Like most industries, Design has historically been an industry majorly populated by men. Representation has always been a problem for female professionals, but the year is 2018, and things are changing.
More women are – finally – occupying positions of leadership in fields such as technology, innovation and design. In this article, we have selected six of the many incredible female designers you need to hear about.
Birgit Mager
Mager is a professor at KISD – Köln International School Of Design – in Germany. For the past eighteen years, she has been a reference in leadership when it comes to theoretical and practical service design. Her publications and talks have contributed in service design’s establishment as an independent discipline. Maher is also president of the International Service Design Network (SDN) and is responsible for its national and international conferences.
Jane Fulton Suri
Suri is a Partner and Executive Director at IDEO. For thirty years, she has been responsible for developing inspired design for a very vast client portfolio. Suri is a pioneer in human-centred design using empathy, experimentation and collaboration – the main pillars of Design Thinking. Over the years, she has increased awareness and accessibility to human-centred tools by creating and publishing materials and methods for Design Thinking.
Jeanne M. Liedtka
Liedtka is a strategist and professor of business administration at the Darden School of the University of Virginia. She is known for her work on Design Thinking, innovation and leadership. Liedtka is passionate about encouraging people to think about the design of desirable futures creatively. She is also an author, having written a must-read book called Designing For Growth: A Design Toolkit For Managers.
Cristiana Grether
Grether is Global Director of Design Capacitation at Coca-Cola Company. Over the course of two decades, she was responsible for the biggest design change at Coca-Cola, one of the most famous soft drinks in the world. Grether has promoted Design Thinking’s culture in the company, and this becomes visible in Coca-Cola’s bottle designs and visual communications.
Lisa Kay Solomon
Solomon is an educator, business leadership and culture design specialist. Founding Chair of Transformational Practices and Leadership at Singularity University, her work helps companies adapt to the world’s technological changes through innovation. Solomon is also the author of two best-selling books: Moments of Impact: How to Design Strategic Conversations That Accelerate Change and Design a Better Business: New Tools, Skills, and Mindset for Strategy and Innovation.
Paula Scher
Scher is one of the world’s most influential graphic designers. She was the first female principal at Pentagram – notorious New York’s design firm, founded in 1972 – which she joined in 1991. Intelligent and accessible in her art, Scher has become a living legend and her work, iconic. Some of her most famous creations are the logos of Microsoft Windows 8, Microsoft Office 2010 and Citi Bank’s logo. She was responsible for designing a complete methodology that modernised New York’s Museum Of Modern Art (MoMA), which has one of the most iconic logos in the art world.
*This article was translated, adapted and edited by Rani Ghazzaoui Luke. Header’s photo credit: Malika Favre
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