Paula Scher: The Designer Who Made Typography Speak Like a City

Born in Washington, D.C., in 1948, Paula Scher studied at Tyler School of Art before working at CBS Records and Atlantic Records in the 1970s. She joined Pentagram as a partner in 1991, where she created the iconic identity for The Public Theater in 1994. Her 1995 posters for Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk are considered landmarks. Scher's painted maps, published in her 2011 book MAPS, have been exhibited internationally. She received the AIGA Medal in 2001 and the National Design Award for Communication Design from Cooper Hewitt in 2013. Her work is in the collections of MoMA, Cooper Hewitt, the Library of Congress, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and Centre Pompidou. She has taught at the School of Visual Arts for over two decades, as well as at Cooper Union, Yale, and Tyler School of Art.