What was your primary motivation for purchasing this course?
Achieve career goals
“I've been in the design industry for over 25 years now but always feel like there's more to learn. I absolutely loved Paula's class. I'm feeling more inspired within my own work. I found the pace and case studies shared super interesting and thought provoking. Thank you.”
What was your primary motivation for purchasing this course?
Learn a new skill
“I loved this course. The content and delivery was very engaging and I found the subject incredibly interesting. I'm not from a design background but its made me want to learn more and I've been seeing the world differently since I watched it. I'm noticing type and graphics all over the place where I wouldn't have taken it in quite in the same way before. I'm sketching shop signs when I'm out and about and I have 5mins to spare . I really liked the historical references and also the practical examples that Paula has worked on. I've not got a bad word to say, Its well worth a watch, I'm sure everyone will get something out of it!”
What was your primary motivation for purchasing this course?
Learn a new skill, Pursue a hobby
“Paula Scher is endlessly engaging to listen to. Her depth of knowledge, confidence, and sheer breadth of experience come through immediately, and it’s genuinely exciting to get such a front-row seat to someone who has had such a profound impact on the design world. Hearing her talk about her career, where she learned, and how she thinks about design was a real pleasure.
One of the strongest aspects of this course is the way she contextualizes her work. Seeing real examples and hearing her explain the purpose behind certain design decisions was fascinating, especially when she focused on pieces beyond the most well-known corporate work. While the Windows logo didn’t resonate much with me personally, I really appreciated her walkthroughs of other projects, particularly where she touched on animated logos and opening title sequences. As someone who works in animation, that section was an absolute joy and would have LOOOVVVVEEEEDDDDD a crazy detailed walk though (but I'm a little biased- ha!)
That said, I often found myself wanting more process. As an artist, althugh i love to see the finished work , I truly crave crave the messy middle and beginnings. The sketches, the false starts, the “bad” ideas that lead to the good ones. Paula does show this occasionally, and those moments were some of my favorites, but I was left hungry for deeper breakdowns, especially for some of her most famous and visually striking pieces.
For example, the posters behind her were stunning, and I kept wishing she would pause and really dig into them: the early sketches, the iterations, the decisions around scale, cropping, negative space, and typography. Even including some of those sketches or additional commentary in the accompanying PDF would have added a lot of value. Seeing more “crap art” alongside the successful work would have been incredibly illuminating... It's that hidden process where the real learning lives for me. Especially since I'm assuming those hung behind her are some of her favorites, expnding on the secrets as to why and how those decisions were made and why they work would have been so incredibly enlightning.
Typography, in particular, feels like an area where a deeper dive would have been invaluable (for a newby to graphic design like me.) With an overwhelming number of fonts in the world, understanding how to choose the right one, why one font works over another, why certain weights, colors, or spatial relationships were chosen for specific assignemts/pieces would have been incredibly helpful. A focused breakdown of a single piece, such as the cover of The Visual History of Type, explaining why specific design decisions work, would have elevated the course even further.
One of my favorite experiences in art school was critique: seeing a range of responses to the same assignment and hearing a master explain why certain approaches succeeded or failed. I would have loved to see a version of that here! I would have loved to have Paula assign "homework" to a small group of designers (or maybe her interns etc) and then walk us through their results, discussing what worked, what didn’t, and why. Even a mock version of this kind of critique would have provided those rare “master-level” insights that are hard to find elsewhere. Orrrrr, aybe 'desgna flag' assigment, then show her steps, how she'd apprach that assignment, and then show the resukts. I guess along with the assignments I would have loved a little more hand holding and instruction to allow us to gain from the assignment just that much more.
To be clear, this course is highly enjoyable and inspiring. Paula Scher is a compelling speaker, and her willingness to bring in guests and share her experiences is generous and engaging. My desire for more process, critique, and detailed breakdowns comes from how compelling her perspective already is — it left me wanting to go deeper.
