Paula Scher Designs Templates for Download from HP

Today Hewlett-Packard launches a new website featuring Paula Scher, Jake Burton and Gwen Stefani as part of its $300 million Print 2.0 campaign designed to inspire and empower customers with free customizable, printable content. For her part, Scher designed five business templates, including letterhead, envelopes, business cards and notecards, that provide users with a complete graphics package. Named Bold, Modern, Edgy, Elegant and Friendly, the templates were designed to appeal to a diverse array of businesses and personality types. Two templates, Friendly and Modern, are available for download today, with the others being added over the next few weeks.

The site also features an interview with Scher in which she speaks about how to build a successful brand identity. “The characteristic that matters for every good brand is that you look like you made your decisions based on who you are for specific reasons, not that they were accidental,” she says. “A small business should ask itself who its customer is, who are they talking to. They should think about how to present themselves and what their tone of voice should be.” Shot in Pentagram’s New York office, the interview is accompanied by commentary about some of her most celebrated designs.

“No template is a substitute for hiring a professional designer,” warns Scher, and indeed at Scher’s suggestion the HP site includes a prominent link to the AIGA designer directory. “But at the very least, I hope we can stop a few innocent people out there from using Comic Sans.”

Rounding out the site’s content, Jake Burton offers advice on how to produce a successful marketing campaign and the importance of a strong visual brand, while Gwen Stefani offers customizable Harajuku-inspired paper dolls, party invites and CD covers.

Views of the templates in action after the jump.