that I don't know what the hell I'm doing with. So I may stumble onto something interesting.
CA: Pre-Pentagram, what would you consider your greatest success?
PS: When I worked at CBS, from the mid-1970s to near the end when the money ran out, that was a pretty wonderful time for designing because I could make discoveries in a free way - largely because I had a lot of work to do and so much of what I did was terrible. That's a tremendous advantage, to make a terrible blunder, because you learn that way. When you have your own business and you're performing for your clients, you don't try so many things because you can't afford to make those mistakes.
Sometimes I feel sorry for people on my team because I think that they always have to get it right. They've learned how to be perfect, but I don't know that they know how to explore. To get good, you have to get really bad. You have to make some terrible, horrible mistakes.
CA: You've been called an 'unabashed populist'. What do you make of that tag?
PS: I believe that the goal of design is to raise the expectation of what design can be and that, in doing that, you're raising the expectation among people who aren't designers. The point isn't to make something that only sparks interest among, say, the academic community or a targeted group of design aficionados. I would like to raise the expectation of what design can be with people who go to the supermarket and confront any given item. That is what I mean by being a populist.
[Tastemakers] assume that if the population likes it, therefore it's crapola. But Apple proved them wrong. I think I once said I'd rather be The Beatles than Philip Glass - they're both qualitative, it's just that one has a broader appreciation from audiences than the other does.
CA: You've also been called the leader of the New York retro movement. Do you consider yourself retro? And a leader?
PS: Well, it's sort of a narrow definition. I guess you could characterise it that way if you had to make a caricature of it. When I was at CBS Records, I hated the Swiss international style. When I was in art school, I had teachers who praised Helvetica. I now think Helvetica is a completely beautiful typeface, but I never responded to that form of design because it lacked any kind of individual spirit.
What I responded to was... much more illustrative: work that came out of 1960s psychedelia, the music industry and things that were on the street. As a result, I began to search out forms and things that I didn't typically see. Those things I came across in antique stores. I would find a Buckingham pipe tobacco can, or a jar of cold cream that had elaborate Victorian type. And of course I was marrying [Push Pin Studios cofounder] Seymour Chwast and Push Pin had a history of working with decorative fonts, so I began to work that way.
I parted company with Push Pin when I began to use early 20th century modernism, but not Helvetica. I was using Constructivism, Dada, Futurism - those sorts of forms - in my work. It was the amalgamation of Victoriana, Art Deco and Art Nouveau. I taught myself typography that way. My work was highly visible at that time, so that's where that came from.
CA: Was it parody or tribute?
PS: It was all of it. There was a poster I did in 1979 called 'The Best of Jazz'. It was really a problem solver. It was a poster for a compilation of jazz albums that I'd actually designed covers for. The assignment was to get 20 big names on a poster. I'd started arranging them at tangents to each other so it looked constructivist, but... the type is Victorian wood type. The Swatch watch poster was pure parody. It was supposed to look exactly like [the original poster by Herbert Matter].
CA: How did your maps project actually come about?
PS: I've been painting these sorts of opinionated maps... on the backs of pads [since the] late 1980s. At some point I realised they would be terrific big. So I started doing them big, but the act of doing them became important because I was doing it in response to not really using my hands at work. Before the computer, I would be on the telephone talking to a client and I would be cutting up some piece of typography on my desk. I don't do that anymore. I needed to have the ability to craft something, so I picked these really monumental things to do because they seemed like they would actually offer a real challenge.
CA: Do you have a favourite?
PS: I really loved Africa when I did it. That was a black and white painting, and I was very pleased with it. The problem with them, to be honest, is that I started taking on commissions. [For example,] I'm working on these two murals... for four public schools together in one building in Queens. So what I'm really looking forward to doing is finding a way to evolve the maps into something else. I'd like to do a series of drawings, smaller paintings, probably still an information-related topic, but not necessarily maps. I can't right now because I'm fulfilling commissions I agreed to do. It's a little bit frustrating - like having two full-time jobs.
CA: What's next for you as a designer and Pentagram partner?
PS: Ageing and death - what else? I honestly don't know. I've never been more confused about it. I've just entered a new decade and I have to figure out how to deal with it. I don't quite know where I want to take things. I know I want to try things that I've never tried before, but short of that I can't answer it any more broadly. I think that a certain amount of freefall might be a good idea, and a certain amount of repetition of what I know how to do just to make sure that I hold up my end.
Pentagram: NYC Park Assignment
New Work: NYC Parks
The new identity for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
For New Yorkers, and visitors to the city, the green leaf of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation is a welcome symbol of relaxation and enjoyment. The Parks Department manages and maintains one of the world’s largest urban park systems, 29,000 acres of land that include more than 5,000 individual properties—from iconic New York landmarks like Central Park, Coney Island Beach, Prospect Park and Flushing Meadows Corona Park, to neighborhood playgrounds, pools, community gardens, historic houses, monuments, athletic fields and stadiums—that serve millions of New Yorkers. In peak season, the Parks Department has 10,000 employees across the five boroughs.
Pentagram’s Paula Scher has collaborated with the Parks Department on the design of a new identity that creates a unified, accessible and modern image for the agency. The program includes the design of a cohesive program of signage, wayfinding and environmental graphics for the more than 1,700 parks, playgrounds and recreation facilities in the Parks system. The project allows Scher to make a lasting contribution to the city that has inspired so much of her work.
The existing Parks logo.
The graphic program for NYC Parks is designed to meet several objectives. The Parks Department was initially looking for standards for the consistent application of its identity across agency materials. Despite having one of the most familiar logos in the city, many of the department’s communications for the public were not immediately recognizable as “Parks.” At the same time, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe was looking for a system to visually link Parks and its partnerships with high-profile community initiatives such as the High Line and Madison Square Park, which have their own distinct identities. And Parks needed a cohesive system of signage and environmental graphics in the parks themselves.
Since 2006, Scher has served as a member of the Design Commission of the City of New York, where she frequently reviews signage and graphics to be implemented in city parks and other public spaces. She was familiar with Parks’ existing graphics and the need for a consistent system.
The Parks leaf logo is one of the most iconic symbols in New York. The logo’s exact date of origin and designer are uncertain; it was first introduced to the department’s letterhead and official documents in 1934, when the five independent borough Parks Departments were unified into one agency, and Robert Moses was put in charge of the agency. (Moses was New York City Parks Commissioner from 1934 to 1960.) The type of leaf has never been officially identified; it most closely resembles the leaf of a sycamore, London plane, maple or sycamore maple. It is known to the agency as “The Parks Leaf” and has been periodically updated over the years, most recently in the early 1980s. The leaf and circle motif was developed in 1978, when it was introduced on Parks trucks, and widely disseminated on Parks signage in the 1980s under former Parks Commissioner Henry J. Stern.
Sub-brands for the various categories of NYC Parks programming.
In the new identity, Scher has tweaked the leaf logo to give it a more modern appearance. The shape of the leaf has been streamlined slightly to smooth out the edges, and the line of the surrounding circle has been made thinner. The color has been changed to a more contemporary shade of bright green that can be uniquely associated with NYC Parks—as opposed to the more generic fern or forest green associated with parks services in general—and may be updated according to fashion. (This change in the color green is for print, web and merchandising materials only, because they change continually and can be influenced by fashion. The signage program will retain its original green color.) The logo can also be used in black and white, where its distinctive silhouette makes a powerful mark.
The signature has also been changed, shortening the name from New York City Department of Parks & Recreation to the more colloquial NYC Parks. The type is set in Akkurat, the primary font of the identity; the secondary typeface is Chronicle.
The new program asserts the symbol as an icon, and the leaf can be adapted to fun and stylish patterns that can be used in brand merchandising for Parks.
The leaf logo can be applied in graphic patterns.
The new Parks letterhead.
The identity applied to Parks collateral.
The leaf logo pattern can be used for agency branding on items like umbrellas and tote bags.
The most visible application of the new program will be signage in the parks themselves. Currently, the signage in most parks appears as a confusing patchwork of information. Entrances to Parks properties are announced by the familiar green identification signs that feature the Parks leaf logo; these are accompanied by rules and regulations on separate signs, many of them containing only one message each, resulting in a crowd of directives and distracting visual clutter in the natural environment. This evolved out of necessity: signs were added as new regulations were introduced, or in response to the communities the parks serve; for instance, most signage appears in multiple languages. The sizes and colors of the signs vary, and they are produced using three different methods—routing, vinyl and silkscreen—creating a cacophony of signage types.
Existing Parks signage appears as a confusing patchwork of information.
