Sunday, 12 July 2009

The Role of Women in Graphic Design

So far, the new and improved version, haven't got round to referencing everything correctly yet, and i want to look for some more quotes.

Title

The Role of Women in Graphic Design

 

Abstract

This report will explore the role of women with in the graphic design industry. Triggered by a questioned posed to Milton Glaser, Chip Kidd and Dave Eggers at a design lecture "Why do you — all three of you — suppose there are so few female graphic designers — or at least so few female 'superstar' graphic designers? Is there a glass ceiling in graphic design?" this report aims to investigate and explore if there is an inequality within the graphic design industry in terms of recognition from the industry, job positions and awareness of female designers.

 

From this initial starting point, this project will be aiming to answer the following questions:

 

Is there a lack of recognition of female graphic designers and is this trend changing?

 

Do women designers tend to work in certain branches of graphic design than others? If so, why?

 

Is there a lack of women in top graphic design jobs? What influences women graphic designers choose their jobs?

 

 

Depending on the research gathered, this report may also touch upon if there are visual and stylistic differences between graphic design produced by men and women, which are due to gender differences. I m also interested to see if there is a link between social, ethical and co designing and women.

 

 

Chapter Headings

 

The History of Women as Graphic Designers

This part of the report intends to focus on case studies and key female figures within graphic design.  Picking up on if students are aware of these figures and the role they have played in the shaping graphic design over the past 100 years.

 

Is there a graphic design glass ceiling for women?

This section will focus on investigating facts and opinions from existing reports and primary research; looking into depth at if there is an inequality with in the graphic design industry, and if so why. Picking up on the lack of recognition women designers have received and why they are outnumbered by their male colleagues.

 

Women Now

Conducting primary research within the school of graphics at LCC and speaking to graphic designers working within London to gain an understanding of the current role women are undertaking with in the industry. Also investigating where female graduates end up working and why, and if there is a shift happening with in graphic design as more and more graphic design students tend to be women. It would be interesting to see if this relates to what style and issues are being tackled by graphic designers.

 

 

The future of Women as graphic designers

The aim of this chapter is to gain an insight into what the next generation think about women in graphic design and if they feel there are enough female role models.  How graphic design schools can ensure they are making their students aware of female graphic designers and

 

 

Action Plan

In order to research this subject to the best of my ability I intent to read all the journals, reports, books and websites I have in the bibliography over the summer, pulling out key sections of information. Once I have started my first term of the third year I intent to take a more pro active approach by conducting interviews with students and staff within the Graphic Design Black at LCC.  I also intent to interview graphic designers working within London, both freelancers and those working within design agencies.

 

 

Bibliography

Lecture Notes:

Role of Women in Graphic Design Lecture, 24/10/08

Books:

Gromez-Palacio, B (2008) Women Of Design: Influence And Inspiration From The Original Trailblazers To The New Groundbreakers

Journals:

Piscopo, M, (2002) Women in Design: Revisited Communication Arts, vol. 44, pt. 6, Nov. 2002, pp. 240-2

The Feminine Touch

Are there enouhg women in Design? Discuss…

The Era of Women

And she told two friends: An exhibtion of graphic design by women

Whipcord Whigmaleery

Creative Futures 2002: Women Only

Women, design, tomorrow

Bitter, but hopeful

In search of the lost women

Beyond politics and gender: The Hilary factor

Websites:

What do women have to do with sustainability? Look here or at Lewis & Clark College next week - PDX Green

Design History Lab » Blog Archive » Women’s Role within Urban Space

designhistorylab.com/?p=815=1

 

The Future of Design Education

education.agda.com.au/articles/view/story/the-future-of-design-education

 

Interview on Women, Games and Design « Applied Game Design

bbrathwaite.wordpress.com/2009/01/07/interview-on-women-games-and-design/

 

Typotheque: Women Graphic Designers by Ellen Lupton

www.typotheque.com/articles/women_graphic_designers

 

Women's Network for a Sustainable Future - DESIGN 21: Social Design Network

www.design21sdn.com/organizations/288

 

Women's eNews - Women in Business Ask: Are Women More Ethical?

www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/1279/context/archive

 

Ethical Superstore Community Blog » Blog Archive » Women in Ethical Business - The Triodos Awards

www.ethicalsuperstore.com/blog/friends/women-in-ethical-business-the-triodos-awa...

