Paula, what are you doing?!

Famed graphic design icon and Pentagram partner Paula Scher has designed a series of free business templates for HP. Suits have a choice between 5 styles- "Bold", "Friendly", "Elegant", "Edgy", and "Modern."

The templates are, as all templates are, boring and generic. There is not a stint of creativity in these stale, one-size-fits all molds. These fonts are nice I guess, but lend nothing to the individuality of a brand. I mean, what is the difference between these "designy" templates and any old Word template? Also, if anyone has seen the documentary Helvetica, Scher comments that she actually hates the font and never really uses it in her own work, even though she chooses none other than Helvetica for two of the styles here. In that light the templates almost seem sarcastic on Sher's part.

In Scher's defense she says “No template is a substitute for hiring a professional designer,” and also gives a link to the AIGA website. “But at the very least, I hope we can stop a few innocent people out there from using Comic Sans.”

Uh, I'm not buying it. That's nice on the surface, but think about it- these templates do more harm than good. This makes the design process (choosing a font or an image) seem as easy as picking out a pair of socks in the morning. No: easier. Is this really what small businesses need? What does this really do to make people understand what designers actually do and how important building an original brand is to the success of their company? This seems to go against everything we stand for as designers and diminishes our value.

Paula, I'm disappointed.