Paula Scher on ‘Brand America’

In a video interview with Monocle, Paula Scher talks to editor-in-chief Tyler Brûlé about the brand identity of the United States. “We were in a face off with the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and we didn’t change our rhetoric once we didn’t have a big global power confronting us, so we talk to everybody like we’re talking to big global superpowers all the time and we really have to tone down the volume,” says Scher. In the wide-ranging discussion, she touches on the graphic beauty of the Stars and Stripes, the enduring image of the Statue of Liberty (“The nice lady holding up the torch—what could be more welcoming and comforting?”), the future of the media, and why she’d love to redesign the experience of air travel.

The interview complements an essay by Scher that appears in the magazine’s current issue.