Paula Scher

1. What it is — a promotional poster for a Columbia/Epic jazz catalogue ("The Best of… on Columbia and Epic Records and Tapes"), 1979, lithograph, 91.1 × 68.9 cm (MoMA). Cooper Hewitt lists the same work as 1980 and "for New York Public Theater" — a record error (the Public Theater comes 15 years later). Poster Museum sells a reprint from 1994 (97 × 74) and lists the printer as Toppan — with reservations.
2. Composition — the whole format is a grid of two diagonals at ±45°. All the text sits on one of them: names (Ferguson, Humphrey, Hubert Laws, Return to Forever, Eric Gale, Stan Getz, Tom Scott, Gordon…) in bands that cross like planks. Four enormous letters B-E-S-T, black, with a cream shadow, sit on the diagonal running from top-left to bottom-right and hold the whole thing together — without them it would be an empty crosshatch of type. The eye enters at the B (top left, largest), jumps across the letters B-E-S-T diagonally down to the T at bottom right, and only then reads the names. A thin red-black frame closes the format; a small round Columbia mark at bottom left.
3. Colour — kraft brown ground (paper tone, not print), black, red, cream. Red is reserved for the names and the frame, black for the four main letters and part of the names, cream for the shadows and reversed bands. Three colours on brown = four tones; the hierarchy runs by colour (black = headline) before it runs by size.
4. Typography — American wood grotesque in several widths, condensed for the names, extra-extended and shadowed for BEST. The typeface isn't named anywhere (Fonts In Use has no entry for 1979). The contrast comes from WIDTH and from the shadow, not from mixing families — v1: "extreme width contrast is the most under-used typographic tool".
5. Message — "the best of all of these": a pile of names as a pile of supply, four letters as verdict. Three seconds: BEST. Five metres: a diagonal kraft poster with red — it reads like an old circus bill, i.e. "jazz as American tradition", not as modernism.
6. Why exactly this way — no budget for illustration; the typography has to be the image. She chose a historical quotation (the constructivist diagonal) as a ready-made system that allows twenty names with no hierarchy among them — because a hierarchy among musicians would have been a political problem for the label.
7. What would kill it — aligning the names horizontally. The diagonal is the only reason twenty names don't look like a price list.

Principles: istorijski-citat-kao-gradivni-materijal mreza-drzi-haos jeftina-tehnika-kao-jezik rotacija-radi-popune-ne-ranga To verify against the image: whether the cream shadow is a separate colour or the paper; the exact number of colours (Poster Museum: red, white, black, yellow — the MoMA image has no yellow).

1. What it is — a poster, ad and window display for Swatch, Koppel & Scher, credited "Koppel & Scher with Herbert Matter". Brower gives 1984, v1 and most sources 1985; no museum record, dimensions and technique unknown. The PGDA record carries the date 5.12.2014 and credit "Steven Brower" — that is the date and author of the ARTICLE, not the work (a trap).
2. Composition — Matter's photomontage taken whole: a smiling woman in a white cap occupies the upper half, two hands enter from bottom-left toward the face, behind them a snow slope with tiny skiers. The change is in two things: on the hands are three Swatch watches (instead of a glove) and across the lower half runs an enormous red word SWATCH diagonally upward. Brower: the composition is Matter's, "recontextualised"; Retinart: the skier reshot, the text enlarged, the watch inserted.
3. Colour — Matter's regime (black-and-white photograph, one hot colour) kept; red is both Swatch's and Matter's; blue only in the logotype.
4. Typography — SWATCH in a red wood-type egyptienne, letters stepping upward to the right just as in Matter's original lettering; the typeface isn't named.
5. Message — "Swiss watch = Swiss poster": the parody only works if the viewer knows Matter. Brower: the poster hung in Swatch's meeting room — the audience was in on it. Three seconds: SWATCH. Five metres: it's "that Matter piece".
6. Why exactly this way — Scher (Make It Bigger, per Retinart): "All through the eighties clients seemed to believe they were buying style, not thinking" — the work is at once a product of that state and a joke at its expense. She sought permission from the AIGA and the estate (Retinart).
7. What would kill it — changing the composition "to make it her own". The joke is that NOTHING was changed except the watch.

