Paula Scher is a partner at the prestigious
Pentagram. She built her reputation mainly from her early graphic designs, which includes the iconic
Boston album cover (for those of you old enough to have experienced that musical era) and the
Citigroup logo. The book is an entertaining account of one female designer’s rise through what was (and arguably still is) a male-dominated business, and culminating in her current role at Pentagram. There are tons of examples of her work in the book, as well as the insightful - and often humorous - stories behind them. She offers some great thoughts on how to work with clients and corporate politics. Scher relies heavily on her intuition when designing, but understands that the clients ultimately want articulate rationales for the designs (how else can they judge whether or not the work is any good?). She thinks it’s tragic that a lot of talented designers lack the skills to explain their work to others in this manner, to persuade clients of the merits of their designs. So more often than not, this results in their work remaining invisible to the world at large. It reminds me of
Rogers’s claim that innovation is not a technological phenomenon but a
social phenomenon.
