Must-watch: stream Paula Sher’s Netflix documentary on design

Netflix is responding to the COVID-19 crisis by making a variety of its highly acclaimed documentaries available to stream for free on YouTube. 

“For many years, Netflix has allowed teachers to screen documentaries in their classrooms. However, this isn’t possible with schools closed. So at their request, we have made a selection of our documentary features and series available on the Netflix US YouTube channel” reads the streaming giant’s press release. 

The 10 documentaries available for free include 13th, Babies, Chasing Coral, Explained, Knock Down the House, Our Planet, Period. End of a Sentence, The White Helmets, Zion and Abstract:The Art of Design series 1.

In Abstract: The Art of Design’s Paula Scher episode, the acclaimed graphic designer “paints with words as an American graphic designer, artist, and educator.”

“For more than three decades she has been at the forefront of graphic design and developed identities for esteemed institutions such as The Public Theater in NY, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Target, Bloomberg, and Microsoft. She joined the firm of Pentagram in 1991 as its first female principal and continues to develop iconic brands and institutions” reads the intro to the episode directed by Richard Press. 

“Ideas come all kinds of ways. I get my best ideas in taxi cabs… I am allowing my subconscious to take over so I can free associate. You have to be in a state of play to design. If you are not in a state of play you can’t make anything” says Scher of the importance of design and its many qualities that exist beyond screens. “Design has an impact in real life” notes Scher in the series 1 episode.

Netflix’s binge-watching Abstract series takes the viewer “beyond blueprints into the art, science, and philosophy of design. The series goes inside the minds of the world’s greatest designers, showcasing the most inspiring visionaries from a variety of disciplines whose work shapes our culture and future” notes Netflix. 

On top of streaming the documentaries for free on YouTube Netflix provides each title with educational resources available. 

These “can be used by both students and teachers - and we’ll be doing Q&As with some of the creators behind these projects so that students can hear from them firsthand” adds Netflix.

Note these documentaries are currently available in English. Subtitles in more than a dozen languages will be available later this week. 

Watch more episodes here.