# pentagram — Pentagram / Paula Scher

- **School**: Information Architecture
- **Vibe**: Bold typography as image; type does the visual work; everything else recedes
- **Best for**: B2B identity, cultural institutions, "we mean business" moments
- **Touchstone**: pentagram.com, Paula Scher's Public Theater posters, MIT Media Lab identity

**Palette**
- High-contrast two-color: ink on ground. Common pairings:
  - Black `#000000` on white `#FFFFFF`
  - Cobalt `#1E3FFF` on cream `#F4F1E7`
  - Brick `#B83A1F` on bone `#EFE9DC`
- A single secondary accent only if the project demands a third color (used very sparingly)

**Typography**
- Display: a single grotesque used at massive scale — Helvetica Now (weight 700–900), Söhne Breit, or Druk. Headlines are often **set bigger than the column they live in**, breaking the margin on purpose.
- Body: the same family at body weight, 16–17px, line-height 1.45–1.55
- Numerals: tabular figures from the same family

**Spacing**: strict 12-column grid, generous gutters (24–32px). Baseline-grid alignment of every text element.

**Radius**: 0.

**Shadow**: none.

**Motion**: typographic moves only — letters shift in, headlines slide on a baseline. No 3D, no bouncy, no parallax.

**Signature moves**
- Headlines so large they touch (or visibly break past) the column edges
- Type as image — a single word or phrase at hero scale becomes the only graphic
- Color blocks (a flat rectangle of accent color) used as section dividers, often with a single huge number on them (`02`)
- Captions and metadata pinned to the grid in tiny precise type, often in the column gutter
- A single rule line (1px) sometimes drawn across the entire page width, anchoring everything

**Avoid**
- Photography as the visual lead (type leads, not photo) — exception: if there is a hero photo, it lives behind / under enormous type
- Multiple type families
- Gradients, shadows, decorative anything
- Card grids of content (Pentagram thinks in spreads, not cards)

**AI prompt seed**
> Editorial poster composition, single phrase set in massive black Helvetica weight 900, characters bleeding past the layout margins, behind it a flat field of cobalt #1E3FFF, no photography, no illustration, 3:4.

**Don't use when**
- Headlines can't be made bold and short (3–6 word phrases) — Pentagram needs strong copy
- Many tiers of feature density must be communicated (this is institutional voice, not feature catalog)
- The brand is meant to feel quiet — Pentagram is the opposite of quiet

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