  

 

Triodos - Women in Ethical Business Awards in association with The Times

 

www.triodos.co.uk/uk/whats_new/events/WEBA

 

Women and men, morality and ethics - sexual differences in moral reasoning | Business Horizons | Find Articles at BNET

findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1038/is_n4_v38/ai_17105361/

 

Women in Advertising study 10 years on

www.ipa.co.uk/Content/Women-in-Advertising-study-10-years-on

 

Emerald: Article Request - Creative women in advertising agencies: why so few “babes in boyland”?

www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do;jsessionid=5131A3621A3EC508C98...

 

Women miss out on top advertising jobs | Media | MediaGuardian

www.guardian.co.uk/media/2006/jan/25/marketingandpr.advertising

 

Focus: Sexism in the advertising industry | Media | The Observer

2

www.guardian.co.uk/media/2005/oct/23/advertising.genderissues

 

The 4 c’s - the johnson banks thought for the week

 

www.johnsonbanks.co.uk/thoughtfortheweek/index.php?thoughtid=213

 

IngentaConnect Mentioned, but Denied Significance: Women Designers and the Profe...

www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bpl/gend/2000/00000012/00000002/art00006?crawler=...

 

The New Journal Magazine at Yale

www.yale.edu/tnj/content/feb09/posterchild.html

 

Where are the Women? Where are the Links? – Jeffrey Zeldman Presents The Daily Report

 

www.zeldman.com/2007/04/18/cant-link-with-em/

 

Speak Up Archive: International Women’s Day

2

www.underconsideration.com/speakup/archives/001388.html

 

Non-existent Design: Women and the Creation of Type — AIGA | the professional association for design

 

www.aiga.org/content.cfm/non-existent-design-women-and-the-creation-of-type

 

Graphic Design Blog » Why So Few Women Web Designers?

2

www.graphicdesignblog.co.uk/why-so-few-women-web-designers/

 

Designing Women -- Presented by the Graphic Design Network

www.graphic-design.net/women/

 

Ellen Lupton: Design Writing Research: Women Graphic Designers

www.elupton.com/index.php?id=6

 

Graphic Feminism: 7 | The Graphic Glass Ceiling | "Women Graphic Designers"

graphicfeminism.blogspot.com/2009/04/7-graphic-glass-ceiling-women-graphic.html

 

» Where Are The Female Designers? » fadtastic - a multi-author web design trends journal

fadtastic.net/2007/11/19/where-are-the-female-designers/

3 comments:

  1. Hi Rachel,

    This is a really interesting subject with lots of potential.

    You will need to ground your abstract in the context of employment inequality generally before honing into graphic design. You should be able to find lots on this. The Office of National Statistics might have some data. It is not just a problem for the graphic design industry and you need to recognise this up front! Not lots of detail just an opening statement.

    I would suggest reordering your research questions. Start with the quantatitive aspect – i.e. is there actually a lack of female graphic designers or is it a perception? You could find some stats here or do your own research. You will need to analyse the figures carefully to work out reasons for the numbers. You may want to look at the ages of women graphic designers. You will find many female graphic design students (just look round the studio!) and you will find many under 30s women in design, but you may find the figures tail off as the age range increases.

    Once you have found out whether there are more men than women in graphic design you can then explore the question of recognition.

    From there you can drill into whether there is a lack of women in the top design jobs.
    Then you could look at the type of work female designers are engaged in (ethical etc).

    Your chapter headings look fine at the moment – but check back that what you say you are covering in each of them correlates with the questions you have outlined in the abstract.
    I think you will need to hone down your title, but this will come as the project progresses.

    I wouldn’t focus on whether the work produced by men or women has stylistic differences – I think that is a separate project entirely.

    Catherine

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  2. thank you, all useful stuff i will work this all into my next draft.
    Rachel

    ReplyDelete
  3. HI JUST A QUICK GRAMMAR/PUNCTUATION THING THAT I NOTICED
    ('within' instead of with in.
    comma after KIDD)

    This report will explore the role of women within the graphic design industry. Triggered by a questioned posed to Milton Glaser, Chip Kidd, and Dave Eggers at a design lecture ..........................

    ReplyDelete