Paula Scher on finding a “state of play”
Paula Scher, a partner at Pentagram, is one of those graphic designers whose work is recognizable even to people who never think about design. Asked to share the methods she uses to get into a “state of play”—the mindset where free association allows new possibilities to emerge from old ideas—she admits she has no real methods, and that nothing she makes is entirely new or original. Still, she offers ten approaches that have occasionally worked for her over a long career.
Clear the mind first
Rule number one: meet the collaborator or client, read the brief, and then go home and do something mindless and rote, like cleaning out a closet. The goal is to clear the brain so ideas can follow on their own.
Look at everything, flag nothing
Scher's second rule is to open design history books—all at once. She suggests the big Taschen volumes (volumes one and two) and recommends looking through them in a single sitting without flagging or copying anything, then starting the new project a day later.
Work in bad environments
Waiting rooms at a doctor's or dentist's office, or a car inspection garage where there is nothing to do for an hour, are prime conditions for sketching. A flight with no Wi-Fi or leg room works too. The worse the environment, she says, the better the result: the mind wanders and opens up. The key tools are a very small lined pad (or a napkin) and a good pen.
Protect relationships and balance work
Rule four is to nurture the relationships that afford you freedom. Scher notes this is her 29th season working with the New York Public Theater, and her teams still love the project because they get to play and invent.
The fifth rule is maintaining the right balance of work across a team. Keeping designers sane and enthusiastic means variety in projects and encouragement to question ideas. Scher believes the designer's goal is to raise the expectation of what good design can be—better work breeds better work.
Make room for play
Opportunities for play are rare, she says, so rule six is to take on pro-bono or near pro-bono projects just to practice the craft. That is often where she makes the most discoveries.
Her seventh rule is to change tools: get off the computer, look at other disciplines, go to a bookstore, museum, gallery, or go shopping.
Influence without imitation
Rule eight is about making peace with being influenced. Everything Scher has designed has been influenced by something or someone else. What makes work seem more original is avoiding trends.
Her ninth rule connects to that: don't use mood boards to influence anything, because you will only produce something slightly different from what is already in the marketplace. After refusing mood boards, she quotes creative director Robyn Kanner, a past Config speaker, from a New York Times piece against them: “A mood board is an idea. A world is a place that triggers all my senses...A world is alive, versus a mood board, which is something that lives on a corkscrew board.” Scher says she has used the same methods for the past 50 years regardless of trends and technology.
Be the first to move
The final rule is to initiate your own cluster. Design shifts develop because one brand does something somewhat daring and others follow, making it ordinary. The instruction is to be the one who initiates.
