IWD - Women of Graphic Design

8th March, 2011 by Simon Mundy

March 8 2011 is International Women's Day. AGDA would like to celebrate female graphic designers past and present through the words and recollections of its members. Who were and are Australia's pioneering women of design? Or indeed was there a female role model who inspired you or your work in the design field? Please post recollections or links below that you'd like to share with the wider AGDA community.

View comments

Florence Broadhurst. If not a household name - she should be known to every Australian art and design student. Born 1899 - our answer to William Morris prehaps. A Queenslander with a background in music, dance and journalism (and a stint in London running a dress salon), she was also an exhibited artist, teaching printmaking and sculpture. In 1959 she started commercially producing hand printed wallpapers. Gorgeous things. Unconventional, unique and flamboyant (much like her personality I suspect).

Her Wikipedia entry says "Her brightly-coloured geometric and nature-inspired oversized designs were all hand printed. Technical advances made in her studio included printing onto metallic surfaces, the development of a washable, vinyl-coating finish and a drying rack system that allowed her wallpapers to be produced in large quantities. By 1972, her wallpapers reportedly contained around 800 designs in eighty different colours, while by the mid-1970s she monopolised the quality end of the Australian market and was exporting worldwide.

She worked prodigiously and prolifically right up until her death at 78 in 1977.
Posted by Liana Lucca-Pope on 8th March 2011

I asked Mimmo Cozzolino for the names of significant Australian women of design and he said:

----
hi Liana
your question is a difficult one. I can't really answer it off the top of my head. There is only one woman in our the AGDA Hall Of Fame: 2002: Dahl Collings of Geoffrey and Dahl Collings Design Partnership (1933-1988)

I talked with an old friend, Winston Thomas, who used to teach at Swinburne and is now retired.
He made the interesting observation that when he used to take students for design tours of Sydney in the 1990s, there were always more women designers running studios in Syd than in Melb.
Names like Annette Harcus, Myriam Kin Yee of EKH Design, Anna Eymont, The Louver Sisters.
Melbourne had Heather Towns, Meg Robertson, Amanda Roach, Sue Allnutt. Melbourne also had some strong women working within the big studios run by men.

By comparison, there were lots of women illustrators and some great art director women working in advertising too.

There is also Lynda Warner in Hobart, who's been doing some exemplary work for many years.
Nearly all the names I've mentioned are still working designers."
----

Thanks Mimmo. It should be noted that Mimmo gave the opening address at the short lived 'Women in Design' association where (among other things) he said:

"My own awareness in these matters has been raised by the efforts of my own life partner– not that many years ago. When I first started being invited to judge awards it didn’t even occur to me that it would be a good idea to have women represented on the panels. I remember telling Sue about this award I was on and she casually asked me if women were included on these things or was it just a boys’ club? I remember trying to rationalize how they went on reputation not on whether jurors were male or female. It didn’t get me very far and I started realizing that it needed to change.

When, in more recent times, I have challenged design awards organizers to include women on judging panels, they invariably ask me for “the list”. It used to be hard to put a list together, but now it’s getting easier– but still not as easy a putting a list of male designers.

Why?

Well, for one, I think women have a better perspective on the balance between work and the rest of life. Between work and family.

Women, if they decide to have children, generally end up having to do two jobs, or certainly one and a half. Men have it relatively easy on this front.

And, perhaps, women’s egos do not need to be stroked as much as men’s egos. Women are smarter, every one knows that… they can see thru the ego bullshit stuff. They leave it up to men to play ego games. And this award stuff is a lot about ego-stroking anyway."
Posted by Liana Lucca-Pope on 9th March 2011

While not specifically 'graphic' design related, Mary Featherston's work - particularly that of design and creativity in education, how students learn, and the environments they learn in is fascinating...and I know the focus of many a designer's (whatever the discipline) area of study and inspiration.
Posted by Paul Ducco on 10th March 2011

What an interesting topic Liana - and quite serendipitous. I'm just in the middle of writing an article for dmzine titled 'Why more women don't run design studios'... so it's something I've been giving quite a bit of thought.

I was part of the (as has been said short lived) 'Women in Design' association too and I remember one design lecturer's reminiscing that when she organised studio visits for design students, the result was almost always the same.

The females students summed up their visits by analysing whether it was the type of studio they would like to work in when they graduated.

The male students compared the studios they have visited with the way they were going to run their own studio.

So the female students just took it for granted they would be employed – by contrast, the males just assumed they would be starting their own practice.

That was mid 90's. but I got to say I don't see a lot of difference in attitude with the students that I have mentored over the past few years.

So, while I'm sure female role models are out there, they are not very visible – perhaps more the quiet achievers behind the battle lines.
Posted by Carol Mackay on 23rd March 2011