Paula Scher

Paula Scher, a graphic designer, painter, author, and design educator, began her career as a layout artist for Random House's children's book division. She then moved on to CBS Records, where she designed up to 150 album covers a year and earned four Grammy nominations. In 1984, she co-founded Koppel & Scher, working on identities, packaging, book jackets, and advertising. Described as the “master conjurer of the instantly familiar,” Scher straddles the line between pop culture and fine art in her work. Iconic, smart, and accessible, her images have entered into the American vernacular.

In 1991, Scher broke new ground by becoming the first female principal at Pentagram. Since her appointment, she has developed identity and branding systems, promotional materials, environmental graphics, packaging, and publication designs for a variety of clients. One of her significant contributions was the creation of a new identity and promotional graphics system for The Public Theater in 1994, where she introduced a graphic language reflecting street typography and graffiti-like juxtaposition. Her work for The Public Theater won the coveted Beacon Award for integrated corporate design strategy. Scher designed the Metropolitan Opera's new identity, and her graphic identities for Citibank and Tiffany & Co. have become case studies for the contemporary regeneration of American brands.

Her work has been exhibited all over the world and is represented in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York, the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Denver Art Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. Scher has served on the board of directors of The Public Theater, and is a frequent design contributor to The New York Times, GQ and other publications. She served on the Public Design Commission of the City of New York from 2006 to 2015.

Scher has authored several books, including "Make it Bigger" and has contributed to numerous issues of Print. She was also featured in the documentary film "Helvetica" and profiled in the Netflix docu-series "Abstract: The Art of Design." Scher holds a BFA from the Tyler School of Art and honorary doctorates from the Corcoran College of Art and Design, the Maryland Institute College of Art, and Moore College of Art and Design. 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.