paula scher's geography

this video. it is exceedingly apropos. i kind of wish we had watched it at the start of the project rather than at the end, not because it's any less valuable at this juncture, but because it might have been a kind of inspirational jumpstart when we were first brainstorming.

paula scher lives new york city. that might look like a typo, but it isn't, i promise. she lives it and loves it and designs it, saying she gets the most satisfaction from designing things to exist "on the street," where you can walk by and experience her work within the context of the rest of the city.

she speaks of the character of nyc, the "layering of opinion," the neighborhoods "colliding, influencing the city," as well as the visual structure: the complicated grids, the tall, narrowness of the clutter of buildings, the locked up traffic jams, the chaos united by location.

she uses the visual language of the city itself to influence the visual language of the work she does for the city. some examples she gives: using all caps, condensed typefaces, tall and thin, close together, parallels and perpendiculars, filling all the space with a chaotic sense of order, the layering of ideas and imagery like the layering of ideas and opinions and lifestyles in the different neighborhoods.

this. being. exactly. what. we're. doing. it's like our professors have this stuff all worked out in their heads, all along!

we are looking at the character and the visual structure of a city-- our city, kc. we are taking this visual structure, this identity, and through the use of graphic elements and a splash of text, we are shining the character of the city back onto itself by taking what we see and remixing it into something less 1:1 and more complicated. we have been inspired by the language of the neighborhoods we're examining, and we have worked to create a flat graphic, 18x24, that can act as a catalyst in the brain to evoke the same feelings as being in the neighborhood.