Principles: istorijski-citat-kao-gradivni-materijal parodija-trazi-prepoznavanje To verify against the image: side by side with Matter (MoMA 5323) — whether the original is Pontresina 1935 or another Matter ski poster; the exact year.

1. What it is — Public Theater season poster, 1995, lithograph, 152,4 × 114,3 cm (MoMA) — twice the size of individual show posters. MoMA: „set a new bar for typography of the 1990s". This is the poster on which Noise/Funk first hit the street (Pentagram: 1995).
2. Composition — yellow-orange format with no margins. The left third is held by PUBLIC, vertical, ultra-condensed, top to bottom (letter height ≈ 85 % of the format), with THE rotated above it and THEATER in red at the bottom. A photograph of Savion Glover (black-and-white, cut out, mid-jump) sits over the lower part of PUBLIC, x ≈ 15–50 %, y ≈ 25–70 %. The right two-thirds are a wall of show titles in every width, partly horizontal (NOISE, FUNK, 2 WOMEN, KING LEAR), partly rotated 90° (WASP, FRAGMENTS, DANCING ON HER KNEES, THE SKRIKER) so the letters fit together like planks in an auction notice — not one rectangle of empty space bigger than the height of a lowercase letter. The eye enters on PUBLIC (biggest, vertical), jumps to Glover, then down through the titles from the largest (FUNK) on. Bottom: a red band „MEMBERSHIP IS EASY! CALL 212‑260‑2400" runs across the whole format.
3. Colour — three: ground, black, red. Red ONLY for institutional matter (95–96 SEASON, THEATER, phone number, membership) and for the small „P" stamps — so colour is hierarchy (institution ≠ shows), not decoration. All titles are black: the shows are equal.
4. Typography — wood type grotesque in five-six widths, all capitals. The PUBLIC logotype is Gothic (Nesbitt) per Fonts In Use (entry 2197). The other typefaces are not identified. Contrast comes from WIDTH and ROTATION, not from family.
5. Message — „a lot is happening here and it's all public": noise as programme. Three seconds: PUBLIC + a man mid-jump. Five metres: recognisable even without reading — which is the definition of identity as behaviour.
6. Why exactly this way — Pentagram: identity for an institution with an „accessible" mission; wood type is „street typography". In practice: a theatre with no money to photograph every show; the typography has to carry the poster on its own, and the system has to work when other designers run it — her line (Fonts In Use): „designed to be flexible, because we knew it would need to be handled by individual designers over the years".
7. What would kill it — add margins and line the titles up in a column. Then it's just layout, and Public is „loud and visible and urban".

Principles: identitet-je-ponasanje-ne-znak zid-teksta-kao-oblik rotacija-radi-popune-ne-ranga boja-kao-hijerarhija-ne-ukras To verify against the image: whether the small lines (writers, directors) are in the same typeface or in a grotesque of different origin; Glover's position in %.

1. What it is — poster for the solo show by Jenifer Lewis (written and performed by her; directed by Charles Randolph‑Wright), Public Theater 1994, screenprint, 116,8 × 76,5 cm, printer Ambassador Arts, New York (MoMA). One of the first three screenprint posters in the system (Him, Some People, Diva — all 1994, same printer, same format).
2. Composition — yellow format; a blue duotone photograph of Lewis from forehead to chin, the face taking up ≈ 80 % of the width, eyes at y ≈ 48 %. Over the lower half of the face two bands of black text in the colour of the ground run diagonally from edge to edge and cross in an X over the mouth: „THE DIVA IS DISMISSED" rises up to the left, „written and performed by JENIFER LEWIS" falls down to the right; a third, shorter one, „LIMITED ENGAGEMENT NOW PLAYING", sits at bottom left. The PUBLIC logotype stands vertical in the top right corner. The eyes are left free — the face looks out, the text covers its mouth: a show about a diva who's been „dismissed", and she's still watching.
3. Colour — three: yellow ground, blue duotone, black. The yellow of the bands is NOT a new colour — it's the ground showing through a cut in the image. So the band doesn't look pasted on but CUT OUT: the image is discarded where the text is.
4. Typography — black wood type grotesque, condensed for the title, narrower for the credits, all capitals; not identified. Bands at ≈ 25–30°, not 45°.
5. Message — „diva" + a covered voice = dismissal. Three seconds: blue face, X over the mouth. Five metres: a yellow-blue poster with a black X — and that's enough.
6. Why exactly this way — screenprint in three colours = cheap and fast; a duotone photograph on one colour solves „no budget for colour". Same logic as Barbara Kruger (borrowed/cheap image + word), but here the word isn't a label stuck on top — it's a cut through the image.
7. What would kill it — put the bands over the eyes. Then the diva would be cancelled (Reid), not dismissed.

