Pentagram, Paula Scher and Michael Bierut

Pentagram is a huge international design company responsible for some of the most amazing designs ever. It originated in London in 1972 then opening offices in New York 1978, San Francisco 1986, Austin 1994, and Berlin in 2002. The company is very unique as it can provide service across all aspects of Graphics, Identity, interiors, products and Architecture. they have a multi disciplinary structure with designers from all areas working together in the same environment which can only add to creative activity and thinking.

Pentagram consists of sixteen partners and are all practicing designers. Their clients work directly with partners and designers which is extremely important in a successful company. Two of the most well known partners are Michael Bierut and Paula Scher.

Michael Bierut

Michael Bierut became a partner of pentagram in New York 1990. his clients include Walt Disney Company, Benetton, Council of Fashion Designers of America, Motorola, Princeton University and Fashion institute of technology. His recent work includes a new branding and packaging strategy for Saks Fifth Avenue which i am especially interested in as Marian Bantjes also was involved in a “Want It” campaign for the luxury retailer. Bierut has also redesigned magazine “The Atlantic” along with the development of enviromental graphics for the New York Times building.

Along with his outstanding portfolio of work he has also won lots of design awards and his work is within collection at The Museum of Modern Art, the Cooper Hewit and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. As well as these achievements in 2006 he won the AIGA medal for recognition of his work and achievements.

 

We wanted something that would be immediately identifiable across the street or through the windows of a moving subway car, and that no one would throw away, ” Bierut says. “Blowing up the logo and rearranging the fragments in a million different ways on a grid made the identity much more dramatic.”

Regardless of whether it’s on Fifth Avenue or in the Houston Galleria Mall, Saks is a definitive New York store; the grid refers to the city’s street plan, and the fragments represent the frenzy of its street life. “It’s a metaphor for the larger-than-life experiences you can find on block after block in New York City,” Bierut says. “Though I really don’t expect anyone to notice that. If a Saks customer spontaneously spots the subtext, I’ll send them a gift voucher.”

 

I really like this new logo design for Saks Fifth Avenue The font design looks ornate and as a corporate logo it suits the image of the company perfectly. To me it says luxury and expensive. I especially like the fact that the product designs are in just black and white it gives a clean cut image with no color, it does not need color!! Although the idea of big busy city life behind the design is not really apparent the fact that the text is fragmented on the bags looks brilliant anyway. In relation to Marian Bantjes “Want it” campaign for Saks Fifth Avenue, her text had the same characteristics, very smooth and curved lines and a range of intricate patterns in the finished product. Although i really like this design i do like Bantjes “Want It” logo better, as i think it has more definition contains more detail and is a bit more fun.

Paula Scher

Paula Scher studied at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia and began her graphic design career as a record cover art director at both Atlantic and CBS Records in the 1970s. In 1984 she co-founded Koppel & Scher, her design company and in 1991 she joined Pentagram as a partner.

Scher has developed identity and branding systems, promotional materials, environmental graphics, packaging and publication designs for a wide range of clients that include Bloomberg, Coca Cola, Perry Ellis, Museum of Modern Art and the New York Botanical Garden. Scher creates images that speak to contemporary audiences with emotional impact and appeal.

Some of her achievements consist of; in 2001 she was awarded the profession’s highest honor, the AIGA Medal, in recognition of her distinguished achievements and contributions to the field. In 2006 she was awarded the Type Directors Club Medal, and in 2006 she was named to the Art Commission of the City in New York. As well as this her work is exhibited worldwide and is represented in permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Cooper Hewit National Design Museum, the Library of Congress, the Denver Art Museum and the Centre George’s Pompidou in Paris.

source: (www.pentagram.com)

      

This is one of Schers famous theatre posters she designed in the 1990’s for The Public Theatre, New York. This particular poster was designed for the production of Savian Glover’s “Bring on da noise, Bring on da funk” The poster definately has its own style due to Scher using typography in such an expressive way. The poster is dominated by type of all different weights and sizes all of which surround the slightly off centre subject. The randomness of the type makes the poster exciting, it makes it feel alive and almost as if the words are speaking to me. The fact that all the type is done in blocky capitals definately adds to this effect. I also like the structure of the words they fit so neatly like its own puzzle. Its obvious the poster represents urban culture and i think it is represented brilliantly and really says what it was meant to. Also the poster contains the PUBLIC logo in the top left that Scher designed for the company. I love this logo i think really stands out i especially like the way the “I” and “C” squash up at the end and are thinner letterforms it really catches my eye.

Aswell as this poster i have also included a couple of images of Scher’s hand painted maps. They are giant, detailed colourful maps of all over the world filled with compact letterforms that spell out country names, cities and states. These maps have a completely different feel and style to the previous work as they feel more personal due to the extensive handwork more than likely. Although still infused with typography they are her own letterforms, this aspect along with all the bright colours make the maps feel fun and exciting to look at, i could stare at it for hours trying to work out what all the words say in there own unique patterns.

From researching Paula Scher i found some of her work not very interesting especially her commercial work but when i came accross these two pieces i was very interested.