Current signage has been added over time as regulations have been added or information introduced.
The new system consolidates all of this into modular signage that can be expanded with additional panels to accommodate further information. The signs can be arranged in horizontal or vertical orientations for various locations—at park entrances, dog runs, pavilions, etc.—and to accommodate the different heights of fences and other fixtures. On fences, the signage is double-sided, with panels clipping together at the same spot to be seen from both sides.
The new signage functions as a modular system.
The new signage is set in Akkurat, which is easier to read than Times New Roman, the font used in the existing system. The new signs are fabricated as prints set within high-pressure laminate (HPL) phenolic resin produced in a uniform forest green.
The signage will be installed on a rolling basis as park fixtures and facilities are upgraded or renovated, with the first signs to be installed at several city swimming pools this summer.
Signage can appear in horizontal and vertical orientations depending on park fixtures.
Rendering of the signage for Haffen Pool at Haffen Park in the Bronx, the first sign in the new program to be installed this summer.
The new identity establishes a system for promotional and communications materials for the Parks Department programming in various categories: Arts and Culture; Sports, Fitness and Outdoor Adventure; Kids; and Nature. In the past these materials—brochures, advertisements, posters and postcards—were designed by different freelancers and studios, with little standardization between them and no consistent treatment of the Parks identity.
The new system simplifies the graphics and makes them look more contemporary, establishing a unique look for each category and at the same time branding it as Parks. This is achieved through different logo treatments, types of imagery and distinctive color palettes. For instance, Arts & Culture brochures announce their titles on nameplates placed over images of Parks landmarks; Sports and Fitness materials feature icons of various activities, set in patterns of circles and a bright palette of blue, green and orange. Nature division posters combine flat graphics and photography of the natural environment; for Kids, the Parks logo is used in colorful patterns that form animals and objects.
Existing brochures for Arts & Culture programming.
The new Arts & Culture format prominently features the Parks identity.
Existing promotional materials for Sports & Fitness events.
The new Sports and Fitness posters appear in a palette of bright colors.
Sports & Fitness promotional materials feature graphic icons of recreational activities.
Posters for Nature events combine the leaf logo and photography.
Postcards promoting Kids events.
Kids promotions feature patterns of the leaf logo in the shapes of objects.
Email newsletters featuring the new identity.
An important part of the new program is the creation of graphic standards to link NYC Parks with its partnership parks—the community initiatives, alliances, trusts and conservancies such as the High Line, Times Square Alliance, Bronx River Alliance, NYC Greenway and Madison Square Park that have established their own high-profile identities. The new system pairs the Parks leaf with the logos of these groups, producing a cohesive and iconic system that works in both horizontal or vertical orientations and in various applications like signage and promotional materials.
The designers developed a system of lockups to pair the Parks leaf with the identities of individual parks.
The pairings provide a cohesive and recognizable system.
Project Team: Paula Scher, partner-in-charge and designer; Drew Freeman, designer, signage; Lisa Kitschenberg and Reed Burgoyne, designers, print.
Paula’s Educator History
In 1992, she became a design educator, teaching at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York. She received more than 300 awards from international design associations as well as a series of prizes from American Institute of Graphic Design (AIGA), The Type Directors Club (NY), New York Art Directors Club and the Package Design Council. She is a select member of Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI) and her work is included in the collections New York MoMA, the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, the Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich and the Centre George Pompidou".[12] As an artist she is known for her large-scale paintings of maps, covered with dense hand-painted labeling and information. She has taught at the School of Visual Arts in New York for over two decades, along with positions at the Cooper Union, Yale University and the Tyler School of Art.
School of Visual Arts
School of Visual Arts (SVA) is a college of art and design whose mission is to educate students who aspire to become professional artists. This mission is the foundation upon which are built:
• undergraduate degree programs in art and design that prepare students for entry into an array of professional fields in or related to the visual arts, while also equipping students with the skills necessary to become productive and thoughtful members of society;
• rigorous and practice-based graduate programs in the visual arts and its allied fields; a continuing education program intended to meet the diverse needs of New York City’s professional art and design community and the larger community within which the College resides;
• and a commitment to serving the greater good through community service.
The College’s mission is realized by:
• the employment of working professional artists, critics and scholars in all the disciplines taught at School of Visual Arts, and whose credentials and experience qualify them to teach at the college level;
• a commitment of resources to meet the educational and co-curricular needs of students studying at all degree levels as well as to provide for an enriching campus life experience;
• a concerted effort to capitalize upon the extremely large number and quality of cultural institutions located in New York City;
• a system of institutional and learning outcomes assessment designed to facilitate institutional planning and institutional renewal;
• and a sound financial position sufficient to ensure the College’s ability to meet the diverse and dynamic educational needs of the College community; to provide for opportunities for innovation and experimentation; and to ensure the maintenance of quality in all areas of the institution’s operations.
The School of Visual Arts has been authorized by the New York State Board of Regents to confer the degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts on graduates of four-year programs in Advertising and Graphic Design; Computer Art; Film, Video and Animation; Fine Arts; Illustration and Cartooning; Interior Design; Photography; and to confer the degree of Master of Fine Arts on graduates of two-year programs in Art Criticism and Writing; Computer Art; Design; Fine Arts; Illustration as Visual Essay; Photography, Video and Related Media; and to confer the degree of Master of Professional Studies on graduates of the two-year program in Art Therapy; and to confer the degree of Master of Arts in Teaching on graduates of the one-year program in Art Education.
The School of Visual Arts is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, 3624 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, 215.662.5606. The Commission on Higher Education is an institutional accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education and the Council on Higher Education Accreditation.
The School of Visual Arts is an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, and is a member of the International Association of Independent Schools for Art and Design, AIAS.
Awards
The Type Directors Club Medal
The Type Directors Club Medal is awarded to individuals and institutions that have made significant advances for, contributions to, and achievements in the art and craft of type and typography.
THE CHRYSLER DESIGN AWARD
The Chrysler Design Awards celebrate the achievements of individuals in innovative works of architecture and design which significantly influenced modern American culture.
Art Directors Club Hall of Fame
The Art Directors Club Hall of Fame was established in 1971, by the Art Directors Club, a professional organization in the design and creative industries. The Art Directors Club selects its honorees from those "who have made significant contributions to art direction and visual communications, and whose lifetime achievements represent the highest standards of creative excellence." [1]
Medalist, American Institute of Graphic Arts
On its website, AIGA says "The medal of the AIGA, the most distinguished in the field, is awarded to individuals in recognition of their exceptional achievements, services or other contributions to the field of graphic design and visual communication." [1]
AIGA Medals have been awarded since 1920. Nine medals were awarded in the 1920s, seven in the 1930s, eight in the 1940s, twelve in the 1950s, ten in the 1960s, 13 in the 1970s, 13 in the 1980s, 33 in the 1990s, and 45 in the 2000s.
Doctor of Fine Arts Honoris Causa, Corcoran College of Art and Design
Doctor of Fine Arts (D.F.A.) is doctoral degree in fine arts, typically given as an honorary degree (a degree honoris causa). The degree is typically conferred to honor the recipient who has made a contribution to society in the arts.
The Corcoran College of Art and Design, (Originally the Corcoran School of Art), founded in 1890, is the only professional college of art and design in Washington, DC, located in the Downtown area. The school is a private institution in association with the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
The Corcoran Gallery of Art is Washington's first and largest private art museum. The gallery opened officially in 1874, originally built to house the collection of its founder, William Wilson Corcoran.[1] One of America's oldest art institutions, it predates both New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and is known around the world for its collection of historic and modern American art as well as European fine art and for its collection of decorative arts.
2001 AIGA MEDAL
Areas of distinction: Identity design, packaging design, publication design, environmental graphics
For more than three decades Paula Scher has been at the forefront of graphic design. Iconic, smart and unabashedly populist, her images have entered into the American vernacular.
Scher has been a principal in the New York office of the distinguished international design consultancy Pentagram since 1991. She began her career as an art director in the 1970s and early '80s, when her eclectic approach to typography became highly influential. In the mid-1990s her landmark identity for The Public Theater fused high and low into a wholly new symbology for cultural institutions, and her recent architectural collaborations have re-imagined the urban landscape as a dynamic environment of dimensional graphic design. Her graphic identities for Citibank and Tiffany & Co. have become case studies for the contemporary regeneration of classic American brands.