Principles: traka-kroz-cijeli-format boja-kao-hijerarhija-ne-ukras identitet-je-ponasanje-ne-znak To verify against the image: the angle of the bands in degrees; whether the yellow of the bands is identical to the ground (same separation) or a separate tone.

1. What it is — poster for Christopher Walken's play „Him" (about Elvis; directed by Jim Simpson), Public Theater 1994, screenprint, 116,8 × 76,5 cm, Ambassador Arts (MoMA).
2. Composition — green format. The top ≈ 45 % is taken up by a black pompadour hairstyle with a blue highlight, cut out as a silhouette — below it there is NO face: green ground. „HIM" in magenta sits exactly where the forehead would be (y ≈ 52 %), with two small lines of credits below. The bottom 40 % is empty; the PUBLIC logotype stands vertical bottom right. The eye moves: hairstyle → HIM → emptiness.
3. Colour — four: green, black, blue (highlight), magenta. Magenta only on one word — smallest area, strongest colour = the title. Green/magenta are a complementary pair, so the word vibrates.
4. Typography — HIM in magenta, extra-extended wood type grotesque, word width ≈ 45 % of the format; not identified.
5. Message — Elvis without Elvis: the hairstyle is enough, the face is anyone's (Walken, and the audience). Three seconds: hairstyle + HIM. Five metres: black hair on green.
6. Why exactly this way — there was neither permission nor budget for an Elvis likeness; and besides, the play is about „him" as a myth, not a person. The absence of a face is the content.
7. What would kill it — draw a face. Or write ELVIS.

Principles: jedna-slika-jedna-rijec bijeli-prostor-kao-oblik fragment-umjesto-lica To verify against the image: whether the blue highlight is a separate separation; the exact text of the credits.

1. What it is — poster for Danny Hoch's solo show (directed by Jo Bonney), Public Theater 1994, lithograph, 117,1 × 76,9 cm, Ambassador Arts (MoMA).
2. Composition — black format. Two full-height figures of the same actor: the left one, red, leans left, the right one, blue, leans right — together they form a V, i.e. two characters out of one man. The text doesn't sit ON the figures but in the space they leave: SOME vertical in the top left corner, PEOPLE horizontal across the top, the credit in the wedge between the bodies, „NOW PLAYING! LIMITED ENGAGEMENT!" rotated along the right edge. The letters change width and direction to fill the gap — the same move as 03, except here the gap is made by the bodies.
3. Colour — four: black, red, blue, ochre. Red and blue are the FIGURES (duotone = costume), ochre is the text; nothing overlaps.
4. Typography — ochre wood type grotesque, condensed (SOME, NOW PLAYING) and extended (PEOPLE); not identified.
5. Message — „some people" = several people in one; one actor, two colours. Three seconds: red and blue figure on black. Five metres: a V made of two men.
6. Why exactly this way — a solo show with multiple characters; one actor, one photograph, two separations — cheaper than two photographs, more accurate than one.
7. What would kill it — text in a rectangular block above the figures. Then the figures become an illustration alongside the title, whereas here they ARE the layout.

Principles: rotacija-radi-popune-ne-ranga bijeli-prostor-kao-oblik boja-kao-hijerarhija-ne-ukras To verify against the image: whether the left figure is a mirror of the right (same photograph) or a different pose.

