In general I think the industry is male dominated in the powerful positions however it depends on which subset of design you are in. For example publishing is full of women, every art director I have spoken to has been a women though I think that this is because this side of the industry has much more regular hours. Also it has more of an aesthetic appeal I think because you can physically hold what you create which in my experience seems to be a much more feminine attitude. However advertising has much fewer women, but in advertising you have a much more demanding job and schedule. It still seems to be that the traditional role of women being family orientated and staying at home and the stay at home dad is not common or even picking the kids up from school. In advertising you have to be much more upfront, the schedule goes out the window, you have to work long and late hours and it seems you have to work constantly until your 40 with no social life and so I think it is easier for men to fill these roles.
2) Do you think that the decision to have children effects how successful a women can be in this industry?
I definitely think it will effect your success if you have children young. It will impact on how quickly you will excel in the industry. However with social networking being made increasingly more easy and everyone having a website it is so much easier to locate them for work. I think if you have children too young trying to balance that with the amount of work you have to put in at the start of your career, to be successful, and work that around your children you would be too tried out all the time!
3) What kinds of challenges, if any, did you have to overcome to succeed in the beginning of your career as a female designer in a predominately male profession?
In my career so far I have never faced any challenges as a woman the industry has been perfectly accepting. I think this is because when I started up as a designer several of my bosses were women probably because these were small personal companies whilst in more corporate companies there are less women. If anything I feel there are more advantages to being a women in this industry, it depends what kind of person you are and how you look at things. For example I think that people find me much more of an approachable person but that personality trait can either help or hinder people, for example if I wasn’t freelance and represented a corporate business this approach would probably hinder my success. I am easy to talk to and have much more of a personal approachability. However some people may find that I am too much of an over sharer and too personal. Sometimes its not professional to be approachable, it really depends on what setting. If you worked in a more corporate company and your bidding to get a massive corporate account you need to be closed off, dry, competitive and serious. However I do not know if this necessarily a gender trait as I know plenty of male designers who also have a personal approachability, one designer friend is definitely an over sharer, he would tell you anything!
4) Do you think you approach projects differently to men?
I do not think that I approach projects differently to men because the process is always the same. However I definitely work in a style that is considered feminine. It is a style that is familiar to me, when I left school I just stuck to what I knew as it was comfortable and then more and more people hired me to do more feminine work and because I had done it so many times I have gotten so good at it its definitely a very strong style. After school people hire you because of your style you have done so far and it snowballs and snowballs and so you get very good at that style and familiar with it and work well within it, but now I guess I do not really get hired to produce more masculine work and I would have to approach that definitely.
5) How do you think graphic design is going to progress in the future? What role do you think female designers will play?
I definitely think that the industry will even out soon, especially in the industry specific stuff, such as advertising etc. I think that the role of women will be that other women will become more aware of the successful women designers. At the moment men seem to be much better at waving their flag and pointing at themselves, whilst women who are just as good at design concentrate on being good designers rather then promoting themselves. Although home care will always be a role traditional to women with tools such as Twitter, Facebook, websites etc. it will make it easier to socially network and get yourself known and so I think there will be a balance in the industry soon.
6) As you are a very successful female designer do you think your experience is typical of women designers? Why do you think men tend to be more successful at promoting themselves?
I disagree and think that men are not better at promoting themselves, just they are able to take more risks as women struggle to find the balance between being taken seriously or being approachable. When they first started out years ago the industry was much more male dominated and so they would have strived to be seen as a serious professional in the work place rather than having to be putting yourself out there constantly to be considered successful in the public eye. Some people are known because they are known, it is not necessarily to do with their skill but because they are better at promoting themselves. When you first start out as a designer you generally only know the really reputable designers but as you get better as a designer, looking at annuals, networking, trawling through websites you get to know more designers who are really good at design not just crazy famous people. There are many people I know who are designing just as well as the celebrity designers but they just have not got themselves out there.
It will be interesting to see what responses you have to this subject!
7) Through my research It has been frustrating at times as a minority of male designers I have asked on design forums when asked why they think the industry is male dominated their reply is because ‘men are just better’...
7) Through my research It has been frustrating at times as a minority of male designers I have asked on design forums when asked why they think the industry is male dominated their reply is because ‘men are just better’...
Sometimes its difficult to see the forest between the trees. In the design industry or any industry you will meet people with these kind of views but its important to not concentrate on these smaller details as they may prevent you from seeing the overview as a whole, I think it is important to notice that the design industry has changed over the years and it is not as male dominated as it was however you will always have a small group ruining it.
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