Scher has developed identities, packaging for a broad range of clients that includes, among others, The New York Times Magazine, Perry Ellis, Bloomberg, Target, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, the New 42nd Street, the New York Botanical Garden, and The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. In 1996 Scher's widely imitated identity for the Public Theater won the coveted Beacon Award for integrated corporate design strategy. She serves on the board of The Public Theater, and is a frequent design contributor to The New York Times, GQ and other publications.
In 1998 Scher was named to the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame, and in 2000 she received the prestigious Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design. She has served on the national board of AIGA and was president of its New York chapter from 1998 to 2000. In 2001 she received the profession's highest honor, the AIGA Medal, in recognition of her distinguished achievements and contributions to the field. She is a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale. Her work is represented in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York; the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich; the Denver Art Museum; and the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.
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Scher holds a BFA from the Tyler School of Art and a Doctor of Fine Arts Honoris Causa from the Corcoran College of Art and Design. She has lectured and exhibited all over the world, and her teaching career includes over two decades at the School of Visual Arts, along with positions at the Cooper Union, Yale University and the Tyler School of Art. She has authored numerous articles on design-related subjects for the AIGA Journal of Graphic Design, PRINT, Graphis and other publications, and in 2002 Princeton Architectural Press published her career monograph Make It Bigger.
About the Art Directors Club
The Art Directors Club is one of the most concentrated groups of creative talent in the world, and is a gathering place for leaders in visual communication. ADC Members share the vision of our founder, Louis Pedlar, who brought his colleagues in advertising together in 1920 to dignify their profession and judge advertising art by the same stringent standards as fine art. For over ninety years ADC members have taken up Pedlar’s challenge by funding programs to Connect, Provoke and Elevate creative professionals around the world. Each year ADC brings together the best minds in the creative industries to celebrate the winners of our Annual Awards and Young Guns competitions, help a new generation of creative leaders rise up through the National Student Portfolio Reviews and Saturday Career Workshops, and celebrate the achievements of Hall of Fame inductees and GrandMasters recipients.
ADC'S MISSION: CONNECT | PROVOKE | ELEVATE
PROGRAMS
Throughout the year ADC produces a wide range of programs on advertising, design, and interactive media for professionals, students, and others with a serious interest in visual communications. These programs support the ADC mission to inspire and celebrate creative excellence. To receive program announcements sign up for the ADC newsletter.
AWARDS
Judged by an international panel of the world’s most respected creative professionals, the ADC Annual Awards competition honors the best work from around the world in interactive media, broadcast and print advertising, graphic design, publication design, packaging, photography and illustration.
Winners are presented with the ADC's coveted Gold and Silver Cubes at a gala ceremony each spring. In addition, the ADC Hybrid Award is awarded to the year’s most innovative, ground-breaking work and the ADC Design Sphere honors a sustained program of design by a design firm for a single client that sets the standard for excellence in design communications.
All of the winners are featured in the award-winning Art Directors Annual, the oldest and most respected compendium of outstanding work in the industry, whose pages have been graced by the work of such legendary figures as Saul Bass, Roy Grace, Helmut Krone and Bill Bernbach. Presenting more than 500 full-color images, the Annual is an indispensable reference tool and source of creative inspiration—or visual fuel—for creatives, clients and students alike. On the heels of the awards ceremony, ADC sends the Black, ADC Hybrid, ADC Design Sphere, Gold, Silver and Bronze work on a worldwide tour—from New York to Sao Paolo, Wiesbaden to Beijing, and scores of venues in between—in ADC's International Annual Awards Exhibition.
ADC Young Guns is a global, cross-disciplinary portfolio competition that identifies today’s vanguard of young creative professionals. Over the years, our roster has grown to include seven classes of exceptional talent. Past winners jury the work and choose fifty young creatives to join their ranks each year.
The ADC Vision Award recipient will honor a company or individual whose work embodies ADC’s mission by connecting in new and exciting ways, provoking the industry, addressing important issues and presenting breakthrough ideas.
Since 1971, the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame has recognized and honored those innovators who have made significant contributions to art direction and visual communications, and whose lifetime achievements represent the highest standards of creative excellence. An exhibition of the year's distinguished laureates and a series of speaker events accompany the opening dinner each year.
ADC GrandMasters are educators whose careers in creative education have impacted and mentored generations of students and whose legacy is a far-reaching network of industry leaders and professionals in Advertising and Design.
MEMBERSHIP
Membership at the Art Directors Club is an opportunity to participate in a community of the most talented creatives in the world. ADC works to forge strong relationships between extraordinary individuals and companies through a variety of programs, events and initiatives. Through ADC, members have a connection to a greater visual communications community that regularly inspires and challenges them. To learn more about the opportunities and benefits of membership, please see the member pages.
EXHIBITIONS
The Art Directors Club is a self-funded non-profit working on behalf of its members. The events and programs are the result of the collective energy of nearly 1500 creative professionals worldwide, led by our President and Board of Directors. For over ninety years the ADC has enjoyed bringing together the most interesting creatives in Advertising, Design, Interactive Media and Communications - we invite you to join us as we continue on our mission to Connect, Provoke and Elevate.
EDUCATION
The ADC encourages students to explore the field of visual communications with year-round educational events, including workshops for high school students, scholarships, portfolio reviews, and the student competition. We work with the best design, advertising and new media programs at accredited colleges across the country.
AIGA: Unjustified
By Paula Scher
AIGA’s “Justified” competition will select examples of good design that are also described in terms of their effectiveness in meeting the client’s objectives. Entries will be judged based on their design attributes and also how well a short case is made on their effectiveness in a clear, compelling and accessible way. A discerning and qualified jury will identify submissions that serve as an effective tool to explain design’s value to clients, students, peers and the public in general.
The text above introduces a new annual design competition from the AIGA called "Justified." It replaces AIGA's previous annual competition, "365," and means the elimination of its only other competition, the 90-year-old "50 Books/50 Covers." Book design will become part of the new "Justified" competition, and like all other entries, will be judged on "effectiveness."
How are entrants asked to present the case for effectiveness? They are required to present a "client brief and overview of market;" a description of "project challenges;" the project's strategy, including "ideas and implementation for satisfying the brief within the context of the challenges and market demands;" and an assessment of the work's effectiveness ("Why does your client consider the project a success? Why do you consider it successful? Include metrics and client quotes when possible.") In the event that entrants find these demands daunting, they are further directed to "The Living Principles for Design," the manifesto initiated by AIGA to encourage integrated sustainability in creative practices. There follow questions like, "Whether or not it was a client mandate, did you consider the environmental impact of your project?" and references to "ROI, increased sales or even money saved," "households reached, page views, tweets, Facebook friends, strategic media placement, coupons redeemed," "energy conservation or offsets, using recycled or otherwise sustainable materials, selecting an alternate delivery mechanism that removes the need for materials (i.e. a web banner instead of a direct mail campaign), or otherwise reducing, reusing and recycling." Finally: "Can your solution extend beyond the target audience? Does it have an impact on the culture at large? This may mean broad media coverage, viral distribution, and even being admired and imitated." Imagine that: being admired! Respondents are required to limit their answers to no more than 1,800 words for each entry. (By way of comparison, the Gettysburg Address is 270 words).
If you are still awake, did you notice that words like beauty, creativity, surprise, innovation, and inspiration are nowhere to be found?
This has been a long time in the making. Last year, AIGA attempted to cancel 50 Books/50 Covers. They were taken aback by the resulting protest and the 50 Books competition survived, barely, only to be mowed down again this year by the AIGA board, led by its new president Doug Powell. The major argument for canceling 50 Books seems to be that books are, or should be, an endangered species because the world is digital, and actual books, by their mere existence, encourage cutting down trees and are counter to "The Living Principles." Also, presumably many board members felt that the endangered species of books was getting undue attention. 50 Books was, after all, the only other existing AIGA competition except for the all-inclusive 365, which has served for a number of years as the show for everything else that constitutes graphic design other than books. The 50 Books competition will now carry on under the auspices of Design Observer and Designers and Books continuing the on-going trend of the privatization of design competitions. (Can you imagine the AIA passing its most historic competition program over to, say, Metropolis?)
Based on the criteria of AIGA's Justified competition, the posters of Armin Hofmann (above) and the jackets of Push Pin Group's Graphic (below) would not qualify
Push Pin Graphic covers
So AIGA approaches its one hundredth anniversary with a single, online competition, "Justified." And I ask: what is the justification for this?
