
Paula Scher
Let one of the world's most inventive, in-demand graphic designers teach you how to take your creative work to a whole new level. The brain behind iconic brand identities such as MoMa and the New York City Ballet, and the first female partner at leading design firm Pentagram, Paula Scher will show you how to create memorable visuals that are universally understood.
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What you'll learn
Join Paula as she takes you through approaches to editorial design, the history of typography, what it takes to create an iconic logo, sketch to finish breakdowns of her own work, as well as insightful career advice. Designed to help you navigate the industry as a budding designer as well as how to create impactful work that you're proud of, this online course will set you up for creative success.
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Meet your Maestro
You name it, she’s probably designed it. After her first job as a layout artist for Random House’s children’s book division, Paula Scher then moved onto designing legendary album covers for the likes of Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones at CBS Records and Atlantic Records, before becoming the first female partner at design firm Pentagram in 1991. Now with a 50-year career and 300 design awards to her name, Paula is undoubtedly an industry icon, and may just be the most in-demand graphic design teacher around.
Lesson Plan
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2 mins
Meet Paula Scher. In this first video, she describes what she’ll share in this course, and what you’ll learn.
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3 mins
Paula describes the role of graphic designers, and the many ways graphic design shows up in our daily lives, whether in signage, ads, road signs, or websites.
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6 mins
When did graphic design start? Paula talks you through the evolution of type from pictographs and hieroglyphics to modern day alphabets.
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7 mins
Paula points out that crests, flags, and symbols, differing in style and complexity, still act in similar ways, and require a few of the same things.
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18 mins
Through examples, Paula teaches you why it’s important to learn the history of typefaces to inject your work with emotion in an informed way.
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11 mins
Pacing, grid systems, cropping, and formatting are all design decisions that are made to help readers experience writing. Paula explains her approach.
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19 mins
In this lesson, Paula shows you influential graphic design from the 1800s to the 1940s, speaking to the styles and movements that emerged during this time.
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18 mins
Paula shows you influential graphic design from the 1950s to present day, describing the elements of graphic design and how designers played with those elements to create meaningful work.
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32 mins
Paula shows you powerful logos and describes how they became memorable. She shares her thoughts on what it takes to create an iconic logo.
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1 min
Paula introduces the next few lessons, which are case studies of work she’s done with major organisations. She gives guidance on what a designer must do when first starting a project with a client.
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8 mins
In this lesson, Paula describes the challenges she faced while creating the logo for Citibank.
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7 mins
When creating the brand identities for the Met Opera and New York City Ballet, Paula solved the various obstacles through typography and form.
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6 mins
When creating this logo, Paula had an idea that revolutionised how tech brands represent themselves. She’ll show you how she came up with it and how she convinced her clients to go for it.
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9 mins
Paula teaches you how systems for identity need to be flexible and usable by the client. In this case study, you’ll learn how she met the needs of the client and the process of identity design.
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14 mins
In this case study, Paula describes the problems she faced and how she solved them, as well as how 2D design gets translated to 3D space – another important aspect of identity design.
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23 mins
Paula explains what environmental graphics are, how they show up in our lives, and shares a few examples her business partner Michael Gericke worked on.
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14 mins
Paula walks you through more case studies from Michael Gericke’s body of work. In these examples, you'll learn what kind of thinking a designer needs to create environmental graphics
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11 mins
Through some examples, Paula and her business partner Emily Oberman explain what graphic design techniques go into making animations.
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9 mins
Paula walks you through the work of prolific animators, urging you to continue learning about what has worked in the past and how it’s changed the future of storytelling through motion graphics.
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14 mins
Identity work now includes motion assets, so Paula shows you some of Emily’s identity work as well as title sequences to go deeper into the facets that make great titles and animation.
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2 mins
Paula wraps up the course with some more tips, and recommends continuing the learning by referring to books mentioned in the course notes.
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Own this course for life
$89 / $53.40
- Have lifetime access to "Graphic Design" by Paula Scher
- Immerse yourself in hours of compelling video lessons
- Watch at your own pace as many times as you like
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