Renewal of the surface coating of an adobe wall in Chamisal, New Mexico

Adobe ( /əˈdoʊbi/, UK /əˈdoʊb/;^[1] Arabic: الطوب) is a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material (sticks, straw, and/or manure), which the builders shape into bricks using frames and dry in the sun. Adobe buildings are similar to cob and mudbrick buildings. Adobe structures are extremely durable, and account for some of the oldest existing buildings in the world. In hot climates, compared with wooden buildings, adobe buildings offer significant advantages due to their greater thermal mass, but they are known to be particularly susceptible to earthquake damage.^[2]

Buildings made of sun-dried earth are common in West Asia, North Africa, West Africa,^[3] South America, southwestern North America, Spain (usually in the Mudéjar style), Eastern Europe^[4] and East Anglia, particularly Norfolk, known as 'clay lump.^[5] Adobe had been in use by indigenous peoples of the Americas in the Southwestern United States, Mesoamerica, and the Andean region of South America for several thousand years, although often substantial amounts of stone are used in the walls of Pueblo buildings.^[6] (Also, the Pueblo people built their adobe structures with handfuls or basketfuls of adobe, until the Spanish introduced them to the making of bricks.) Adobe brickmaking was used in Spain strating by the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age, from the eighth century B.C. on.^[7] Its wide use can be attributed to its simplicity of design and make, and the economy of creating it.^[8]

A distinction is sometimes made between the smaller adobes, which are about the size of ordinary baked bricks, and the larger adobines, some of which may be one to two yards (1–2 m) long.

Etymology[link]

Church at San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

The word adobe /əˈdoʊbiː/ has existed for around 4,000 years, with relatively little change in either pronunciation or meaning. The word can be traced from the Middle Egyptian (c. 2000 BC) word dj-b-t "mud [i.e., sun-dried] brick." As Middle Egyptian evolved into Late Egyptian, Demotic, and finally Coptic (c. 600 BC), dj-b-t became tobe "[mud] brick." This was borrowed into Arabic as al-tub (الطّوب al "the" + tub "brick") "[mud] brick," which was assimilated into Old Spanish as adobe [aˈdobe], still with the meaning "mud brick." English borrowed the word from Spanish in the early 18th century.

Adobe style in Santa Fe, New Mexico

In more modern English usage, the term "adobe" has come to include a style of architecture popular in the desert climates of North America, especially in New Mexico. (Compare with stucco).

Composition[link]

An adobe brick is a composite material made of clay mixed with water and an organic material such as straw or dung. The soil composition typically contains clay and sand. Straw is useful in binding the brick together and allowing the brick to dry evenly.^[9] Dung offers the same advantage and is also added to repel insects.^{[citation needed]} The mixture is roughly half sand (50%), one-third clay (35%), and one-sixth straw (15%) by weight.

Adobe bricks[link]

Adobe bricks near a construction site in Milyanfan, Kyrgyzstan

Bricks are made in an open frame, 25 cm (10 in) by 36 cm (14 in) being a reasonable size, but any convenient size is acceptable. The mixture is molded by the frame, and then the frame is removed quickly. After drying a few hours, the bricks are turned on edge to finish drying. Slow drying in shade reduces cracking.

The same mixture to make bricks, without the straw, is used for mortar and often for plaster on interior and exterior walls. Some ancient cultures used lime-based cement for the plaster to protect against rain damage.^{[citation needed]}

The brick’s thickness is preferred partially due to its thermal characteristics, and partially due to the stability of a thicker brick versus a more standard-sized brick. Depending on the form into which the mixture is pressed, adobe can encompass nearly any shape or size, provided drying time is even and the mixture includes reinforcement for larger bricks. Reinforcement can include manure, straw, cement, rebar or wooden posts. Experience has shown straw, cement, or manure added to a standard adobe mixture can all produce a stronger, more crack-resistant brick.^[10] A general testing is done on the soil content first. To do so, a sample of the soil is mixed into a clear container with some water, creating an almost completely saturated liquid. After it is sealed, the container is shaken vigorously for at least one minute. It is then allowed to sit on a flat surface for a day or so until the soil has settled into layers or remains in suspension. Heavier particles settle out first, so gravel will be on the bottom, sand above, silt above that and very fine clay and organic matter will stay in suspension for days. After the water has cleared, percentages of the various particles can be determined. Fifty to 60 percent sand and 35 to 40 percent clay will yield strong bricks. The New Mexico US Extension Service recommends a mix of not more than 1/3 clay, not less than 1/2 sand, and never more than 1/3 silt. The largest structure ever made from adobe (bricks) was the Bam Citadel, which suffered serious damage (up to 80%) by an earthquake on December 26, 2003. Other large adobe structures are the Huaca del Sol in Peru, with 100 million signed bricks, the ciudellas of Chan Chan and Tambo Colorado, both in Peru (in South America).