It used to be different. AIGA held many different competitions — large and small, general and specialized, annuals and one-offs — back in the day when its headquarters were in a modest windowless space on Third Avenue in Manhattan, and these continued when it moved to its current home on Fifth Avenue. For years there was an annual illustration competition called the Mental Picture; its goal was to demonstrate the power of illustrators as authors. There were shows that demonstrated album cover art and entertainment design, sports design, information design, design for issues and causes, and photography. In 1982, a landmark competition and exhibit called "Just Type" predicted trends in approaches to typography that would dominate the rest of the decade. And each year there was the big omnibus show called Communication Graphics that featured corporate and institutional design, logos and identities, promotion, annual reports, posters, and really everything not served in other competitions.
The CG show, as it was known, was the big moneymaking show for AIGA. But the 50 Books competition was in many ways the most esteemed of all. First held in 1923 when the organization itself was not yet ten years old, 50 Books has always been a direct link to the days of AIGA founder William A. Dwiggins, the pioneer of typography and master of book design who coined the term "graphic design" and argued passionately for the quest for excellence in the profession that he named. This was the soul of the AIGA.
The goal of all these AIGA competitions was to make visible the best and most innovative work in American graphic design. The audience for the competitions was designers and anyone else who might be interested. The goal was to raise the bar of the practice and to inspire designers to make better work through the examples of their peers. "Better work" here was not directly related to sales or a quantifiable success for the client. Better work meant the elevation of the expectation of what the design could be. That could encompass anything: intelligent messaging, beauty, wit, surprise, materials, stylistic breakthroughs, maximum impact from a minimal budget, social consciousness, environmental awareness. Ideally, each competition would highlight the best crafted, most intelligent, most innovative work in any given area, based on who entered the competition.
There have always been many complaints about these kinds of competitions in general. Work that was awarded tended to be pro bono assignments, or personal promotion pieces, or in other areas where a client didn't interfere much. There might be a lot of work that wouldn't immediately — or perhaps ever — have a measurable effect in the marketplace. It could be dismissed as "design for designers." But consider, for example, the posters of this year's AIGA Medalist, Armin Hoffman; only initially seen by several hundred Swiss townspeople, they are still influential today. The same could be said for the Push Pin Graphic, a studio promotion piece that influenced three generations of illustrators and designers. Can one doubt the significance of these seemingly irrelevant pieces, which first gained wide exposure in competitions? So many of America's most visible, successful, influential, and admired designers working today cut their teeth on dumb promotion pieces that they designed for designers, and that were first seen by their community at AIGA competitions.
Pro-bono work, personal projects, professional promotion, and any work without marketplace concerns always allows for more risk taking. That's why so many of us with serious commercial design practices engage in this kind of work whenever we can. It gives us an opportunity to experiment, to ask questions, even to fail, but to raise the expectation of what design can be.
"Justified" changes the goals of AIGA's only remaining competition. The goal of the new competition is not to inspire the design community to better design, but to "explain design's value to clients, students, peers and the general public" by "justifying" the work. The justification is part of what is being judged.
I'll just come straight out and say it: if educating clients is the goal here, this competition probably won't achieve it's goal, and moreover may have bad consequences for the designer who hopes to enlighten their clients about the "value" of design. While clients enjoy finding out that something they were involved in won a competition, they never make business decisions based that and will more often than not state that they are not in business to win awards. If the hope here is that a client will see actual proof that a specific design made money for a business, and if that client is, indeed, impressed by it, then the likely outcome is that the client will want to replicate the very same thing with adjustments to suit their particular circumstances. Should that be a desired outcome of a design competition? It simply reinforces design solutions that have already been proven successful. It promotes what already exists. It does not raise the expectation of what the design can be.
If the goal here is to educate students, peers, and the public about "design's value," we'd all be better off buying everyone a copy of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. But if we want to educate people with a design competition, the criteria for this one is simply wrong-headed.
Let's start with the "strategy" criteria. Relating a logical and productive strategy is important to persuading clients to do the right thing. It can help make a group of decision makers behave more constructively in the design process, but it doesn't insure an interesting design result. Serious design, design that makes breakthroughs, design that inspires, is often a result of accidents, personal obsessions of the designer, and that designer's intuition, determination, arrogance, and naivety. Great design solutions often fly in the face of logical explanations, even when the designer provides one.
The best article I've read on design rationale was published on Design Observer by my own partner Michael Bierut, and was aptly entitled, "On (Design) Bullshit." I would never underestimate the benefits and import of bullshit — I sling it well myself — but judging design work by the quality of the designer's bullshit as required in this criteria seems pointless. If the work is terrific the bullshit is irrelevant. If the work isn't terrific, but the jury is moved by the entrant's arguments, it demonstrates the dangers of bullshit. Is this something we want to encourage? If we want to educate students and peers shouldn't the jury be writing why the design is terrific, not the entrant? If the AIGA wants to make a special competition on bullshit, I'd welcome it. The competitors could select one of three designs for three different companies and write a rationale for them. The most persuasive bullshit would win.
The "Effectiveness" criteria are scarier. It's rare that clients and designers will totally agree on what makes a design successful. That's because, for the most part, clients and their audiences are most comfortable with things that already exist. Relying on sales as a demonstration of success or popular response as a criteria ensures a predictable mediocrity. It's counter to AIGA's goals toward better design.
There is a form of design that I sometimes refer to as "solemn" as opposed to" serious." It is work that is well-crafted, solves a problem, pleases a client and an audience, makes money or increases market share, but breaks absolutely no new ground. It's not bad work, just expected work. I make it all the time because often it is the most responsible way to approach a design challenge. But I know when I'm doing it and why. Designing something that is comfortably recognizable for a client makes them feel secure enough to make an investment in it. It may even raise the bar a little bit in that the details are professionally achieved, or it pushes a category into a more visually sophisticated space. It's incremental improvement. I am personally proud of this high level, professional, solemn work and respectful of others who accomplish it, especially in difficult markets. I will show it and I'll talk about it. In fact, this sort of work fulfills all the criteria of the "Justified" competition to the letter. But it is mediocre work. It is excellently executed, expected work, not innovative work. There should be discussions about it, a maybe a special show for it, but not AIGA's ONLY show. Because we, the design community, will learn absolutely nothing from the winners.
And this is what's wrong with the premise and criteria of this show. It advocates for what already exists. It will demonstrate what we already know. It does not raise the expectation of what design can be. It is anti-creative, it is anti-innovative, and it is deliberately so. Innovative things are sometimes financial failures. Innovative things may miss their target audiences. They take time to become influential in the mainstream, just like Armin Hoffman's posters did. Those posters couldn't get into this show based on the criteria. And we, the members of AIGA, are the losers. We give up what makes us great.
The AIGA membership never believes that their clients respect them. Maybe they don't. But it seems pointless to deny our own special irrational creativity and intuition in order to try to gain that respect. When we try to behave like our clients we give up our own special difference. We give up the thing they admire us for and are often jealous of. We give up the reason they need to hire us. When we cut creativity, and innovation as a primary goal out of the criteria of AIGA's last remaining competition, in order to prove our "value" to clients, we not only lose our opportunity to learn and our capacity to grow, we also lose our souls.
The Public Theater
In 1994, Paula Scher was the first designer to create a new identity and promotional graphics system for The Public Theater, a program that became the turning point of identity in designs that influenced much of the graphic design created for theatrical promotion and for cultural institutions in general.
Based on the challenge to raise public awareness and attendance at the Public Theater along with trying to appeal to a more diverse crowd, Scher created a graphic language that reflected street typography and graffiti-like juxtapostion. In 1995, Paula Scher and her Pentagram team created promotional campaigns for The Public Theater’s prodcution of Savion Glover’s Bring in’Da Nose, Bring in ‘Da Funk that featured the wood typefaces used throughout The Public Theater’s identity. Scher was inspired by Rob Ray Kelly’s American Wood Types and the Victorian theater's poster when she created the cacophony of disparate wood typefaces, silhouetted photographs and bright flat colors for the theater's posters and billboard. Scher limited her colors to two or three while highlighted the play’s title and theater logo that surrounded the tap artist in a typographical be-bop. The design was to appeal to a broad audience from the inner cities to the outer boroughs, especially those who hadn’t been attracted to theater.
From 1993 to 2005, Scher worked closely with George C. Wolfe, The Public’s producer and Oskar Eustis, who joined as artistic director during the fiftieth anniversary in 2005, on the development of posters, ads, and distinct identities. As part of the anniversary campaign, the identity was redrawn using the font Akzidenz Grotesk. The word “theater” was dropped and emphasis was placed on the word “public”. By 2008, the identity was even more definitive as it used a knockout font called Hoefler & Frere-Jones which provided affordable and accessible productions.
