Herstories in Graphic Design: Dialogue, Continuity, Self-Empowerment. Women Graphic Designers from 1880 Until Today / Dialoge, Kontinutit舩en, Selbs - Hardcover

by Gerda Breuer (Author)

Bilingual edition (English/German) / Zweisprachige Ausgabe (deutsch/englisch)

By and large, women have been left out of the history of graphic design. Yet if we look beyond the surface of this familiar account, what becomes clear is the influence women graphic designers have had on the discipline right from the start. The book shows how these women developed their own traditions, fostered dialogue and built connections between their designs, acted as role models, created networks, and proved their capacity for self-empowerment. Illuminating this struggle for professional recognition, Gerda Breuer highlights the collective formats women designers have used to enhance their own visibility, champion women's issues, and make a mark on the world.

Both little-known collectives and renowned graphic designers such as Lyubov Popova, ﾄnne Koken, Ethel Reed, and Sarah Wyman Whitman contributed to the history of graphic design. Breuer's approach demonstrates the ways that women's important contributions been devalued, ignored, or relegated to the background--in short, made to disappear--in the narrative that is usually presented. In the context of contemporary challenges to the traditional canon of graphic design, integrating these contributions into design history is long overdue.

Design by Katja Lis, DBF Designb?o Frankfurt

Author Biography

Gerda Breuer is a retired professor of the history of art and design at the University of Wuppertal. She previously led the Cromford Industriemuseum in Ratingen as well as the Mathildenhe in Darmstadt, and was acting head of the LVR industrial museums group in North Rhine-Westphalia. In addition to this, she chaired the scientific advisory board of the Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau. More recently, she published the volume Design. Texte zur Theorie und Geschichte (2019) with Petra Eisele.

Katja Lis is a communication designer who completed her degree at HfG Offenbach am Main. She is an entrepreneur and the cofounder of the DBF designb?o frankfurt agency. In addition to this, she is a councilor in the Deutscher Designtag, diversity adviser for the DDC Deutsche Designer Club e.V., and also helped launch the Women of DDC platform promoting the visibility, professional networking, and entrepreneurship of female designers.