Thermal properties[link]

An adobe wall can serve as a significant heat reservoir due to the thermal properties inherent in the massive walls typical in adobe construction. In tropical and other climates typified by hot days and cool nights, the high thermal mass of adobe levels out the heat transfer through the wall to the living space. The massive walls require a large and relatively long input of heat from the sun (radiation) and from the surrounding air (convection) before they warm through to the interior and begin to transfer heat to the living space. After the sun sets and the temperature drops, the warm wall will then continue to transfer heat to the interior for several hours due to the time lag effect. Thus, a well-planned adobe wall of the appropriate thickness is very effective at controlling inside temperature through the wide daily fluctuations typical of desert climates, a factor which has contributed to its longevity as a building material. In addition, the exterior of an adobe wall can be covered with glass to increase heat collection. In a passive solar home, this is called a Trombe wall.

Adobe wall construction[link]

The citadel of Bam, or Arg-é Bam, in Kerman province of Iran: The world's largest adobe structure, dating to at least 500 BC

When building an adobe structure, the ground should be compressed because the weight of adobe bricks is significantly greater than a frame house, and may cause cracking in the wall. The footing is dug and compressed once again. Footing depth depends on the region and its ground frost level. The footing and stem wall are commonly 24 and 14 inches, much larger than a frame house because of the weight of the walls. Adobe bricks are laid by course. Each course is laid the whole length of the wall, overlapping at the corners on a layer of adobe mortar. Adobe walls usually never rise above two stories because they are load bearing and have low structural strength. When placing window and door openings, a lintel is placed on top of the opening to support the bricks above. Within the last courses of brick, bond beams are laid across the top of the bricks to provide a horizontal bearing plate for the roof to distribute the weight more evenly along the wall. To protect the interior and exterior adobe wall, finishes can be applied, such as mud plaster, whitewash or stucco. These finishes protect the adobe wall from water damage, but need to be reapplied periodically, or the walls can be finished with other nontraditional plasters providing longer protection.

Adobe roof[link]

The traditional adobe roof has been generally constructed using a mixture of soil/clay, water, sand, and other available organic materials. The mixture was then formed and pressed into wood forms, producing rows of dried earth bricks that would then be laid across a support structure of wood and plastered into place with more adobe.

For a deeper understanding of adobe, one might examine a cob building. Cob, a close cousin to adobe, contains proportioned amounts of soil, clay, water, manure, and straw. This is blended, but not formed like adobe. Cob is spread and piled around a frame and allowed to air dry for several months before habitation. Adobe, then, can be described as dried bricks of cob, stacked and mortared together with more adobe mixture to create a thick wall and/or roof.

Roof materials[link]

Depending on the materials available, a roof can be assembled using lengths of wood or metal to create a framework to begin layering adobe bricks. Depending on the thickness of the adobe bricks, the framework has been performed using a steel framing and a layering of a metal fencing or wiring over the framework to allow an even load as masses of adobe are spread across the metal fencing like cob and allowed to air dry accordingly. This method was demonstrated with an adobe blend heavily impregnated with cement to allow even drying and prevent major cracking.

Traditional adobe roof[link]

More traditional adobe roofs were often flatter than the familiar steeped roof as the native climate yielded more sun and heat than mass amounts of snow or rain that would find use in precipitous roofs. Cement may be introduced to prevent moisture from penetrating the composite of mud and organic matter. Vigas are beams across the roof that support the roof.

Raising a traditional adobe roof[link]

To raise a flattened adobe roof, beams of wood or metal should be assembled and span the extent of the building. The ends of the beams should then be fixed to the tops of the walls using the builder’s preferred choice of attachments. Taking into account the material from which the beams and walls are made, choosing the attachments may prove difficult. A combination of the bricks and adobe mortar that are laid across the beams creates an even load-bearing pressure that can last for many years depending on attrition.