The Public Theater Posters:
- Bring in ‘Da Noise , Bring in ‘Da Funk,Public Theater Poster/Pentagram: Paula Scher/USA, 1995
- Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk,on Broadway Poster/Pentagram: Paula Scher/USA, 1996
- Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk,Final Season/Pentagram: Paula Scher/USA, 1997
- The Public Theater’s Season Print Ads, Rendered in the New Identity/Pentagram: Paula Scher/USA, 1994
- HIM Poster/Pentagram: Paula Scher/USA, 1994
- The Diva is Dismissed/Pentagram: Paula Scher/USA, 1994
- Fucking A, A Contemporary Take on The Scarlet Letter,Poster/Pentagram: Paula Scher/USA, 2002
About: Public Theater
Mission
As the nation's foremost theatrical producer of Shakespeare and new work, The Public Theater is dedicated to achieving artistic excellence while developing an American theater that is accessible and relevant to all people through productions of challenging new plays, musicals and innovative stagings of the classics.
Toward this effort, The Public continues to be guided by a philosophy of inclusion, which takes on many forms—non-traditional casting of productions, education and development initiatives for artists from diverse backgrounds, outreach to students and audiences throughout New York City's five boroughs, humanities endeavors that provide a social and cultural context for the works we present, and mainstage productions that reflect and speak to the issues and interests of our surrounding community. Ticket prices for performances are kept low or free of charge in order to attract a broad audience, and every performance space is handicap accessible, with free sign language-interpreted and open-captioned performances offered during summer productions. The Public's programming also cultivates connections among its many constituencies—between artists and audiences and across ethnicities, ages and experiences. These connections are fundamental to the work of the institution as well as to the development of future artists and audiences, and thus the health of the theater community as a whole.
History
Founded by Joseph Papp as the Shakespeare Workshop and now one of the nation’s preeminent cultural institutions, The Public is an American theater in which all the country’s voices, rhythms, and cultures converge. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Executive Director Patrick Willingham, The Public is dedicated to embracing the complexities of contemporary society and nurturing both artists and audiences, as it continues Joseph Papp's legacy of creating a place of inclusion and a forum for ideas.
The Public Theater produces new plays, musicals, productions of Shakespeare, and other classics in its headquarters on Lafayette Street (the former Astor library, which opened as The Public Theater in 1967 with the world premiere of the musical Hair) and at the Delacorte Theater, its permanent summertime home of free Shakespeare in the Park each summer. The Public's newest performance space, Joe's Pub, has become an important venue for new work and intimate performances by musicians, spoken-word artists, and solo performers.
In addition to its theatrical programming, The Public trains the next generation of classical performers through the Shakespeare Lab, an annual summer acting intensive. It also presents New Work Now!, a play reading series that has become a nationally recognized showcase for emerging writers and established artists.
The Public Theater’s mandate to create a theater for all New Yorkers continues to this day on stage and through extensive outreach and education programs. Each year, more than 250,000 people attend Public Theater-related productions and events at six downtown stages, including Joe’s Pub, and Shakespeare in the Park.
The Public Theater's productions have won 42 Tony Awards, 151 Obies, 41 Drama Desk Awards and four Pulitzer Prizes. Fifty-four Public Theater productions have moved to Broadway, including Sticks and Bones; That Championship Season; A Chorus Line; For Colored Girls...; The Pirates of Penzance; The Tempest; Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk; The Ride Down Mt. Morgan; Topdog/Underdog; Take Me Out; Caroline, or Change; Passing Strange; the revival of HAIR; Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and The Merchant of Venice.
Notable works and awards
The most famous work to emerge from The Public, other than the original production of Hair, is the Michael Bennett musical A Chorus Line, based on the lives and careers of Broadway dancers. The show created such a stir of anticipation among the theatrical community that the entire limited run sold out long before opening night. Demand for tickets was such that the show moved uptown to Broadway's Shubert Theatre, where it remained "one singular sensation" for fifteen sold-out years. Over the years, revenue from the many worldwide productions, both professional and amateur, of the show has been a steady and main source of income for The Public.
The Public Theater has won 42 Tony Awards, 151 Obies, 41 Drama Desk Awards and four Pulitzer Prizes. Fifty-four Public Theater productions have moved to Broadway, including Sticks and Bones; That Championship Season; A Chorus Line; For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf; The Pirates of Penzance; The Tempest; Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk; The Ride Down Mt. Morgan; Topdog/Underdog; Take Me Out; Caroline, or Change; Passing Strange; the revival of HAIR; Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson; The Merchant of Venice and "The Normal Heart"
New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park
In 1994, Scher has created the first poster campaign for the New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park production of The Merry Wives of Windsor and Two Gentlemen of Verona, and was borrowed from the tradition of old-fashioned English theater style. This laid the foundation for the new overall identity and visual language that came to define the Public Theater for the rest of the decade and beyond. The designs for the Shakespeare in the Park campaign went all across New York, like the buses, subways, kiosks, and billboards.
Scher’s Shakespeare in the Park campaign had become a seasonal tradition in the city. The identity has progressed over the years which redesigned The Public Theater logo in 2005 and 2008. The campaign in 2008 for the productions of Hamlet and Hair, utilizes the strict 90 degree angles of a De Stiji-inspired grid, a pattern in Manhattan’s street scape. The identity is like New York itself, constantly evolving
In 2010, Scher designed the New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park poster has presented powerful productions of The Winter’s Tale and The Merchant of Venice, starring Al Pacino as Shylock. Scher’s festival promotional campaign focuses on the reminiscent language in both plays by pulling lines from each production to meet in a dimensional expressive of words and typography. This campaign was award for Print Regional Design Annual 2011.
New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Posters:
- New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park: The Merry Wives of Windsor and Two Gentlemen of Verona/ The first project Scher did for the Public Theater/ Pentagram: Paula Scher/USA, 1994
- New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: The Tempest and Troilus and Cressida /Pentagram: Paula/USA, 1995
- New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: Henry V and Timon of Athens/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 1996
- New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: On the Town and Henry/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 1997
- New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: Cymbeline and Thornton Wilder’s Skin of Our Teeth/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 1998
- New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: The Taming of the Shrew and Tartuffe/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 1999
- New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: Winter’s Tale and Julius Caesar/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 2000
- New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: Measure for Measure and The Seagull/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 2001
- New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: Henry V/ Pentagram: Paula/USA, 2003
- New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: Much Ado About Nothing/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 2004
- New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: As You Like It and Two Gentlement of Verona/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 2005
- New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: War/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 2006
- New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 2007
- New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: Hamlet and Hair/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 2008
New York Shakespeare Festival
Poster for the 2008 season of Shakespeare in the Park.
Fourteen summers ago Paula Scher designed a poster for the New York Shakespeare Festival that introduced a new identity for the Public Theater, a program that would eventually influence much of the graphic design created for theatrical promotion and for cultural institutions in general. Now, with the campaign for the 2008 Shakespeare in the Park productions (Hamlet and Hair), Scher introduces a refreshed identity for the institution.
The campaign appears all over New York, in subway and rail stations, on public transport and in print.
Yorick takes the bus.
For the updated identity, being produced in conjunction with a major renovation of The Public’s multi-theater complex on Lafayette Street, the letterforms have been redrawn using the Hoefler & Frere-Jones font Knockout. The new system is more refined as it retains the active nature of the original but provides more of a structure, while the change from a vertical to horizontal orientation has the effect of making the logo more architectural.
The updated identity set in Knockout.
This new graphic system can be seen in this summer’s Shakespeare in the Park posters that utilize the strict 90° angles of a De Stijl-inspired grid. Retained is the bold Victorian wood block type but now, the space is organized by angled printers rules, a distinctive throwback that adds structure while it references wood block type. “The energy of the identity is as active as ever, but it is a little more structured, a little more refined,” says Scher. “After 14 years it’s clear that the original identity had a lot of power, and while the system cannot return to that original, we can return energy to the form. It’s a bit like New York—it needs to constantly be changing.”
The new graphic system Scher designed utilizes strict ninety degree angles.
Promotional postcards using the new identity.
Scher has also designed the exterior scaffolding signage for the upcoming renovation by Polshek Partnership Architects and will be designing the environmental graphics for the new facilities. The mid-nineteenth century Renaissance Revival building has served as The Public’s home since the theater moved into the former Astor Library in 1966 when Joseph Papp, The Public’s founder, saved the building from demolition.
Rendering of the facade of the Public Theater with scaffolding signage.