For anyone looking to understand how a design legend thinks, this course is well worth watching. For those hoping to peek even further behind the curtain, a bit more time spent in the sketches, the decisions, and the why behind the work would make it truly exceptional.
(in case it helps... heres a lame example of what i was hoping for:
Let's say for 'design a flag' assigment:
share how to start that.
Where do you even begin (design a flag is soooo broad, right? for a team, for a state, for "Mental Health") the sand box was pretty bog for that, so how might she start with that exspansive limitless concept.
Then once settled on an idea, what would SHE do next?
Maybe to make a list of all the thngs that resonate with it. she could offer "I like to just explore a stream of consience for an entire page writing down anything that comes to mind." or "until i cant think of anymore, or " "spend a day with a post it next to your desk and anytime something resonates and comes to mind, jot it down" or" go to (location) and immerse yourself in the envirnoment and see what you feel, see, like/dislike" etc. that kind of step by step experience would be so cool to witness and learn from.
Then, " I circle the top 5 (or 10 or how ever many) that resonate with me the most
or
Then I start sketching visuals that support those words
or
Then I go online and look up images that resonate with the words and build a collage of reference
Then
after that, I take the 'title' of the topic and look for fonts that speak to the top 5 words that resonated with my designs- what actions or adjectives that match the intent of the design (not exxactly that, but that kind of process)
or
then I look for fonts that can have playful interactions with the letters that support (or contrast) the word/logo/title/adjective of the 'flag title' to see what supports the idea even further.
ok... not those exact steps, but thats the idea. Let us see how HER brain would handle one or all of those assigments. Not eaxct "only this way' formulas per se, but it would show us 'a way' of how she might approach and think while attacking a design.
again, in art scholl, my favorite moments where when our design teachert would get to a piece on the wall, and say "Tell us about this" - it would follow with the student sharing their process, or thoughts ot intent or trials or successes while persuing the ssiugnemnt. Then the teacher would breakdown things that were really working in the piece, and maybe even sometimes share "ya know, if you moved this here, or added more of "this", or tried "this" with these color choices/placemnt/size/etc" It was sooo mind expanding.
Anyway- loved hearing her, just i'm greedy for more- ha!”
What was your primary motivation for purchasing this course?
Achieve career goals
“Overpriced. I thought it was wonderful to listen to, however you can learn more by visiting your local public libraries, or college/university libraries & reading books about graphic design. Basically, Paula simply flips example pages for you on her digital tablet, and says. "this is great! this is excellent!' etc. ;-) Such a great gig, if you can get paid to do that. ;-) It is a fairly "New Yorkish" view of graphic design & there is more out there in the world to look at, than she presented. In my humble opinion, skip-it and save your money for something else. Just my biased 76y/o POV from California. ;-)”
Hi Mark,
Thank you for your feedback. We value every BBC Maestro customer and we're sorry to hear you are underwhelmed with your purchase.
We'd love to give you the opportunity to try out another BBC Maestro course - we have so many great courses that I'm sure we have something else for you to enjoy. Please get in touch with our amazing customer support team at support@bbcmaestro.comto let them know if there's another course that interests you and we can get this exchanged for you.
Best,
Zoe
Hi Sean,
Thank you for your feedback. We value every BBC Maestro customer and we're sorry to hear you are underwhelmed with your purchase.
We'd love to give you the opportunity to try out another BBC Maestro course - we have so many great courses that I'm sure we have something else for you to enjoy. Please get in touch with our amazing customer support team at support@bbcmaestro.com to let them know if there's another course that interests you and we can get this exchanged for you.
Best,
Zoe
What was your primary motivation for purchasing this course?
Learn a new skill, Pursue a hobby, Achieve career goals
“Very inspiring course that only got better and better. Super interesting to hear about the history of fonts and the overall deep dive into what design actually is. I also really enjoyed the guests and the examples of film animations. Big kudos to Maestro for choosing experienced women rather than a young hipster boy to speak on this topic. :) Truly inspiring!”
