INTRODUCTION

WOMEN OF DESIGN:

Bringing to Light Diverse Stories of
Women Designers from around the World

This unprecedented series tells the stories of how women around the world have made- and continue to make- major contributions to design. Our diverse selection of Designers touch on multiple design disciplines- past and present, and from around the world. We explore design in Fashion, Architecture, Furniture, Interior Design, Textiles, Landscape/ Garden Design, and Technology- from California and Latin America, to Europe, the Middle East, Japan, and China. These women have helped shape the look of everyday life in the twentieth century, but their work was often uncredited and unacknowledged. Our aim is to recognize the ground-breaking contributions these women have made to design and to inspire a new generation of women designers.

This open-ended DocuSeries, directed by prominent women directors, will bring our story up to the present and into the future. Join us and see the Women who made a difference.

The series will also employ a 'Social Strategy' across digital platforms to promote the series, which will serve as a resource for initiatives, scholarships, grants, etc. Transmedia storytelling is an innovative media programming trend. Instead of telling the story in a single medium, narrative elements are creatively coordinated across different media platforms (hence “transmedia”) to build a story world, engage a broader spectrum of audience, and provide them an enriching experience beyond pure entertainment. Young audience members, who are savvy entertainment consumers, can easily navigate multiple digital platforms. This 'transmedia edutainment' holds promise as an education and empowerment tool. This will insure a wide audience reach, strong viewer engagement, and a positive cognitive, emotional, and social impact.

WOMEN OF DESIGN:

THE RAY EAMES STORY

California Mid Century Artist, Designer, Filmmaker
"I never gave up painting, I just changed my palette."

“What works good is better than what looks good, because what works good lasts.”

In the intensely masculine world of midcentury design, the name Ray Eames was oftentimes omitted from exhibitions or referred to as "wife and assistant" to her husband Charles. But by all accounts, the Eames' 47 year partnership was a true collaboration in design. For several years, Ray also was the sole creator of work in several mediums, printed and woven textiles. The Eames' style of the 1940s and 1950s was progressive avant garde, where function intertwined with design.

"When facing a problem, we need to find a solution, but that does not mean we should change our design." Ray Eames

WOMEN OF DESIGN:

REI KAWAKUBO
Japanese Fashion Designer

Rei's designs are worn by Bjork, Tilda Swinton, Kanye West, and Justin Timberlake. Her brand is well known for its partnerships with Nike, Moncler and Louis Vuitton.

Rei Kawakubo is known for her avant-garde designs and ability to challenge conventional notions of beauty, good taste, and fashionability. She started the brand Comme des Garcons ( コム・デ・ギャルソン) in Tokyo in 1969. The name translates roughly as ‘like boys’. The label's debut show during Paris Fashion Week in 1981 was widely panned by critics who wrote that the clothing was ‘unrefined’ due to Kawakubo's use of distressed fabrics and unfinished seams. Comme des Garcons is known for fusing the masculine with the feminine, for example by combining traditional menswear tailoring with feminine printed fabrics or ruched details. Kawakubo designed clothes with a modus operandi more familiar to conceptual art than to fashion. Despite her radical approach, or maybe because of it, Comme des Garcons is today a great success, commercially as well as artistically. Comme des Garcons is a red carpet darling and brand of choice for many celebrities including Bjork, Tilda Swinton, ASAP Rocky, and firm favorite of Kanye West, Pharell Williams, and Justin Timberlake. The brand is also well known for its partnerships with artists as well as for its collaborations with brands such as Nike, Moncler and Louis Vuitton. “Creation takes things forward. Without anything new there is no progress. Creation equals new.”

WOMEN OF DESIGN:

DR. GLADYS WEST
Inventor of GPS

"Design is Vision. More than just Fashion, it includes Technology, Science.
Be Curious. Study, Put in the Work, and Look what you can Create."

Dr. Gladys West invented the GPS or the 'Global Positioning System', the technology that makes cell phones, cars, and social media function. She finally received the recognition she deserves by being inducted into the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame by the US Air Force.

The 87-year-old scholar knew as a child that she did not want to work in fields, picking tobacco, corn, and cotton or in a factory, like her parents did. She said, “I realized I had to get an education to get out.” And that she did, studying math at Virginia State and graduating top of her class. In 1956, West began to work at Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division, where she was only the second black woman ever to be employed. There, she collected data from satellites, and that job is what eventually led to the development of the Global Positioning System. In 1986, West published “Data Processing System Specifications for the Geosat Satellite Radar Altimeter,” a 60-page illustrated guide, which was based off data created from the radio altimeter on the Geosat satellite, which went into orbit on March 12, 1984. West’s humble character is part of why many people were unaware of her role in the development of the device for decades. She said, “When you’re working every day, you’re not thinking, ‘What impact is this going to have on the world?’ A Richmond native, she still finds it hard to fathom how her technology has evolved into a widely known and useful system.

WOMEN OF DESIGN:

GERE KAVANAUGH

Multidisciplinary 'Environmental' Designer- Graphics, Furniture, Dinnerware,
Fashion, Textiles, Wallpaper and Interiors for Galleries and Stores
Asked, "What do you like to design?" she replied, "Anything I can get my hands on."