Scher, who has served on the Board of Trustees for the theater, first designed the identity in 1994 when retained by The Public’s producer, George C. Wolfe. Responding to the organization’s mission to provide accessible and innovative performances, Scher created a graphic language that reflected street typography in its extremely active, unconventional and almost graffiti-like juxtaposition.
The first logo Scher designed was an amalgamation of sans serif American wood type styles inspired by a demonstration of typographic weights featured in Rob Roy Kelly’s book American Wood Type. The logo was organized to emphasize the word “public” as that is the word that best expresses the spirit of the institution. The entire range of type can be read in the word as it transitions from the thick P to the thin C. The logo was urgent but accommodating, as elegant skeins of type bristled with one another. “The variety of faces and weights formed a kind of democratic action painting in the elements of the identity,” Scher has said.
The 1995 posters Scher designed for The Public Theater’s production of Savion Glover’s Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk featured the wood typefaces used throughout The Public’s identity. The play’s title and theater logos surrounded the tap artist in a typographical be-bop, like urban noise. And for the first time, advertising for The Public appeared all over the New York City landscape, from Chelsea to Harlem, in Times Square, at the Lincoln Tunnel, on city buses, and most fittingly, beneath one’s feet on the sidewalk.
Poster for Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk from 1995.
After this campaign, The Public’s typographic style popped up everywhere, from magazine layouts to advertising for other shows. In fact, the whole style of theater advertising changed and everything began to be displayed in blocky wood type in all caps. The Public’s campaigns have had to continuously change to stay fresh in the city’s highly competitive theatrical market.
The Public celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2005. That same year George Wolfe left and Oskar Eustis joined as artistic director. As part of the organization’s anniversary campaign, the identity was redrawn using the font Akzidenz Grotesk. The word theater at the bottom of the logo was dropped, placing even more emphasis on the word public and the organization as a whole, as opposed to a specific location (the theater building).
On the occasion of the launch of the refreshed identity, here is a look at 13 years of Scher’s posters for the New York Shakespeare Festival, now called Shakespeare in the Park. (Scher took one year off, 2002, when the campaign was designed in house.) The first design project Scher undertook for The Public was the campaign for the 1994 Shakespeare in the Park productions of The Merry Wives of Windsor and Two Gentlemen of Verona, and that first poster borrowed from the tradition of old-fashioned English theater announcements as well as the bold language of wood type Scher was developing for The Public identity. Over the years, the posters have built on that language in interesting ways that have often ended up changing the identity itself.
Scher's first Shakespeare in the Park poster, from 1994.
Individually the posters also tend to reflect what is going on culturally at the time, for example posters for the 1995 performances of The Tempest and Troilus and Cressida carried the political and promotional message “Free Will” that was not only an advertisement for the free performances, but also as rallying cry to arts supporters to exercise their public influence as that year a conservative Republican Congress was threatening federal funding of the arts.
The 1996 poster for the productions of Henry V and Timon of Athens afforded Scher some of the most playful typography of the series. “I call this poster simply ‘The Vee,’ because the big V held the whole poster together,” she says.
Shakespeare in the Park poster 1996.
Scher combined her trademark handwriting with wood type in the 1997 poster for On the Town and Henry VIII. The season represented the culmination of Papp’s ambition to produce all of Shakespeare’s plays at the Delacorte. The marathon took ten years and its success is noted on the left side of the poster.
Shakespeare in the Park poster 1997.
The typography of the 1998 poster emphasized the melodrama of the two plays featured, Shakespeare’s Cymbeline and Thornton Wilder’s Skin of Our Teeth.
While winking at news headlines during the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, the posters for The Taming of the Shrew and Tartuffe singled out the words “lust,” “shrew” and “tart” in a degraded fluorescent red.
For the 2000 design of the poster for Winter’s Tale and Julius Caesar, Scher reversed form and did a deliberately pastel poster. The design also subtly related the state of print in the millennium—on the Web.
Shakespeare in the Park poster 2000.
The 2001 poster for Measure for Measure and The Seagull doubled as a map of Central Park. “It took me seven years to realize that the park is the same proportion as the posters,” says Scher.
Shakespeare in the Park poster 2001.
In 2003, after the invasion of Iraq, a poster for Henry V featured a quote from the play (“We doubt not of a fair and lucky war…”). Due to budget constraints from the weakened economy, only one play is produced for the next two years.
Shakespeare in the Park poster 2003.
The 2004 poster for Much Ado About Nothing was the only photography based poster and “the one I like the least,” says Scher. But the lush image of the park at night perfectly captured the romanticism of the play.
Shakespeare in the Park poster 2004.
Posters for the 2005 plays As You Like It and Two Gentlemen of Verona ushered in Akzidenz Grotesk as the identity’s new principal font.
In 2006 the Akzidenz Grotesk was extended and “War” was declared for productions of Macbeth and Mother Courage and Her Children.
Shakespeare in the Park poster 2006.
A corrective slate of the romantic comedies Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2007 led to “Free Love” in the park and an Akzidenz Grotesk that was ardently italicized and provocatively rounded.
Shakespeare in the Park poster 2007
The 2008 poster for Hamlet and Hair introduces the identity in Knockout—and the skull of Yorick topped by a calligraphic mohawk.
Shakespeare in the Park poster 2008.
Hair today, gone tomorrow.
New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Posters:
- New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park: The Merry Wives of Windsor and Two Gentlemen of Verona/ The first project Scher did for the Public Theater/ Pentagram: Paula Scher/USA, 1994
- New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: The Tempest and Troilus and Cressida /Pentagram: Paula/USA, 1995
- New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: Henry V and Timon of Athens/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 1996
- New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: On the Town and Henry/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 1997
- New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: Cymbeline and Thornton Wilder’s Skin of Our Teeth/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 1998
- New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: The Taming of the Shrew and Tartuffe/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 1999
- New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: Winter’s Tale and Julius Caesar/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 2000
- New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: Measure for Measure and The Seagull/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 2001
- New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: Henry V/ Pentagram: Paula/USA, 2003
- New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: Much Ado About Nothing/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 2004
- New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: As You Like It and Two Gentlement of Verona/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 2005
- New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: War/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 2006
- New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 2007
- New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: Hamlet and Hair/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 2008
About Maps
THE ART OF MAPPING curated by TAG Fine Arts
The Air Gallery, Dover Street, London W1S 4NE Exhibition Dates: 14 – 26 November 2011
Maps are more than just tools for getting from A to B: they are selective records of the wider world, loaded with creative, and often subjective, meaning. They are increasingly in the public eye. From Google’s controversial Street View project, to the British Library’s landmark ‘Magnificent Maps’ exhibition last year, cartography is in the process of being reimagined for today’s society.
TAG Fine Arts’ upcoming exhibition, The Art of Mapping, expands on these debates and celebrates cartography’s potential as an art form, rather than a science. Artists throughout history have used maps to respond to their environment, and creatively register ideologies, emotions and ideas. TAG will present work by a selection of the finest contemporary artists recently to engage with this rich visual tradition.
Confirmed exhibitors include Grayson Perry and Stephen Walter, the only living artists to be included in the British Library’s superb cartographic exhibition in 2010; Paula Scher, whose colourful, text-based maps were created as an expressive antidote to the bureaucracy of her internationally acclaimed graphic design projects; Robert Walden, whose delicately imagined ontological roadmaps were recently shown at the major exhibition ‘Mappa Mundi’ in Lisbon; and Cai Yuan, one half of the performance duo who famously jumped on Tracey Emin’s bed, who has turned his hand to cartographic prints. TAG is delighted also to be exhibiting Simon Patterson’s ‘The Great Bear’ on special loan from the London Transport Museum. This seminal piece, created nearly ten years ago, is one of the most recognisable and influential examples of modern mapmaking to date.
TAG is working with a host of new international artists, and has specially commissioned several unique works for the show. Susan Stockwell, who has exhibited previously at the V&A, Iniva and the Royal Geographical Society, will create a map of the British Isles using discarded computer parts, and also a limited edition print (a new venture into the
1medium). Gonkar Gyatso will take a fresh look at mapping in his first cartographic creation, and Claire Brewster is creating a site-specific installation piece. TAG will also introduce previously unseen works by US-based artists Dahlia Elsayed and Heidi Whitman, both exhibiting for the first time in the UK.
TAG’s experience dealing in prints and editions lends itself to map-related works, which have traditionally been created for dissemination. This exhibition is a wonderful opportunity for our emerging stable of artists to make new work, following TAG’s publication of Stephen Walter’s London Series. Stanley Donwood will release two new print editions to coincide with the show, and Justine Smith and Jonathan Parsons are completing new editioned works.