Once the beams are laid across the building, it is then time to begin the placing of adobe bricks to create the roof. An adobe roof is often laid with bricks slightly larger in width to ensure a larger expanse is covered when placing the bricks onto the beams. This wider shape also provides the future homeowner with thermal protection enough to stabilize an even temperature throughout the year. Following each individual brick should be a layer of adobe mortar, recommended to be at least an inch thick to make certain there is ample strength between the brick’s edges and also to provide a relative moisture barrier during the seasons where the arid climate does produce rain.^{[citation needed]}

Attributes[link]

Depending on the materials, adobe roofs can be inherently fire-proof, which is a valuable attribute when the fireplace is kept lit during the cold nights. The construction of the chimney can also greatly influence the construction of the roof supports, creating an extra need for care in choosing the right materials. The builders can make an adobe chimney by stacking simple adobe bricks in a similar fashion as the surrounding walls.

Adobe around the world[link]

• 

  Still in production today, Romania's Danube Delta

• 

  Mixing mud and straw in brick frames

• 

  Community effort

• 

  Adobe brick house under construction in Kyrgyzstan

• 

  House in Sa'dah, Yemen

• 

  Adobe brick house under construction in Romania

• 

  An adobe wall in Linxia City, Gansu, China

• 

  Poeh Museum tower, the tallest adobe structure in New Mexico, USA

• 

  Great Mosque of Djenné, famous building made from banco, a type of adobe

See also[link]

• Cob (building)
• Compressed earth block
• Hassan Fathy
• Mudbrick
• Rammed earth
• San Xavier del Bac
• Sod house
• Super Adobe
• Qalat (fortress)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mud buildings

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mudbricks

Look up adobe in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Building With Awareness A detailed how-to DVD video that shows adobe wall construction and their use as thermal mass walls
• Cal-Earth (The California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture) has developed a patented system called Superadobe, in which bags filled with stabilized earth are layered with strands of barbed wire to form a structure strong enough to withstand earthquakes, fire and flood.
• Earth Architecture - A website whose focus is contemporary issues in earth architecture.
• Earth Architecture and Conservation in East Anglia - British organisation that focuses on the proper maintenance and conservation of earth buildings in a region of the UK that has a long history of building with mud.
• Kerpic.org - A website on earthen architecture researches stabilized with gypsum.
• Kleiwerks - International organization recognized for their unique contribution to modern earthen and natural building techniques throughout the world, their focus is on education through hands on experience. Very experienced experts are contactable and there are regular demonstrations in the area.
• Valle de Sensaciones - Artistic construction with adobe, Experimental ground and theme park for creative living close to nature
• World Monuments Fund - Adobe Missions of New Mexico - Description of a project of the World Monuments Fund for the preservation of adobe churches in New Mexico, in the United States.

For other uses of the title The Grid, see Grid (disambiguation).

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2010)

The Grid are an English electronic dance group, consisting of Richard Norris and David Ball (formerly of Soft Cell),^[1] with guest contributions from other musicians. They are best known for the hits "Swamp Thing", "Crystal Clear", "Rollercoaster", "Floatation", and "Cybernetic" (with Robert Fripp and Phil Manzanera).

Band members[link]

• Richard Norris (born 23 June 1965, London) - keyboards
• David Ball (born 3 May 1959, Blackpool, Lancashire) - keyboards
• Sacha Rebecca Souter (musician) (born 26 November 1963, Cockerton, County Durham) - Vocals

Biography[link]

The Grid formed in 1988 and had their first success with debut single, "Floatation", released on East West Records in 1990. They went on to release a string of ten UK hit singles and four albums,^[1] and toured the UK, Europe, Asia and Australia. The group's 1994 album Evolver reached #14 in the UK Albums Chart.^[1] The lead single from this album, "Swamp Thing", featuring elaborate banjo lines played by Roger Dinsdale. "Swamp Thing" proved to be a commercial success in the UK, Europe and Australia, reaching #3 in the UK^[1] and Australia and selling a total of one million copies.^{[citation needed]}

In 1996, Norris and Ball agreed to a hiatus period in order pursue individual music interests. Norris formed the Droyds, which went on to remix tracks by musicians including Armand Van Helden and Siobhan Fahey, and wrote the official biography of Paul Oakenfold (published in 2007): Ball reformed Soft Cell with Marc Almond, and also wrote music scores for films.^{[citation needed]} Norris has since formed the psychedelic duo, Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve, with DJ Erol Alkan, and has released a number of solo records and remixes under the name The Time and Space Machine.

