Week Eight - Women In Graphic Design

For the focus of my field journal this week I chose to examine the role of women in Graphic Design. Although several of my classmates covered this subject in previous modules, I think this week’s reading really highlighted major contributions from women in graphic design in the twentieth century. We learned about Deborah Sussman, Cipe Pineles, Muriel Cooper and several others, but I thought I would focus on the three ladies I just mentioned as I found their work to be most inspiring to me as a young female graphic design student.

When you search the web for subjects like “women graphic design” you get some interesting search results. I found several results of women as objects within graphic design rather than as designers themselves. Finding information about female graphic designers from 50 – 60 years ago is even more challenging. I did find this great article about inspirational female graphic designers, and it did mention Deborah Sussman, who we studied this week as well as many other contemporary female graphic designers and artists whose names I had not encountered yet. Sussman is known for her work as an environmental graphic designer and spearheaded the designs for the Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984 where she incorporated vibrant colors like magenta and teal with elements of the American flag to create logos and designs that were adaptable to the event and its different venues. She went on to work on projects for the Rolling Stones as well as Disney World. I found her particularly interesting due to her extensive use of bright colors in many of her designs, which I find quite eye-catching and appealing.

 

Cipe Pineles is considered to be a major designer of the twentieth century, but finding any online information about her that was more than a just paragraph or two about her proved challenging. Even her article in Wikipedia is just a few lines long. Pineles was an art director for Glamour, Seventeen, Charm and Mademoiselle in the 1940’s and 1950’s who was the first (or among the first, sources vary on this) to commission fine artists to create illustrations for mass market magazines. She was also the very first female admitted to the New York Art Directors Club, breaking ground and through the glass ceiling for female designers and art directors who would succeed her. Her work was considered unconventional at the time, both for her use of fine art in the magazines as well as her personal influence stemming from her background and experience. Pineles passed away in 1991, well before I would study graphic design, but I admire her fearlessness and intuition - I think her work was interesting and provided influence to graphic designers (both men and women) who followed her.

 

I considered writing this entire blog / field journal post about Muriel Cooper. When I read about her in this week in our assigned reading I was intrigued. She sounds like a teacher whose class I would have adored, mostly for her passion for graphic design and pushing the edge of where technology can take it. Sadly, Cooper passed away in 1994. Cooper worked as both a print designer as well as the founder of the Visual Language Workshop at MIT. She created over 500 books as well as logos, like the recognized MIT Press logo. I love this article from the New York Times about her – it really gives a great biography of her and you get a great understanding of how spunky, ambitious and creative she was. While she is known for what she did do with computers and 3D design, it also highlights both her frustrations and willingness to experiment with new technology to create exceptional design and lead other young graphic designers forward with technology. She pioneered digital graphic design and her students and those influenced by her are vocal about her influence and passion. It is easy to find references to her work and influence all over the internet, which I suspect she would have rather enjoyed if she were still alive today.

These significant women of the twentieth century are thought of as great graphic designers for not just their work or their influence, but their legacy of opening the doors for other female graphic designers, editors and art directors. They all chose to push the envelope, show restraint where needed, and use their passion and personal interests to shape their work into amazing and sometimes groundbreaking designs. Looking at my graphic design classes, it seems that half, if not more, of the students are women. Sussman, Pineles and Cooper helped get us here by showing that great graphic design work can not only be done by women, but that women can pioneer new ideas in design and technology and push all graphic designers forward. I think their contributions as female graphic designers are incredible and that all graphic design students, male or female, should take the time to really appreciate their contributions and find inspiration in their work.

Sources:

http://princessajaelu.blogspot.com/ - image for Deborah Sussman’s Olympics work

http://juliettebrooks.blogspot.com/2010/09/deborah-sussman.html - image for Deborah Sussman’s Disney sign and biographical information

http://voices.yahoo.com/cipe-pineles-biography-2999325.html - biography about Cipe Pineles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cipe_Pineles - biography about Cipe Pineles

http://theredlist.fr/wiki-2-343-917-999-view-publishing-profile-pineles-cipe.html - images of work by Cipe Pineles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muriel_Cooper - biography of Muriel Cooper

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/28/style/28iht-design1.1.7670693.html?_r=0 - biography for Muriel Cooper

http://designkultur.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/muriel-cooper-polymath-extraordinaire/ - Image of Muriel Cooper

http://www.adcglobal.org/archive/hof/2004/?id=5 - Images of Muriel Cooper’s work and biography

http://designfeaster.blogspot.com/2013/10/think-studios-john-clifford-celebrates.html - Image of Muriel Cooper’s work “soft type”