TAG invites artists to reengage with mapmaking processes and aesthetics, and creatively transform them. This is a fantastic opportunity literally to redraw the map in artistic terms.
A colour catalogue will accompany this exhibition.
Exhibiting Artists
Neal Beggs | Claire Brewster | Christa Dichgans | Stanley Donwood | Peter Dykhuis | Dahlia Elsayed | Gonkar Gyatso | Emma Johnson | Jonathan Parsons | Simon Patterson | Nigel Peake | Grayson Perry | Rob Ryan | Paula Scher | Justine Smith | Susan Stockwell | Robert Walden | Stephen Walter | Heidi Whitman | Jeremy Wood | Cai Yuan
Partnerships, Collaborations and Related Events
TAG is working in conjunction with a number of institutions, galleries and individuals:
The London Transport Museum is kindly loaning Simon Patterson’s ‘The Great Bear’ in advance of its own major exhibition on underground mapping in 2012, for which they have commissioned exhibiting artists Claire Brewster, Susan Stockwell, Stephen Walter and Jeremy Wood.
Stephen Walter’s London Series will also be exhibited at the National Trust’s Fenton House (Hampstead) for the month of October. http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-fentonhouse
TAG Fine Arts is an official supporter of the London Mapping Festival.
Katharine Harmon will be contributing a foreword to the exhibition catalogue. A number of exhibiting artists appear in her authoritative survey book ‘The Map as Art’ (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2009)
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Notes to Editors
A colour catalogue will accompany the exhibition.
A full list of all artists involved and exhibited works will be available from the end of May.
Individual artist biographies and images are also available on request.
All works, with the exception of Simon Patterson’s ‘The Great Bear,’ will be available for sale from TAG Fine Arts. For all sales enquiries contact Hobby Limon.
TAG @ The Air Gallery
The Air Gallery is located at 32 Dover Street. The nearest underground stations are Green Park (Piccadilly, Jubilee and Victoria Lines), Piccadilly Circus (Piccadilly and Bakerloo Lines) and Bond Street (Jubilee and Central Lines). The nearest rail station is Charing Cross.
The exhibition will be open from 14 – 26 November 2011. Opening Times: Monday – Friday, 10am – 6pm. Saturday, 11am – 4pm. Sunday, 12 – 4pm.
Admission free
About TAG Fine Arts
TAG Fine Arts is a contemporary art dealers and publishers based in London. Since 2007 it has represented emerging and established artists through pop-up exhibitions and major commissions. Stephen Walter’s extensive mapmaking project ‘The Island: London Series’ was published by TAG in 2008 and has since been acquired for significant public collections including the V&A, British Library, Government Art Collection and London Transport Museum. TAG’s most recent collaboration with the Air Gallery (November 2010) was for Rob Ryan’s critically acclaimed, sell-out solo show, The Stars Shine All Day Too.
TAG is renowned for working with skilled printmakers to produce new editions, and their expertise in the area is well suited to the tradition of artistic mapmaking. Fittingly, TAG is launching The Art of Mapping in the same year that it goes international, opening an office in New York City.
TAG will also be exhibiting new prints throughout the year at art fairs in the UK and abroad, including Multiplied Contemporary Editions Fair (14 – 17 October at Christie’s South Kensington) and the London Art Fair 2012. For more information about TAG Fine Arts visit www.tagfinearts.com.
Author Q&A with Paula Scher: Maps
Graphic designer Paula Scher: Pentagram (New York)
Graphic designer Paula Scher talks about Maps (Princeton Architectural Press, October 2011), her recent book of map paintings, which was named a Designers & Books Notable Book of 2011 by Alissa Walker, who said, “As art, it’s gorgeous; as a process, it’s a lesson in obsession; and as a narrative, it’s storytelling at its best.”
Designers & Books: In the introduction to your book, you tell the story of your father and his work with maps and how this led to your awareness of them. How did it first occur to you to make the leap that maps could provide you with an artistic opportunity?
D&B: You quote your father as saying, “All maps are distorted.” You also say, “I began painting maps to invent my own complicated narrative about the way I see and feel about the world. . . . They are paintings of distortion.” Your map paintings are very large and very detailed. Did you have any fears about how they would need to be distorted and scaled down to fit in a book?
PS: I confess that I never really like the paintings reproduced in any smaller form (though I do think the silk-screens are beautiful as objects) because viewing the originals is a very different experience. My favorite parts of the book are the details of the paintings at actual size.
D&B: Your work as a graphic designer always has a very specific audience. Did you have an audience in mind as you were putting together this book?
PS: No, I didn’t have any audience in mind. I am mystified by the response to the maps. I had no idea who would like them, or why. I found it interesting that different groups of people seemed to enjoy them for different reasons; cartographers, travelers, political writers, artists and designers. It’s a pretty diverse group—I think they all found something different in the maps that they related to personally.
D&B: You chose vibrant colors for the cover (bright pink) and endpapers (acid green). What went into that decision?
PS: I chose the painting World Trade for the cover because at the time of publication it was the last painting I had finished. (I always have enthusiasm for the most recently finished piece of my work, and then that diminishes quickly). We used a section of the painting at actual size and we tried about ten alternatives. They all looked pretty good. They all had a lot of pink and fuchsia in them because the painting does. We chose the section for the cover that was most abstract and had a lot of black in the background so that the type overlay on acetate would read well.
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The jacket of Maps folds out into a 3 x 2 foot poster of a portion of Scher’s map painting World Trade (below)
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World Trade, 2010
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The book was out for Christmas and I thought the cover looked festive, like a Christmas present. I guess The Gap thought so, too, because the Fifth Avenue store took the book and put it on a display table along with matching scarfs in pink, turquoise, and fuchsia and put a label near it that said “Color!” I couldn’t decide whether to be amused or horrified.
D&B: How close is the final result of the book to how you originally imagined it?
PS: I started designing it with my team and Pentagram and was dissatisfied with it, so I put it aside for a time, and then suddenly it had to be printed. I tried to let go and not think about it. It was too personal. There are things I would change if I redid it now, but I’ve also gotten used to it.
D&B: This is your second book, isn’t it? You have a book on your graphic design work (Make It Bigger) and now this one on your artwork. Do you have a third book in mind yet?
PS: Here are some little-known facts. This is my fifth book. The first book I ever wrote was a children’s book called The Brownstone, published by Knopf in 1973 and illustrated by Stan Mack. I wrote it when I was 23 and it was in the marketplace for over 20 years. I still am proud of it.
In 1980, I wrote The Honeymoon Book: A Tribute to the Last Ritual of Sexual Innocence. It was a satirical book about honeymoons and it was published at the time Prince Charles of England married Lady Di, and the media was obsessed with weddings. I was on television talk shows all over the country. Once I was on with Zsa Zsa Gabor and the discussion was about how to make a successful marriage. I was introduced as the “world’s foremost honeymoon expert.” I designed the book as well as wrote it and it is simply atrocious.
In 1991, I wrote The Graphic Design Portfolio: How to Make a Good One, on my design course that I teach at SVA. It was badly printed, but fairly instructional. The work looks terribly dated now.
I’d like to do a sequel to Make It Bigger. It looks like I manage to write a book on the average of every eight years, so that gives you an idea of when I’ll get around to it.
Paula Scher’s Maps
Graphic designer and painter Paula Scher has been remixing the map for decades with her large scale paintings. She’s now releasing a book of her creations, Paula Scher MAPS. In the early 1990s, celebrated graphic designer Paula Scher began painting maps of the world as she saw it as a form of satire and social comment in her design work. A partner in the design firm Pentagram, Scher started painting maps because it forces her to have patience, a trait she lacks in daily life. The larger her canvases grew, the more expressionistic her geographical visions became.
Maps
(All acrylic on canvas)
Africa 2003
United States 1999
South America 2002
Manhattan 2002
Florida 2000
Europe 2000
Europe 2000 (detail)
World 1998
Books by Paula Scher
“Make it Bigger”
"Make it bigger"-a familiar refrain to any graphic designer accustomed to presenting layouts to clients-is an apt title for a book that examines the graphic design profession primarily through the lens of the business community it serves. Veteran designer Scher draws from over three decades of design experience to provide readers with a firsthand account of the creative process, that is, advancing good ideas and personal vision within the corporate cultures and organizational dynamics that are predisposed to resist them. A focus on the collaboration necessary to bring design ideas to life sets this book apart from others in the genre. In addition to an interior packed with familiar work, the book's cover and jacket provide visual stopping power that supports the author's approach. Unfortunately, the book itself won't stand up well to heavy use. Though this work is mainly about the design profession, it will appeal to anyone working in a creative field, whether he or she is attempting to advance creative ideas or to chart a career trajectory concerned with personal growth and development. Best suited for larger public libraries or libraries with extensive liberal arts, fine arts, or business sections.