The duo reunited in 2005, initially playing two gigs under the name GDM with female singer Misty Woods, before writing and recording new material as the Grid. A single, "Put Your Hands Together", was released in 2007 and an album, Doppelgänger, followed in 2008. Both were released on the Some Bizzare label. The album featured vocals by the British musician, Chris Braide.

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

Singles[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Grid Central - An Unofficial Page for The Grid
• Death of Roger Dinsdale.
• The Grid on allmusic.com
• The Grid MySpace page

Paula Scher, born October 6, 1948 in Washington, DC., is an American graphic designer, illustrator, painter and art educator in design, and the first female principal at Pentagram, which she joined in 1991.^[1]

Scher creates images that speaks to an audience with emotional impact and appeal and the images she has created have become visually identical with the culture of New York City. She has developed brand and identity systems, promotional materials, packaging, environmental graphics, and publication designs for a range of clients.^[2]

She is the 16th recipient of the School of Visual Art's Masters Series Award and an exhibition of Scher’s work can be seen at the Visual Arts Museum & School of Visual Arts, which ties in with her book, Make it Bigger.^[3]

Education[link]

Paula Scher studied at the Tyler School of Art, Elkins, Pennsylvania and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1970.^[4]

Career[link]

Paula Scher moved to New York City and took her first job as a layout artist for Random House children's book division.^[5]

[edit] CBS Records

In 1972, she was hired on at CBS Records to the advertising and promotions department. After a year, she left CBS Records to pursue a more creative endeavor at a competing label, Atlantic Records, where she became the art director and designed her first album covers. A year later Scher returned to CBS as an art director for the cover department.^[6] During her eight years at CBS Records, she is credited with designing as many as 150 album covers a year. Some of those iconic album cover designs are Boston (Boston), Eric Gale (Ginseng Woman), Leonard Bernstein (Poulenc Stranvinsky), Bob James (H), Bob James and Earl Klugh (One on One), Roger Dean and David Howells (The Ultimate Album Cover Album) and Jean-Pierre Rampal and Lily Laskin (Sakura: Japanese Melodies for Flute and Harp). In addition she received recognition for her designs, including four Grammy nominations. She is also credited with reviving historical typefaces and design styles.^[7]

Russian Constructivism[link]

She left CBS to work on her own. In 1979, Scher develop a typographic solution based on Art deco and Russian constructivism, which incorporated outmoded typefaces into her work. The Russian constructivism had provided Scher inspiration for her typography; she didn’t copy the early constructivist style but used its vocabulary of form on her works.^[8]

Koppel & Scher[link]

In 1984 she co-founded Koppel & Scher with editorial designer and fellow Tyler graduate Terry Koppel. During the six years of their partnership, she produced identities, packaging, book jackets, and even advertising, including the famous Swatch poster based on previous work by Swiss designer Herbert Matter.^[9]

Pentagram[link]

In 1991, after the studio suffered from the recession and Koppel took a position at Esquire magazine, Scher began consulting and joined Pentagram as a partner in the New York office.^[10] Since then, she has been a principal at the New York office of the Pentagram design consultancy.^[11]

Educator[link]

In 1992, she became a design educator, teaching at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York. She received more than 300 awards from international design associations as well as a series of prizes from American Institute of Graphic Design (AIGA), The Type Directors Club (NY), New York Art Directors Club and the Package Design Council. She is a select member of Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI) and her work is included in the collections New York MoMA, the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, the Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich and the Centre George Pompidou".^[12] As an artist she is known for her large-scale paintings of maps, covered with dense hand-painted labeling and information. She has taught at the School of Visual Arts in New York for over two decades, along with positions at the Cooper Union, Yale University and the Tyler School of Art.^[13]

Print[link]

