Women are rocking the world of graphic design. There are so many wonderful female designers, that we could have gone on forever here.
Paula Scher
Paula Scher is an American graphic designer, illustrator, and educator. She was the first female Principal at Pentagram. She started experimenting with typography in the early 1980s. She looked to historic design sources such as Russian Constructivism, obscure and little-used typefaces, and her seemingly unlimited imagination, and she´s done very well for herself.
Leta Sobierajski
Multidisciplinary designer and art director Leta Sobierajski has a bright and brilliant portfolio that includes works for big client names such as Google, Target, UNIQLO, Tate Modern and Bloomberg Businessweek. Her playful and colorful style delights the senses.
Jing Zhang
Jing Zhang’s portfolio is equally colorful and playful, with a design and illustration style that translates complicated ideas into pleasing, fun digital images. The combine intricate detail, infographics, and miniature worlds.
Carolyn Davidson
If there ever was a surprising “secret” in the design world, it’s that perhaps one of the most famous logos of all time, the Nike logo, was designed by a woman that no one knows. Who? Carolyn Davidson. It was originally contracted for a mere $35 dollars (roughly $200 today), but it is now one of the most famous images of all time.
Jacqueline Casey
Jacqueline Casey did more in her position as a designer at MIT than most people do in their lifetime. She began working at MIT in 1955. She was brought on board through the suggestion of her friend and former classmate Muriel Cooper. She remained at the Institute until her death in 1992. Casey helped pioneer the institute’s Office of Design Services and acted as director for the office between 1972 and 1989. Her posters for MIT are iconic. They’re elegant and energetic, clean and creative. Casey had a real talent for depicting concepts through simple forms and type, and her posters are still an inspiration to designers.
Ruth Ansel
Even though Ruth Ansel worked as Art Director for the New York Times Magazine in the 1970s and Art Director for House and Garden, Vanity Fair and Vogue in the 1980s, those prestigious titles were actually only part of her creative contribution to this world. Ansel created film titles for numerous books and directed fashion ad campaigns for Versace, Club Monaco and Karl Lagerfield.
Lillian Bassman
Lilliam Bassman was a contemporary of Cipe Pineles. She worked as protégé of Alexey Brodocitch while at Harper’s Bazaar, and when the magazine launched their young girls’ magazine, Junior Bazaar, Bassman was appointed Art Director at his request.
In addition to her talents as a designer, Bassman also had a successful photography career. She is sought after for her commercial portraits of models in lingerie, cosmetics and fabric.
Susan Kare
Susan Kare is a hugely significant figure in icon design. She has designed internationally recognizable symbols for Apple, Microsoft, and PayPal. You’ll be surprised about how many icons you’d recognize on her website. Check it out.
Vanessa Eckstein and Marta Cutler
Vanessa Eckstein founded Blok in 1999 and later invited Marta Cutler – who had a background at advertising agencies such as MacLaren McCann and DDB – to join her.
Taking on varied and meaningful projects, their clear and elegant style has a foundation in brand analysis, conceptual thought and profound creativity.
Indrè Klimaitè
Lithuanian-born Indrè Klimaitè now lives and designs in the Netherlands. With a bold and graphic style, Klimaitè says: “there should be only one visual idea but it should be strong enough not to be labeled lame, boring, or predictable.”
Jessica Walsh
Jessica Walsh is killing it on Bēhance with more than 130,000 followers. And rightfully, as one of the partners of Sagmeister Walsh, her work has won numerous awards. Forbes magazine named her one of its ‘30 under 30.’ The Art Director’s Club selected her as one of its ‘Young Guns.’
Debbie Millman
Debbie Millman is the host of the ‘Design Matters’ podcast. She is also President of Design at Sterling Brands, where she has worked on the redesign of more than 200 brands (including Pepsi and Nestle). Graphic Design USA named her “one of the most influential designers working today”.
Jessica Hische
Jessica Hische is one of the great women designers that Debbie Millman has spoken with for ‘Design Matters.’ She is a letterer, illustrator, and type designer. She has for Wes Anderson and Penguin Books, amongst many other clients.
Chiara Aliotta
Chiara Aliotta spoke at the Awwwards Conference in Amsterdam, January 2016. She heads up the design studio Until Sunday and works as brand manager for Joomla!. Her work reflects her love for the beauty of typography and her belief in impressive design.
Sarah Boris
London-based Sarah Boris has earned her stripes designing for a number of big UK cultural institutions, including the Barbican Centre, Tate, the Architecture Foundation, and Gasworks. Her strong portfolio includes visual identity, exhibition graphics, editorial design, book design, and more.
Jiani Lu
Jiani Lu is an award-winning Canadian multidisciplinary designer and photographer specializing in branding, information design and print. Her style is subtle, elegant, and contemporary. She uses white space to her advantage.
Kelli Anderson
Racking up the followers on Dribbble, Kelli Anderson loves to experiment with new ways of making images for people to experience. She draws, photographs, cuts, prints, and codes. She also interestingly works with her own 1919 letterpress and other gadgets and machines.
Lotta Nieminen
From Helsinki, Lotta Nieminen worked for Pentagram and RoAndCo before establishing her own design studio in New York.
Winning numerous awards and nominations, her client list includes Google, Hermès, United Airlines, and Volkswagen, as well a number of well-known publications, and she shows no sign of stopping.
Raewyn Brandon
With more than 42,000 followers on Bēhance, Raewyn Brandon has to be doing something right, right? She’s mastered the art of graphics and layout so much so that she provided creative direction and design (in collaboration with Matias Corea) for Super-Modified: The Bēhance Book of Creative Work.
We want you to join this list, or another list of great designers. How can we help you on your journey?
My dream is to become a Design professor and to promote the sharing of ideas among designers across the Americas, in its three most widely spoken languages Portuguese (native) Spanish (near-native), and English (fluent). I hope to be selected to attend your especially innovative and distinguished Master’s Degree Program at the University of XXXX because of your focus, especially as related to the public good, education, health, and safety. I feel that I am the best fit with your emphasis on the importance of diversity and the sharing of ideas across cultural and language barriers, all of us learning from each other on a planetary level, in design as in other areas. My father was from Chile and my mother from Brazil and I have lived and worked in the USA, thus, I am multicultural as well as multilingual. Granted an opportunity to pursue this master program, I will be able to buttress the knowledge and skills in design obtained from my previous learning and occupational undertakings with expertise in the theoretical and research aspects of design. In addition, your program will orient me into interdisciplinary design development and make me better placed to contribute to strategic design planning and development.
