Thumb through most books on the history of design, and you’ll find them dominated by the narratives, contributions and stories of men. In fact, you might assume that, at least until the modern era, there were no female designers at all.
But while it’s true that the nature of 20th-century society certainly held women back – in design, just as in most professions – that doesn’t mean there weren’t those who broke through. In fact, one of the most interesting aspects of design history is the number of female pioneers, visionaries and rule-breakers who did the seemingly impossible, not just establishing successful careers but earning the respect and admiration of their peers and crafting work that has endured for decades.
Yet even today, many of these names remain largely unknown and overlooked within the design profession. And so a new podcast from Nice People Design Agency shines a much-needed spotlight on their innovative work, artistic brilliance, and the diverse perspectives they brought to our world.
Honouring the trailblazers
Women Designers You Should Know is the passion project of creative director Amber Asay, founder of Nice People, an award-winning brand studio based in Los Angeles.
What began in March 2022 as a popular video series on Instagram, sharing the forgotten stories of female creatives amassed over 190,000 followers. As it reached an impressive three million accounts, Amber recognised an opportunity to evolve the concept into a full-blown podcast devoted to design’s unsung heroines.
“We launched the podcast as a platform to celebrate the incredible talent and stories of women designers,” Amber says. “We aim to inspire the next generation of creatives while honouring the trailblazers who have shaped today’s design landscape. With these episodes, we want to cover every discipline from graphic design to industrial design, interior design, architecture, fashion design, textile design, and even photography and illustration when it comes to commercial use with clients and creative briefs.”
Where are the women?
So, how did she get the idea? “It all started with me thinking back to when I was a design student learning about design history in classes, and we read books like A History of Graphic Design by Phillip J Megg,” Amber replies. “I started to wonder throughout my career: where were there women from the past that could be seen as the counterparts to legends like Paul Rand, Massimo Vignelli and Saul Bass? Where were the female versions of those household names?”
As Amber dug deeper, she began uncovering a rich, underexplored world of design pioneers such as Barbara Stauffacher Solomon (1928-2024), the American designer best known for her large-scale interior ‘supergraphics’ and the exterior signs at Sea Ranch, a private estate with a Utopian vision in Sonoma County, California.
“It was a totally shocking moment for me,” Amber recalls. “I’d never even heard her name – nothing even close to her name – in my whole career until I started this project.