On Heroes and Mentors, Lessons from Paula Scher
PAULA SCHER
Design Driven—an event hosted by FirstMark and United Technologies Corp on April 17, 2019 in Brooklyn, NY.
The people I learned about in art school seemed almost mythical to me back then—magical visionaries from a distant land with dazzling careers that I could only dream of. Most of these artists were either dead, or so far from my own little world that the idea of ever meeting them seemed like fantasy. That’s why my jaw dropped when I saw that THE Paula Scher would be speaking at one of my regular meet-ups.
I heart New York so. very. much.
I can clearly remember learning about Paula Scher’s work for the first time in an art theory class. We were studying appropriation and emulation in postmodern art. Now, in my own career in the trend-driven consumer-goods design world, those lessons have become very important to me.
Paula’s ever-evolving, nearly fifty-year career was inspiring to hear about. She’s done something different in every decade, a fact which resonated with me as I’m contemplating yet another career pivot after nearly 10 years doing the same thing. Her talk was about 10 important lessons she’s learned over her career, which also kind of read like a roadmap:
Fall in love with something that was designed
Have heroes and mentors (I count Paula as a hero!)
Push back against something
Defy the career staircase (a gradual decrease in career development)
Go the distance
Be a neophyte
Find a personal expression
Be civic-minded
Hang around with smart people
Do what you do best, but change with the times
Currently, I’m at an inflection point in my own career and experiencing a lot of self-doubt but also an over-whelming inner-drive to push through and evolve. Facing the unknown is scary and I have some crazy thoughts running through my head. Mostly, I wonder if I’m throwing away the successful career I’ve worked so hard to build. Paula’s talk was really heartening to me.
Paula, though much of her work has been commercial, is truly an artist at her core, which I can really identify with. No matter what their medium, I think artists are in-touch with an inner need to evolve and explore the world and shape culture through their work. This is evident in Paula’s career path and explains my own need for change and desire to keep learning. I realized that I’m not throwing anything away by pivoting my career—I’m building something that is unique.
After Paula’s talk, there were three other speakers at the event. One of those speakers happened to be my friend, Tanya Malan, who was speaking about her work as the director of UX at Bonobos.com. Paula was a tough act to follow, but Tanya gave an inspiring talk about the importance of making design more human. I was really proud of Tanya. I even noticed people taking notes on her talk.
Afterwards, Tanya and I hung around for the networking portion of the event. I’ve never been good at networking, but it was a lot easier to do standing next to Tanya because people approached her rather than the other way around. I realized that networking can be interesting because hearing other perspectives really gives you something to think about. We were talking to a nice guy who described himself as an “analog UX designer”. We were trying to understand what that meant and Tanya asked him if he considers himself to be an artist—he said no. I asked the same question of Tanya and she also said no, she considers herself to be a problem solver instead.
I’ve found myself thinking a lot about that conversation over the past few days. What does it mean to be a designer versus and artist? Is it that designers are problem solvers while artists are problem makers? Obviously that’s too simplistic, but it’s got me thinking a lot about how I, someone who identifies as an artist, fits into the world of design. I’ve been a professional designer for more than a decade, so I’m not exactly conflicted about it, but it’s interesting to put myself in Tanya’s shoes.
While we were walking out I mentioned to Tanya that I saw about five people write down the name of a book she mentioned during her talk, but I didn’t catch the title. To my surprise, she pulled the book from her purse and said, “Here, take it.” (The Inmates are Running the Asylum by Alan Cooper). She handed her very own well-worn, highlighted copy of the book to me. In that moment I realized that Tanya is actually one of my mentors. I left the event feeling extremely grateful to live in this amazing city where I have the opportunity to meet my heroes, learn from inspiring people like Tanya, and contribute to this wonderful community of artist and designers who are shaping our culture.
Notes: The event series is called Design Driven, and is organized by FirstMark.