BBC Maestro: Paula Scher - Graphic Design

Meet Paula Scher. In this first video, she describes what she'll share in this course, and what you'll learn.

Paula describes the role of graphic designers, and the many ways graphic design shows up in our daily lives, whether in signage, ads, road signs, or websites.

When did graphic design start? Paula talks you through the evolution of type from pictographs and hieroglyphics to modern day alphabets.

Paula points out that crests, flags, and symbols, differing in style and complexity, still act in similar ways, and require a few of the same things.

Through examples, Paula teaches you why it's important to learn the history of typefaces to inject your work with emotion in an informed way.

Pacing, grid systems, cropping, and formatting are all design decisions that are made to help readers experience writing. Paula explains her approach.

In this lesson, Paula shows you influential graphic design from the 1800s to the 1940s, speaking to the styles and movements that emerged during this time.

Paula shows you influential graphic design from the 1950s to present day, describing the elements of graphic design and how designers played with those elements to create meaningful work.

Paula shows you powerful logos and describes how they became memorable. She shares her thoughts on what it takes to create an iconic logo.

Paula introduces the next few lessons, which are case studies of work she's done with major organisations. She gives guidance on what a designer must do when first starting a project with a client.

In this lesson, Paula describes the challenges she faced while creating the logo for Citibank.

When creating the brand identities for the Met Opera and New York City Ballet, Paula solved the various obstacles through typography and form.

When creating this logo, Paula had an idea that revolutionised how tech brands represent themselves. She'll show you how she came up with it and how she convinced her clients to go for it.

Paula teaches you how systems for identity need to be flexible and usable by the client. In this case study, you'll learn how she met the needs of the client and the process of identity design.

In this case study, Paula describes the problems she faced and how she solved them, as well as how 2D design gets translated to 3D space - another important aspect of identity design.

Paula explains what environmental graphics are, how they show up in our lives, and shares a few examples her business partner Michael Gericke worked on.

Paula walks you through more case studies from Michael Gericke's body of work. In these examples, you'll learn what kind of thinking a designer needs to create environmental graphics.

Through some examples, Paula and her business partner Emily Oberman explain what graphic design techniques go into making animations.

Paula walks you through the work of prolific animators, urging you to continue learning about what has worked in the past and how it's changed the future of storytelling through motion graphics.

Identity work now includes motion assets, so Paula shows you some of Emily's identity work as well as title sequences to go deeper into the facets that make great titles and animation.

Paula wraps up the course with some more tips, and recommends continuing the learning by referring to books mentioned in the course notes.