Graphic Design and Women

¶ … Women Artists in (Graphic Design)

There are many accomplished female artists in the realm of graphic design. Some have pioneered the art, such as Cipe Pineies, April Greiman, Muriel Cooper and Paula Scher (Clifford). These women helped define graphic design in the 20th century and make it what it is today.

Paula Scher is a great woman artist in graphic design. She was born in 1948 and she developed her niche style of graphic design when, having difficulty with positioning print in her art layout an instructor advised her to make the text the image. She did and she re-invented the way text (words) work as the image in graphic design.

Graphic design by Paula Scher: Public Theater poster, 1995; New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) environmental graphics, 2001. http://gdusa.com/blog/pioneering-women-of-graphic-design

Thus, while the field of art has been traditionally dominated by men, as Linda Nochlin points out (primarily because of social structures in which women's roles were defined domestically rather than industrially), in the 20th century this field began to change substantially: more women were leaving domestic environments thanks to the advancement of feminism and the notion that women could enter the workforce alongside men. During WW2, women took a leading role in industry and factory work while men were on the battlefields overseas. This paved the way for more accepting attitudes about women in fields like graphic design.

Graphic design is a fairly modern (circa 20th century) type of art, utilizing print media and stylish compositions as a way to transmit a message or idea. So it has really come into its own around the same time that women were also coming into their own -- thus, the field and women's roles as artists correlate, which is why there are a number of pioneering women in this field.

What I like about Paula Scher's work is that it is so simple yet so effective: it is eye-catching and once having been caught, the eye wanders all over the image unable to leave. For the Public Theater poster, I found myself examining everything it said mainly because of the bold juxtaposition of brilliant yellow background and black text vertically integrated around a black and white image of an African-American in the middle of a dance. It is a very arresting use of text, imagery and color.