Topography
Paula Scher
Scher is an American graphic designer and artist. Paula Scher studied at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia and Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington D.C, where is first achieve a BFA and Doctor of Fine Arts. After college she began working doing album covers for CBS Records and Atlantic Records that later moved her into working for Art Direction Magazine. Paula has been awarded many medals and achievements in her time and Grammy Award nominations. She has hurdled many milestones in her life that decorate her nicely, but lets look into her work and how she uses typography or letterforms to create a work of art.
Paula Scher’s latest works consist of maps that maximize the use of letterforms and color. In one of her painting she has India colored with bright vibrant colors contrast to the letterforms that are for the most part in the same color scheme in the totality of the painting. She uses the names and letters in different sizes and rhythms that give the painting energy and an idea repetitious source that flows.
The flowing letterforms creates a painting that becomes significant because she has mastered the use of text in such a way that text consumes the viewer and aesthetically pulls the viewers eyes into the work. Her paintings are overwhelming in the sense that she uses accents and bold letter type strategically that in the context of Dynamic Imaging, will be used to express art in ways that provides a kind of momentum that typography illustrates differently than actual rendered objects and spaces. Her letterforms provide different sizes, rhythm, repetition, speed, weight and color. In our class we will need to make the best of these characteristics to create a work that stands alone and actually speaks for itself.
In closing I am really compelled and inspired by Paula’s work because she has provided an avenue and aesthetic that I want to explore. She has on youtube a video where she experiments with alphabets and text that overlaps and how it changes its sounds. That idea is really compelling for my project, because I can experiment with how the letterforms will create sounds and shapes. I think that Paula’s work is exciting and interesting to try to almost try to visualize in my own artwork. Paula Scher is a wonderful artist and her work has left an impact on me.
The references that I have used are as follows:
