Graphic Design Gender History: My work is loved because he thinks I'm a man

Posters, cards, records, boxes, product logos, web buttons, are all part of the graphic design.

Looking back at Taiwan's well-known designers, most of us may remember male faces: Yu Yongzhen, Wang Zhihong, Fang Shuzhong, Feng Yu. However, in graphic design, although female designers still make up a minority, they continue to echo cultural history. From the perspective of female design, we look at the process of modern graphic design, taking you to see different times, female designers, facing what dilemmas, and the courage to break through. (Same-field plus: women's daily, is good everyday! Design exhibition featuring you)

20th Century Feminism: The Rise of Women in Graphic Design is The Women's Struggle for The Right to Vote

Today's so-called "graphic design" concept, the pan-pointer to any paper packaging, image logo, and even the internet icon design, the development of the relatively late than fashion design, architectural design, industrial design.

With the popularity of printed products, it was not until the late 19th century that the European-led art world began to separate graphic design from the fine art world. At the end of the 19th century, however, there were still few working women in the industry as a whole, not to mention the printing and design industries of the time, which were still dominated by men, making it almost impossible to see female practitioners.

At the beginning of the 20th century, graphic design sprouted rapidly, especially in book poster design, and the development was influenced by The New Art in Europe (Art Nouveau). Complicated border, flower background, soft female shape, is its important features.

Meanwhile, in Britain, the first wave of feminism in the fight for women's right to vote began, and many women took to the streets to protest, with posters and leaflets becoming very important propaganda tools.

There was no concept of "graphic designer" at the time, and as we now know, Hilda Dallas, a female sportsman and poster designer at the time, could almost be the beginning of women's involvement in contemporary graphic design. Her representative work is Vote for Women (Vote for Women), a white woman holding up a flyer that reads "Vote for Women." In the 20th century, feminism has just sprouted, and graphic design is still male-oriented, and the emergence of this series of designs also symbolizes the beginning of a new era.

In the 1950s, fashion magazines were designed to break through: fashion magazines for women in the workplace

After World War II, working women were gradually accepted by Western society. The popular culture of women as the main consumers has also gradually flourished: film and television celebrities, workplace wear and clothing, women's lives, with women as consumers of the new market greatly opened.

Cipe Pineles has become an important female designer. Penrith is a well-known fashion magazine designer, having worked as a 17-year-old, Glamour, and the first woman in the design department.

But the advertising industry is still dominated by male designers. As a female designer, it's hard to find a job. She has shared many experiences, one of which comes from her name.

In his writings, Mr. Pallis recalls his experience of finding a job: "I have thrown my collection sat in different advertising agencies. Everyone likes my work and invites me to interview. But that's because they think my name is a man! When they finally saw me, they often couldn't hide their disappointment. In the end I never get a job. Even an interviewer even told her directly that even if she got a job, she would stay with many male colleagues in a huge shed, where the presence of female co-workers made them uncomfortable.

Fortunately, it didn't take long for her to dig into a women's magazine. In 1947, she was artistic director of Seventeen, and in 1950 she joined Glamour magazine, which was positioned as "a magazine for women in the workplace". In 1975, she was elected the first woman in the New York Association of Art Directors Hall of Fame, bringing women's graphic design perspectives into the fashion industry and popular tastes.

Key minority women in minimalist style in the '60s: Juliet Cooper

In the 1960s, influenced by the Bauhaus style of the past, the design world of the 1960s blew the minimalist wind: the design from science, the use of computer drawing, the combination of practical and human style, began to appear. This shift is represented by Muriel Cooper. She is known for her digital and letter design and is a longtime artistic director of MIT Press.

Graphic design has always been dominated by nearly half of female students, but teaching positions have long been held by men. Another pointer to Juliet Cooper is that she is not only a well-known designer, but also a contributor to design education. She saw early on the impact of computers on future generations, and in 1985 she co-founded MIT's Media Lab with computer scientist Nicholas Nigloponi and others, where she was also a professor for life.

Give McIntosh a Smile: In the 1980s, women were involved in interface design

In the 1980s, computer technology began to emerge, and interface design became an emerging field, requiring both computer understanding and graphic design concepts. Susan Kare was one of the few female interface designers of the year and was also known as "the woman who smiled for McIntosh". She is the interface designer for Apple's Macintosh computer.

When she first entered Apple, it was a part-time job, and she was in charge of The Font Design for Macintosh. There were no positions such as "Interface Designer" or "Icon Editor" at the time, and her employee card, which read only "Macintosh Artist." But she soon discovered that pixels were actually like brushes, and could be used for graphic design.

"I'm still joking, there's nothing new in the sun. The image of the bitmap is like a mosaic, you paint with a needle tip, I may not have any computer experience, but I know how to make graphic design. Other crew members told her what the computer needed, and she designed icons that people could understand. She designed the first font for the Macintosh computer, as well as the icon, which had a smile on the computer screen.

However, the difficulties she faced were not only the difficulties of challenging computer technology, but also the social recognition. Even after joining the computer world in the 1980s and making a landmark contribution, Kyle didn't receive the American Graphic Design Association Award (AIG Medal) until 2018.

Looking back at the small history of graphic design, it is not difficult to find that with the evolution of the times, each era has made great contributions to the outstanding female designers. But their names are often not easily seen by society and drowned out in a corner of daily life, even if we have all seen or been influenced by them. Their life experiences echo each other throughout the times.

If a good "design" is to reflect and solve the problems of the times with their works, then these female designers, it is also with their own life story, respond to the question of the whole era: how a female designer, how to answer the gender dilemma of different eras, and the courage to break through.