Paula Scher has contributed to numerous issues of Print. Her first Print cover was with her friend Steven Heller. Together they created a parody issue in 1985, a genealogy chart of graphic design.^[14]

Branding & Identities Systems[link]

The Public Theater[link]

In 1994, Paula Scher was the first designer to create a new identity and promotional graphics system for The Public Theater, a program that become the turning point of identity in designs that influence much of the graphic design created for theatrical promotion and for cultural institutions in general.^[15]

Based on the challenge to raise public awareness and attendance at the Public Theater along with trying to appeal to a more diverse crowd, Scher created a graphic language that reflected street typography and graffiti-like juxtapostion.^[16] In 1995, Paula Scher and her Pentagram team created promotional campaigns for The Public Theater’s prodcution of Savion Glover’s Bring in’Da Nose, Bring in ‘Da Funk that featured the wood typefaces used throughout The Public Theater’s identity. Scher was inspired by Rob Ray Kelly’s American Wood Types and the Victorian theater's poster when she created the cacophony of disparate wood typefaces, silhouetted photographs and bright flat colors for the theater's posters and billboard. Scher limited her colors to two or three while highlighted the play’s title and theater logo that surrounded the tap artist in a typographical be-bop. The design was to appeal to a broad audience from the inner cities to the outer boroughs, especially those who hadn’t been attracted to theater.^[17]

From 1993 to 2005, Scher worked closely with George C. Wolfe, The Public’s producer and Oskar Eustis, who joined as artistic director during the fiftieth anniversary in 2005, on the development of posters, ads, and distinct identities. As part of the anniversary campaign, the identity was redrawn using the font Akzidenz Grotesk. The word “theater” was dropped and emphasis was placed on the word “public”. By 2008, the identity was even more definitive as it used a knockout font called Hoefler & Frere-Jones which provided affordable and accessible productions.^[18]

The Public Theater Posters:

• Bring in ‘Da Noise , Bring in ‘Da Funk,Public Theater Poster/Pentagram: Paula Scher/USA, 1995
• Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk,on Broadway Poster/Pentagram: Paula Scher/USA, 1996
• Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk,Final Season/Pentagram: Paula Scher/USA, 1997
• The Public Theater’s Season Print Ads, Rendered in the New Identity/Pentagram: Paula Scher/USA, 1994
• HIM Poster/Pentagram: Paula Scher/USA, 1994
• The Diva is Dismissed/Pentagram: Paula Scher/USA, 1994
• Fucking A, A Contemporary Take on The Scarlet Letter,Poster/Pentagram: Paula Scher/USA, 2002

New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park[link]

In 1994, Scher has created the first poster campaign for the New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park production of The Merry Wives of Windsor and Two Gentlemen of Verona, and was borrowed from the tradition of old-fashioned English theater style. This laid the foundation for the new overall identity and visual language that came to define the Public Theater for the rest of the decade and beyond. The designs for the Shakespeare in the Park campaign went all across New York, like the buses, subways, kiosks, and billboards.^[19]

Scher’s Shakespeare in the Park campaign had become a seasonal tradition in the city. The identity has progressed over the years which redesigned The Public Theater logo in 2005 and 2008. The campaign in 2008 for the productions of Hamlet and Hair, utilizes the strict 90 degree angles of a De Stiji-inspired grid, a pattern in Manhattan’s streetscape. The identity is like New York itself, constantly evolving ^[20]

In 2010, Scher designed the New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park poster has presented powerful productions of The Winter’s Tale and The Merchant of Venice, starring Al Pacino as Shylock. Scher’s festival promotional campaign focuses on the reminiscent language in both plays by pulling lines from each production to meet in a dimensional expressive of words and typography. This campaign was award for Print Regional Design Annual 2011.^[21]

New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Posters:

• New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park: The Merry Wives of Windsor and Two Gentlemen of Verona/ The first project Scher did for the Public Theater/ Pentagram: Paula Scher/USA, 1994
• New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: The Tempest and Troilus and Cressida /Pentagram: Paula/USA, 1995
• New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: Henry V and Timon of Athens/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 1996
• New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: On the Town and Henry/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 1997
• New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: Cymbeline and Thornton Wilder’s Skin of Our Teeth/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 1998
• New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: The Taming of the Shrew and Tartuffe/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 1999
• New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: Winter’s Tale and Julius Caesar/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 2000
• New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: Measure for Measure and The Seagull/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 2001
• New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: Henry V/ Pentagram: Paula/USA, 2003
• New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: Much Ado About Nothing/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 2004
• New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: As You Like It and Two Gentlement of Verona/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 2005
• New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: War/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 2006
• New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 2007
• New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park Poster: Hamlet and Hair/Pentagram: Paula/USA, 2008

