Significant Designers: Scher & Brody

Alicia Cassidy

Jun 9, 20224 min read

In a world where design is everywhere, there are designers who heavily shape our knowledge, standards and beliefs of what good design is. Both Paula Scher and Neville Brody have played significantly influential roles in the design world throughout their time, achieved through their unique design approaches.

Image Sources: (Paula Scher) & (Neville Brody)

PAULA SCHER

Scher is commonly described as the “master conjurer of the instantly familiar,” as she retains her place as one of the most influential designers in the world of graphic design (Pentagram, 2022). Her style captures a combination of both fine arts and pop art, examined mostly by the American eye through a lense of innovation. Based in the hustle and bustle of New York, her work is exhibited through promotional materials, packaging and branding systems as well as environmental graphics. Her work also features in locations such as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Museum of Modern Art (Pentagram, 2022).

The designer's off-centre approach to typography design in the 1970's allowed her role as an art director to pave the way to her success. Granted with various industry honours and awards such as the Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design in 2000, her work has become a landmark for influential design (Pentagram, 2022). Scher appears on the Netflix documentary Abstract: The Art of Design, where she further discusses this influence and significance of her designs. Now working at Pentagram, an independant design agency in New York, Scher states she and her colleagues "run and manage a business where they accepted a notion that they were equals" (Barker, 2021).

A Collection of Paula Scher's Designs

Queens Metropolitan Campus

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This design is part of a mural installation of over 100 panels created by Scher in for the campus at Queens Metropolitan in Forest Hill. The designer's signatory style of upscaled typography through environmental graphics is significantly exhibited, encouraging audiences to observe the world from from different perspectives. Her use of bold and vibrant colours reinforce the influential nature of traditional pop art in her work, whilst adhering to aspects of contemporary practice through the untraditional location and scale.

National Theatre Poster (2013)

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Scher designed this poster in 2013, for the purpose of the 50th anniversary of the National theatre in London. She drew inspiration from the theatre's custom typography in a previous decade, as her and several significant graphic designers were tasked with designing a poster that reinvented the style of one the past five decades.

'Him' Public Theater Poster (1994)

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A poster designed by Scher in 1994 for the Public Theater. Scher's use of compelling and striking colours, paired with simplistic geometry effectively convey the purpose of advertising an event at the Theater.

Scher's designs act as response to society and our constantly busy lives, specifically the crowds of New York. She makes references to the ever changing nature of life in general, illustrated in her artwork Area Codes and Time Zones, (2015) as she depicts the zip codes and median house prices of the USA through a creative lense. The designer also encourages commentary on visual identity, as she claims her work for the Public Theater "invites a voice and a point of view in the public imagination" (Santiago Cortes, 2018)

NEVILLE BRODY

Influenced by movements such as Dada, Constructivism and Futurism, graphic designer Neville Brody highly influenced 20th century design in the 1980's. Brody is based in the United Kingdom and renowned for his record cover designs, typography and art direction in magazines. The designer currently works at his own design practice that goes by the name of Brody Associates, located in London (Gosling, 2021). Brody states that within the business “We grapple with strategy. We ask questions, and we go deep.", reinforcing his extensive drive to create effective designs (Gosling, 2021). In relation, he is the founding owner of FontShop, in which he has created various notable typefaces such as Industria, Blur and Insignia

His style is largely provocative and eye catching, exhibited in his well know work for The Face magazine. Further, the designer's controversial nature has always existed, as his design tutors in college nearly expelled him for creating a postage stamp featuring the queens head turned horizontally (Tondo Creative, 2020).

Examples of Work by Neville Brody

The Face and Arena Magazine Covers

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These magazine covers were designed by Brody in the late 80's, displaying his visually arresting style. The articles commonly explore music artists, trends and popular celebrities of the time. His influence of pop art is distinct through his strict use of clean cut shapes and bold colour.

Nike Advertisement (1988)

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A 1988 commercial poster, advertising Nike shoes designed by Brody. This aimed to experiment with the layout of typography, in turn successfully targeting athletes through the energetic kinaesthesia formed by the letters.

Punk London Identity Design (2016)

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Brody's advertisement design for a Punk festival further highlights his controversial nature through the experimental typography. This design was created in 2016 and placed in the streets of London.

Ultimately, Brody's designs are a response to punk culture and provide commentary on the political and social boundaries that exist in London (Murphy, 2014). This includes the high level of conservatism that is portrayed throughout the city. He also takes great influence from punk music culture, which is illustrated through his experimental and controversial nature. In turn, he aims to communicate that boundaries should be challenged through design, like they can be in social and political contexts.

Linking My Work to Historical Context

As an emerging designer myself, it has been a significant practice to draw upon historical design contexts when creating my own work. This can be exhibited in my Alphabet Street Poster, capturing characteristics of traditional Bauhaus design such as inverted photography, the colour red and strict vectors. I took core inspiration from a catalogue cover designed by Herbert Bayer in 1927, advertising Marcel Breuer's iconic Wassily chair, transferring the context to an advertisement of a Bauhaus inspired design and fashion exhibition. A comparison between the traditional design and my own design is exhibited below.