1. What it is — poster for the Broadway transfer of the show (Ambassador Theatre, 219 W 49th St, Tele‑charge), 1996; AD Paula Scher, design Scher + Lisa Mazur, typeface "American Wood Type" (AIGA record); PGDA lists it as a lithograph, "circa 1995". No dimensions given. This is the SECOND version: the first (1995, Public, Pentagram) is on seasonal poster 03. AIGA: over time the campaign became "more anonymous" so other dancers could take over Glover's role. PGDA record 17113 ("1995") has no image — student contribution.
2. Composition — white format (the only white one in the series). NOISE blue, FUNK red — the two largest words, one top left, the other top right, each ≈ 40% of width. Glover (black-and-white photograph, cut out, tap dancing) in the middle, y ≈ 15–70%. All the rest is a WALL OF QUOTES from reviews, in black wood grotesque in five to six widths, partly horizontal, partly rotated 90° — "A JOYOUS MEDITATION ON TAP", "STUNNING!", "HEROIC!" — so that the quotes fill every empty corner around the figure. Bottom: black strip with address and phone number across the whole format, red Tele‑charge circle. Path: FUNK (red) → Glover → NOISE → quotes.
3. Colour — four: white, black, blue, red. Blue and red ONLY on the two title words — everything else black. Colour again signals rank.
4. Typography — American wood grotesque (AIGA), capitals, widths from ultra-condensed to extended; no specific typeface named.
5. Message — "everyone says it's great": quotes as noise, noise as theme (noise/funk). Three seconds: NOISE / FUNK / a man in motion. Five metres: blue-red title on white.
6. Why exactly this way — Broadway requires review quotes (a rule of the genre); instead of hiding them at the bottom, she turns them into a wall — i.e. into exactly what wood-type auction advertising already does. White background: a Broadway poster also has to work as a newspaper ad.
7. What would kill it — quotes in small serif at the bottom. Then it's an ordinary theatre advert, and the Public system disappears.

Principles: zid-teksta-kao-oblik rotacija-radi-popune-ne-ranga identitet-je-ponasanje-ne-znak boja-kao-hijerarhija-ne-ukras To verify against the image: exact dimensions (Broadway "one‑sheet" 27 × 41 in?); whether the photograph is the same as in 03.

1. What it is — one of a series of art posters commissioned by the National Theatre for 50 years (since the Old Vic), 2013, screenprint, 88 × 62 cm, numbered and signed, gift of the National Theatre (V&A API). V&A description: "the letters National Theatre printed in a large, black format".
2. Composition — format divided into a 3 × 5 grid (white fields on a light grey background, thin grey gaps). One letter per field, black, stretched or compressed until it fills the field: NAT / ION / ALT / HEA / TRE. The word breaks along the grid, not by syllable — "ALT", "HEA". A has no crossbar (two stems and a triangle), O is a disc with a dot, T occupies the whole field. The grid holds 15 letters that would otherwise be incomparable; signature and numbering in pencil below.
3. Colour — two: black and white (plus grey background). No accent — here the system itself is the colour.
4. Typography — extra-bold grotesque, probably drawn per field (letter width is not from a single cut — each letter has a different width-to-height ratio); not named. This is the Public rule ("fill the field, vary the widths violently", v1) taken to its conclusion: one letter = one field.
5. Message — the house's name as a wall; it only reads once the grid is accepted. Three seconds: a black block of 15 letters. Five metres: a raster of black shapes — typography as architecture (the National Theatre is a Brutalist building — a reading, not documented).
6. Why exactly this way — the series constraint (same format for multiple artists) and a single-colour screenprint; she answers with what only she has — a typeface that behaves, not an image.
7. What would kill it — breaking the word by syllable (NA‑TIO‑NAL). Then it's a typographic poster; as it stands, it's an object.

Principles: zid-teksta-kao-oblik rijec-lomi-se-po-mrezi varijabla-do-otkaza mreza-drzi-haos To verify against the image: field measurements in %; whether the background is grey or that's a photograph of the print on grey.