About this item
Highlights
- Bilingual edition (English/German) / Zweisprachige Ausgabe (deutsch/englisch) By and large, women have been left out of the history of graphic design.
- About the Author: Gerda Breuer is a retired professor of the history of art and design at the University of Wuppertal.
- 304 Pages
- Architecture, Individual Architects & Firms
Description
Book Synopsis
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, Änne 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 Designbüro Frankfurt
Review Quotes
"Dass Designerinnen ausgeklammert werden, geht nicht mehr."
(Gerda Breuer im Interview mit Martina Metzner auf ndion)
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"In [...] HerStories in Graphic Design hat sich Gerda Breuer mit der Präsenz von Frauen in der Grafikdesigngeschichte auseinandergesetzt. Das Ergebnis ist nicht nur visuell ein richtiger Hingucker, sondern betont auch ausdrücklich, dass das Wirken von Grafikdesignerinnen in den letzten Jahrhunderten nicht einfach überlesen werden sollte." (Johanna Schmees in Grafikmagazin)
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"Gerda Breuer [...] wagt den Blick unter die Oberfläche und findet Antworten auf die Frage, warum Frauen bislang aus der Geschichte des Grafikdesigns ausgeklammert wurden. Ihr Anliegen, die reale Geschichte von Frauen in die Designhistoriografie zu integrieren, gelingt mit diesem reich bebilderten Band: ein unerlässlicher Beitrag zur Revision der Geschichtsschreibung von Frauen im Design." (Barbara Lüth in tgm)
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"In achtzehn Kapiteln erzählt Gerda Breuer die Geschichte einer 150 Jahre umfassenden Emanzipation. Politische wie berufliche Selbstermächtigung gehen Hand in Hand. [...] Blättern, schauen und loslesen - unbedingt empfehlenswert!" (Silvia Werfel in Deutscher Drucker)
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"Sodann tritt Breuer in siebzehn Kapiteln den Beweis an, dass Grafikdesignerinnen in der gesamten Designgeschichte vertreten sind. Der gelungene Beweis ist bestärkend und unterhaltsam." (Margret Lammert in Weiberdiwan)
About the Author
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 Mathildenhöhe 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 designbüro 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.
