Paula Scher: Great design is serious

Paula reflects on design in light of seriousness or solemnity. The clip discusses the difference between serious design, as being out there, spontaneous and different, and solemn design, being commonplace.

Paula provides a range of examples as to how design can be serious or solemn. She discusses that serious design is unique and the first of its kind. Serious design is not always accepted well be the solemn audience and it is imperfect and not comment. It is about invention and change. This concept was interesting as many designs show telltale signs of perfection and elements that are common to other designs. I like the ingenuity, freedom and learning that can occur during serious design. The career step reference was interesting. The progress from beginning your career in short step, learning constantly through serious design, to a point where it becomes difficult to maintain serious design. The clip highlights that many designers are hired to be solemn designers. Paula makes reference to the four times in her 35 year career that she feels she was being a serious designer. The fact that after she designed something seriously, they ended up becoming solemn as there were what was expected was an interesting point to be made. It is easy to make direct links with the point Paula makes about the importance of differentiating design from solemn to serious.