Paula Scher

http://www.aiga.org/resources/content/4/5/2/images/5paulascherpeanuts.jpg

One of the artists my professor brought up in defense to my saying that design is male-dominated. She may be a designer. She may not design everything in a manly fashion, but looking at a lot of her work, it's almost all still male-appropriate...which is to say that it's not directly female. I'd like to know of a famous designer who is very very feminine in their designs and is able to focus most of their attention on the feminine role that is playing in their work rather than the male. Are they succeeding? Who are they?

When I said that design is very male-dominated, I was refering to the every day design that we see. Street signs, billboards, logos, etc. They are extremely male oriented and by this I mean that they are hard-edge, straight to the point, blunt. Granted, we are taught in design to be that way, to get our message across in as small amount of time as possible. But why? Why can't we design something instead that makes the viewer think about it for hours? Or at least longer than 15 seconds. What is wrong with the viewer having to actually THINK? I would imagine someone who thinks about your product or concept longer than 15 secs, would actually be more likely to remember it over the others. I know this is vague and not well thought out as I would like, I'm exhausted and I'm making this short.

In short, Paula Scher is not what I consider a feminine designer. She may be a female and she may design some things with women in mind but overall, in almost all of her designs that I have viewed, she appeals more the the male audience than the female.

But I can still learn a lot from her and this peice I've posted is one of my favorites of hers.

http://www.hillmancurtis.com/