News
Women in Graphic Design
We’re dedicated to preserving and celebrating typographic design from underrepresented groups, including women.
Like nearly every professional field, women have been systematically omitted from graphic design history. Fortunately, many recent efforts, such as Alphabettes, Hall of Femmes, and the People’s Graphic Design Archive are pushing to rectify the situation. We’re doing our part by collecting and sharing the work of women, both past and living. Here are some highlights.
Social Media Highlights
We’ve been celebrating International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month on social media by highlighting a few of our favorite artists and designers in the collection. If you missed it, check out our “Name a Woman” video series below.
More Posts Featuring Womens’ Work
Blog Articles About Women Artists and Designers
The Women of Photo-Lettering
Guest researcher Anne Galperin reveals unsung contributions to a major sourcebook of mid-twentieth-century type design.
Beyond the Bauhaus: Ecuador, Land of the Shuar
Vanessa Zúñiga Tinizaray refocuses geometric and systematic design principles on a culture far from 20th-century Europe.
Ludmila Hellmann-Kavalla
Original artwork from an Austrian student’s portfolio reveals the process of mid-century fashion advertising and illustration.
Quiet Type by Zai Divecha
A remarkable sculptural installation of 26 letters and 10 numbers will grace the walls of our new home.
Angel DeCora’s The Indians’ Book and Wigwam Stories
The inventive early-20th-century lettering of Ho-Chunk artist Hinook-Mahiwi-Kalinaka opens windows to the design of North American tribes.
Laini (Sylvia Abernathy)
The Chicago-based activist’s dynamic album covers of the 1960s expand our sense of design history.
Jennifer Morla
The AIGA Medalist, AGI Member, and National Design Award Recipient donates her archive.
Susan Skarsgard and Suzanne Moore
Among our holdings of contemporary calligraphy are two artists who break boundaries between visual art and the written word.
Elaine Lustig Cohen
A generous donation from Elaine Lustig Cohen’s estate significantly enhances Letterform Archive’s mid-century modern holdings.
Video: Lectures and Salons by and about Women
Women in the Online Archive
The Online Archive is a website of digitized items in Letterform Archive’s collection. Here are a couple of tables (curated sets) that feature work by women, and names of individual artists and designers who are represented in the Online Archive.
Women You Don’t Learn About in Design School
This introduction to important designers who are rarely discussed as part of the “Design Canon” includes Laini (Sylvia Abernathy), who is the first Black woman credited as an album cover designer; Virginia Clive-Smith, an incredibly inventive member of the psychedelia movement; and more.
Women in Metal Type Design
With few exceptions, women’s contributions in the metal type era have mostly been erased or ignored. This table accompanies a salon by Bethany Qualls. As a Mellon Public Scholar, Bethany researched the Archive’s type specimens to develop a finding aid and research hub highlighting the work of women.
More Women in the Online Archive
- Antic-Ham
- Mirtha Dermisache
- Denise Gonzales Crisp
- April Greiman
- Hansje van Halem
- Jenny Holzer
- Corita Kent
- Zuzana Licko
- Elaine Lustig Cohen
- Katherine McCoy
- Suzanne Moore
- Louise Sandhaus
- Paula Scher
- Dorothy Shepard
- Susan Skarsgard
- Varvara Stepanova (варвара степанова)
- Carol Twombly
- Angie Wang
- Loraine Wild
- Jeanyee Wong
Many more women can be found within the 100,000+ objects in Letterform Archive’s collection. Bookmark this page, as we’ll be updating it with a more comprehensive list of artists and designers whose work you can request on a guided tour or research visit. Also, make sure you’re on the mailing list to be alerted as items are cataloged and digitized.