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)[link]

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is one of the most recognizable logotype in the museum world. In 1964, the Franklin Gothic No.2 logotype was originally designed by Ivan Chermayeff. By 2004, Matthew Carter redrawn a new custom typeface named MoMA Gothic. Although MoMA core identity is well developed iconic museum but the applications like the web, print, and physical environment has not been unified or visionary like the museum itself. In order to continually carry the spirit of the institution, the museum hired Pentagram to design a more powerful and integrated comprehensive system.^[22]

To create a new approach that modernizes the institution’s image, Paula Scher designed a complete methodology for the new system to work at any scale, from an exterior banner to a print advertisement in the newspaper. Scher designed a strong grid to uniform placement of images and types. The artwork is being cropped to maximize visual and each quadrant of a page or a banner has specific function. A particular image is selected as the signature focus for an exhibit and list of upcoming events unrelated to the featured into a text block. The black on white logotype placed at vertically position whenever is possible and always bleeds off an edge. Julia Hoffman, MoMA’s creative Director for Graphic and Advertising and her internal team have used the new system and brought the system to life in applications from larger banners and subways poster to the website.^[23]

The Metropolitan Opera[link]

Paula Scher and Julia Hoffman has designed the new identity for The Metropolitan Opera. The Metropolitan general manger, Peter Gelb proposed to rebrand the institution and reach a wide audiences like the younger generation that never set foot inside the opera hall. The identity is set in Baskerville and Avenir and the campaign features performance of “Madama Butterfly”.^[24] The print ad campaign launched on August 20, 2006 and according to Thomas Michel, the Metropolitan’s marketing director, it was a successful sales day in the history of the organization.^[25]

New York City Ballet[link]

Paula Scher has designed a new identity and promotional campaign for the New York City Ballet, one of the largest and well-known dance company founded in 1933 by Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine. Scher designed with Lisa Kitchenberg of Pentagram and the NYCB’s Luis Bravo, to create an identity that links the company’s legacy and location to a modern and dramatic new aesthetic. The logo is set in the font DIN that appears slightly stacked on each layer. The palette is composed of black, white and silvery grays, in the way it resemble to the buildings of New York appear sometimes. It has a softened transparency and a subtle gradation of color that will include shades of blue blacks, green blacks and red blacks.^[26] Scher also cropped the images of City Ballet dancers to create more tension and drama. The new identity and graphics appeared on bus shelter, subway poster, magazines and newspapers ads, in the company’s programs and website, and in environmental graphics at the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center where the company performs.^[27]

Environmental Graphic Designs[link]

New Jersey Performing Arts Center[link]

In 2001, Paula Scher created an interior design for the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. In the design, there are words running along the walls; tubes and balconies reflecting with vast letters that gives a joyfully effect to represent the shows performance in the building. ^[28] It was signature and environmental graphics for the Lucent Technologies Center for Arts Education, a school affiliated with NJPAC.^[29]

Achievement First Endeavor Middle School[link]

For the Achievement First Endeavor Middle School at Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, a charter school for grades 5 through 8, Paula Scher has created a program of environmental graphic that helps school interiors to become a better learning environment. She created vibrant space with bold typography font of Rockwell and simple paint to change the life of its students. With the help Rogers Marvel Architects, who designed the school as a refurbishment and expansion of existing building. The design was based on Endeavor’s teaching philosophy and series of motivational slogans used by its teachers. Scher has enlarged these concepts into super-graphics that help define the interior spaces. The graphics appear as an equations form (“Education = Choice”, “Education = Freedom”) in the hallways and quotations running around the wall of gymnasium and staircase which encouraging student to do better and create a unique environment of their own.^[30]

Microsoft Windows[link]

She designed a new logo for Windows 8.^[31]

Maya Stendhal[link]

[edit] The Maps

In 2006, an exhibition at Maya Stendhal gallery in New York City, Paula Scher painted two 9-by-12-foot maps that resembled patchwork quilts from afar, but contain much textual detail. She created lines that represented the separation of political allies or borders dividing enemies. Scher created the maps into layers that reference what we think when we think of Japan, Kenya, or the Upper East Side.