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An outspoken voice in the world of graphic design for more than twenty years, Paula Scher has developed a worldwide reputation for her bold, modern graphics and her incisive, sometimes stinging, critiques of the design profession. In Make in Bigger, Scher candidly reveals her thoughts on design practice, drawing on her own experiences as one of the leading designers in the United States, and possibly the most famous female graphic designer in the world. Pointed and funny, it is an instructive guide for all those who navigate the difficult path between clients, employees, corporate structures, artists, and design professionals. Make it Bigger provides a survey of Scher's groundbreaking work, from her designs as art director at Columbia Records, to her identity for New York's Public Theater, to her recent work for the New York Times, Herman Miller, and the American Museum of Natural History's Rose Center planetarium.
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Maps Book
In the 1990s, Paula Scher began painting colorful typographic maps of the world, its continents, countries, islands, oceans, cities, streets and neighborhoods. Obsessive, opinionated and more than a little personal, the paintings were a reaction against information overload and the constant stream of news, which, like the paintings, present skewed versions of reality in a deceptively authoritative way. The paintings are collected for the first time in Paula Scher: MAPS, a new book out now from Princeton Architectural Press.
MAPS presents 39 paintings, drawings, prints and environmental installations, including Scher’s recent commission for New York City’s Queens Metropolitan Campus. Many of Scher’s original paintings are huge—as tall as 12 feet—and the book reproduces the works in full and in life-size details that reveal layers of hand-painted place names, information and cultural commentary. The book’s jacket folds out into a 3’ by 2’ poster of a portion of World Trade, one of Scher’s most recent paintings, from 2010.
The book opens with an essay by Scher about the influence of her father, a photogrammetic engineer who worked on aerial photography for the U.S. Geological Service in the 1950s and taught her that maps were never totally accurate. (The essay’s title: “All Maps Lie.”) Scher’s father invented a measuring device called Stereo Templates that corrected lens distortions when aerial photography was enlarged for printed maps. Simon Winchester, author of The Map That Changed the World, contributes the book’s foreword, about the charm of maps in the age of GPS.
Tonight Scher will be discussing MAPS at a lecture presented by AIGA/NY at Parsons The New School for Design. The event is sold out. She will be signing copies of the book at a public reception at Rizzoli Bookstore at 31 West 57th Street in New York on Wednesday, October 26 at 5:30 pm.
The cover of MAPS unfolds into a poster.
Unfolded cover features a portion of the painting World Trade, 2010.
Title page facing a detail from World Trade, 2010.
The World, acrylic on canvas, 1998.
Tokyo, 2008.
China, 2006.
World Trade, 2010.
Maquette for one of the murals at the Metropolitan Campus, a public school in Queens, New York. The painting depicts the New York metropolitan region with a focus on Queens.
The finished mural installed in one of the solariums at the Metropolitan Campus.
Second 2,430-square-foot mural installed at the Metropolitan Campus, depicting Metropolitan Avenue in 20 different languages.
What They Said About the WMD's, ballpoint pen on newsprint, 2004.
Shock and Awe, colored pencil on paper, 2005.
The United States (Red), hand-pulled silkscreen print, 2007.
The Dark World, hand-pulled silkscreen print, 2007.
Project Team: Paula Scher, partner-in-charge and designer; Drea Zlanabitnig and Michael Schnepf, designers.
Written on JANUARY 18, 2012 AT 8:55 PM by GLENWOOD
Solo Exhibitions
Sometimes it feels almost unfair, the amount of enviable things Paula Scher has accomplished in her career. She spent most of the 1970s as an art director at CBS and Atlantic Records, designing some 150 album covers a year, including that iconic, monster-hit debut Boston LP, with its trippy flying saucers. The 1980s were spent honing her already considerable typographic-integrated-design skills with posters, book jackets and branding, and then in 1991 she became a partner at Pentagram and, through her highly-influential work creating identities for such clients as the New York Public Theater, Citibank, the MoMA, Coca Cola, and the New York City Ballet, helped make the company into the world-renowned design firm that it is today. AND somehow over the years, Paula Scher has also found the time and energy to create an incredible series of massive, beautiful, insanely intricate paintings that she calls MAPS.
MAPS Collection by Paula Sher Mixes History, Politics & Geography
We've been to and immensely enjoyed several exhibitions of Paula Scher's maps over the years, and her latest show, at the intimate but always well-curated Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery in Chelsea, is as engaging and amazing as we expected it to be. Here are about a dozen of Paula Scher's huge canvases from her MAPS series, including three which are being shown for the first time anywhere, and all of which are done in her signature type-piled-upon-type style. Paula Scher's color-palettes are, as always, impeccably elegant. Her hand-drawn typography is clean yet exuberant. And, while certainly functioning as basic, familiar geographic charts, the maps themselves also provide an added layer of information or three, such as world-trade routes, or the spiraling damage of a tsunami, or the language within and the signers of the Antarctic Treaty System. Even if you had one of Paula Scher's maps in your home, and could spend time each day admiring both the work's beauty and depth, it would still probably take years to see it all.
Exhibitions on 24th Street, a Midtown NYC Block where Galleries Converge
It's hard to choose favorites in a room like this, but the red-hued Japan stood out, as did Antarctica, Tsunami, and the enormous World Trade. PS: there are a number of other excellent exhibitions at galleries on this same block, 24th Street, in Chelsea NYC, including Joel Sternfeld's biting, amusing, and, for us, nostalgic photographs from the 1970s, First Pictures at Luhring Augustine; Michael St. John's twisted collages, In the Studio Twenty Eleven, in the back gallery of Andrea Rosen; Pierre Gonnord's searing high-def portraits, Relatos, at Hasted Kraeutler; and, of course, Ai Weiwei's magnificent Sunflower Seeds at Mary Boone, all running through February 4. Oh, and if you must, there's a Gagosian on the block as well, at which you can see Damien Hirst's money-grab of a show, Spot Paintings… one of ELEVEN Gagosian galleries worldwide showing this series simultaneously, through 2/18.
Paula Scher: MAPS at Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery in Chelsea details
Paula Scher's map painting will be on display at at Bryce Wolkowitz through February 18. TheThe Bryce Wolkowitz Galleryis located near The High Line in NYC on 24th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues.
Paula Scher: Recent Paintings, Maya Stendhal Gallery, New York, NY
Paula Scher, NYC Transit, 108 in x 60.5 in, acrylic on canvas, 2007.
An exhibition of new paintings by Paula Scher opens this Thursday, 8 November at the Maya Stendhal Gallery at 545 West 20th Street in New York City. Featured is work from her ongoing Maps series including the paintings India, Tsunami, Manhattan at Night, NYC Transit, Middle East and Paris. An exhibition catalogue has been published. The show remains on view through 26 January.
A closer look at NYC Transit and images of China and Paris after the jump.
Paula Scher, NYC Transit (detail).
Paula Scher, China, 118 in x 92 in, acrylic on canvas, 2006.
Paula Scher, China (detail).
Paula Scher, Paris, 114 in x 108.25 in, acrylic on canvas, 2007.
Famous Works: Citibank Logo
Original sketch of Citi logo/ 1998 Citibank logo
Paula Scher drew the original napkin sketch nine years ago. Paula "For Citi Bank I wanted to bleed the logo all over everything after we designed it. The Citi Bank logo is completely intellectual. It was a marriage of the Traveller’s umbrella and the word Citi to create an umbrella in the middle of the word. The emotional part of it came in the application of how they handled their secondary blue. They used to use it just as a band. I always called that type and stripe when a corporation takes a typeface and sticks a band down the side of everything to make it look the same. So I spent two and a half years selling a logo and trying to get this company to accept the notion of the expansiveness of this blue. Slowly and gradually we’re beginning to introduce it everywhere. We’re in the process of redesigning the interior of the banks as we speak, and the blue as a system, as an aura, as a lighting facility, becomes the basis for the identity of the bank along with the most reproduced trademark I’ll ever design. These are the their new credit cards. Sometimes I’ll invent typefaces for plays and then just spread it all over everything that goes on in New York. So it’s one damn thing just repeated in all different types of forms. I’ve been able to do that well in theatre but lately I’ve been doing it in architecture. I’ll design the logo and the identity for a building and then it’ll become the building".
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