For instance, The United States (1999) was painted in blocky white print and full with list of facts that comprehend when we think about cities. Africa (2003) represented in a stark black and white palette, hinting at a tortured colonial past. The land of the red rising sun represented when we think of Japan (2004).^[32]

This was Scher's first solo exhibition as a fine artist and sold every piece between $40,000 to $135,000. The Maya Stendhal's owner decided to extend the exhibition for four weeks, until January 21. Therefore Scher decided to produce silk-screened prints of 'The World' that contained large-scale images of cities, states, and continents blanketed with place names and other information. It's full of mistakes and misspellings and visual allusions to stereotypes of places such as South American, painted with hot colors and has two ovaries on the sides. It was not created to be a reliable map but convey a sense of the places that are mediated and mangled.^[33]

[edit] NYC Transit & Manhattan

In 2007, Paula Scher had created screen-prints of NYC Transit and Manhattan that is printed on hand-made deluxe Lana Quarelle paper. NYC Transit portrays the island of Manhattan as a busy destination crisscrossed by a subway system of loopy, color-coded lines and stations. It’s also shows the Manhattan night famed neighborhoods.^[34]

[edit] Limited Edition Print Map

In 2008, Maya Stendhal released a limited edition print map of China and renowned artist Paula Scher. The map is 48.5 x 40 inches, printed on deluxe Lanaquarelle paper, hand-made in the Vosges region of France. Scher collaborated with Alexander Heinrici to convey the hand-painted map to represent the rapid economic growth, booming industry, the success of Olympic bid, and superpower status on China.^[35]

Personal life[link]

In January 1970, Paula Scher first met Seymour Chwast when she was a senior at the Tyler School of Art. They met each other through an interview at Pushpin, arranged by an art director named Harris Lewine, where she took her portfolio to him. In 1973, she and Chwast married, and divorced five years later. They remarried in 1989.^[36]

Awards[link]

• Awards for graphic design; American Book Award nominations for best book design, and for best compilation of written and graphic material, both 1981, both for The Honeymoon Book: A Tribute to the Last Ritual of Sexual Innocence. ^[37]
• The School of Visual Arts grants a Master Series Award, showcase of Make It Bigger^[38]
• Awards: Print's Regional Design Annual 2011 for Shakespeare in the Park 2010 campaign, Map Murals for Queens Metropolitan Campus, and Environmental Graphic for Parking Garage at 13-17 East 54th Street.^[39]

Books[link]

• Scher, Paula. (2002) Make it Bigger. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, ISBN 1-56898-332-8 ^[40]

• Scher, Paula. (2011) Maps. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, ISBN 978-1-61689-033-9 ^[41]

Book Review[link]

• Seymour, Chwast, and Scher Paula. "Bookend." New York Times Book Review (1998): 55.^[42]

• Scher, Paula. "The Queen Of Howdy Doody Dada." Print 54.3 (2000): 61.^[43]

Newspaper Articles[link]

• Scher, Paula. "Op-Art: Diagram of A Blog" New York Times 5 Apr. 2007 ^[44]

• Scher, Paula. "Better Signs of Trouble." New York Times 13 Sept. 2009: 18(L)^[45]

Notes[link]

Further reading[link]

• Helvetica (2007 film) includes an interview with Scher
• Paula Scher: Recent Exhibitions at Stendhal Gallery New York (2006–2010)
• Paula Scher bio at AIGA.org
• Paula Scher bio at pentagram.com
• Paula Scher Curriculum Vitae (CV)
• Hillmancurtis feature Paula Scher: Type is Image (QuickTime)
• Art Directors Club biography, portrait and images of work
• Paula Scher: Great design is serious at TED

External links[link]

• Paula Scher:Pentagram
• Paula Scher Biography at AIGA.org
• Paual Scher: Designer at play(TED)
• Art Directors Club: Hall of Frame 1998
• Paula Scher: Great design is serious at TED
• Helvetica (2007) includes an interview with Paula Scher. Helvetica Website