Gere Kavanaugh's “Radically Upbeat, Distinctly West Coast Style" didn’t just come out of California. The prolific designer is originally from Memphis, Tennessee, but has lived and worked in Southern California for most of her professional life. She received a Master’s Degree in design from Cranbrook Academy of Art where she was the only female student in her graduating class. She then worked for General Motors, designing the interiors of the company's Tech Center. She then came to Los Angeles to work with architect Victor Gruen. In 1974, she started her own design firm, Gere Kavanaugh Design, a multidisciplinary office creating environmental design, interior design, graphic design and new product development. Kavanaugh has designed furniture, dinnerware, lighting, textiles and wallpaper and the interiors of galleries and stores. In the mid 1970s she established Geraldine Fabrics. She has taught at Southern California Institute of Architecture, Otis College of Art and Design and Art Center College of Design.

"When I came here to California, it was absolutely completely different. You could do anything you wanted to out here. You just did it! But, you had to be responsible for it, and you had to make it work."

WOMEN OF DESIGN:

APRIL GREIMAN
A pioneer in computer graphics

“I felt like as soon as you’ve given it a name, it’s dead.”

In 1984, April Greiman bought her first computer, an Apple Macintosh 128K, and in 1986 she produced Does it Make Sense? – Design Quarterly magazine #133 – one of the earliest examples of published computer-aided graphics. It’s the kind of image that might have broken the internet if the internet was a thing in 1986. Instead, the giant fold-out poster arrived to Design Quarterly subscribers by mail and proceeded to crack the graphic design community wide open. Some critics found it to be thoughtless, self-indulgent, and lewd. Others hailed it as a radical advancement in the then-nascent field of digital design. By the mid-’80s, Greiman was used to the heated debates and spirited industry chatter that her designs tended to incite. This pioneering work of the ‘70’s and 80’s was instrumental in fostering the reluctant acceptance and use of advanced technology in the design process. Designer April Greiman highlights the graphic design revolution of the 1970s and 80s. Computer graphics was one of the most important developments in graphic design, which was initially reviled, has become the standard in the graphics industry. Greiman was Head of the Design Department at Cal Arts, and now teaches at USC Roski School of Art and Design.

WOMEN OF DESIGN:

RUTH E. CARTER:
American Costume Designer for Film and Television

One of the most sought after and renowned costume designers in the world; known for the Black Panther, and two Academy Award–nominations for Malcolm X (1993) and Amistad (1998)

Ruth Carter wowed audiences and dazzled critics alike with her Black Panther costumes inspired by traditional African tribal wear merged with a contemporary look delivering fashion, function and incorporating technology. Her designs create authenticity, ownership, and empowerment for the characters and viewers, cementing her as one of the preeminent voices and experts on Afro-futurism. Her costumes tell stories so intriguing and memorable that they influence music, fashion, culture, and film-making and help us to understand ourselves better.

WOMEN OF DESIGN:

ROSA GRENA KLIASS:
Brazilian Landscape Architect

One of the most significant practicing designers in the history of modern and contemporary landscape architecture in Brazil

Rosa Kliass's characteristic is her decorative use of forms, colors and textures of plants and flowers, with an emphasis on tectonic elements (walls, floors, volumes, pergolas, waterfalls, mirror fountains and swimming pools). One of the most significant figures of the 2nd generation of landscape architects in Brazil. architects in Brazil. In 1969 she traveled to the U.S. to study, but a turning point in her creative career when she returned to Brazil. Kliass not only made a large contribution to Brazil’s urban landscapes in the 20th century, she also participated in countless redevelopment initiatives. She was born of a multicultural, Jewish, half-Brazilian, half-Polish family. Graduating with a first degree in architecture from the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of São Paulo and a Master of Arts in Urban Planning from the same faculty, she became a landscape architect by practice. She established Rosa Grena Kliass Landscape Planning and Projects Ltd. and was the founder of the Brazilian Association of Landscape Architects in 1976. Her works mostly comprise the designing of large-scale public urban squares and avenues.
Her most notable projects include the landscapes of international airports in Brasília and Belém, and the renovation of the Anhangabaú Valley. The refurbishment of São Paulo’s Vale do Anhangabaú in 1991 marked the return of landscape architecture and public civic space in Brazil. The project reconnected two sections of downtown Sao Paulo long divided by highways and infrastructure by creating a large pedestrian space elevated above the street. Kliass formed a group of landscape designers in city hall, and convinced the mayor to form the Department of Parks and Green Areas of the City of São Paulo.

WOMEN OF DESIGN:

ANNI ALBERS
Woman of Bauhaus- Textile Artist

To Albers, "there is no medium that cannot serve art."

Anni Albers was a textile designer, weaver, writer, and printmaker who inspired a reconsideration of fabrics as an art form, both in their functional roles and as wallhangings. In 1922, she was an early Bauhaus student and her experimentation with color, shape, scale and rhythm. Abstract crisscrossing geometric patterns were characteristics that lasted throughout her career. Her work in printmaking was also experimental as she would "print lines multiple times, first positive then negative", [and print] off-register…She would explore the limits and possibilities of her tools.
In her functional textiles, she experimented with metallic thread and horsehair as well as traditional yarns, and utilized the raw materials and components of structure as the source of design and beauty. Her decision to be an artist and going away to an art school that embraced modernism and where the living conditions were rugged and the challenges immense was a rebellion to her affluent and conservative upbringing in Berlin.

WOMEN OF DESIGN:

JAE LEE & YVONNE CHAN
Immersive Interactive Design

New Frontiers in Design

Jae Lee & Yvonne Chang are architecture graduates from Cornell, whose passion to make small scale accessible design drove them to take the leap into immersive interactive design. Their first project was the Scratchbox Project, an installation that allows for the innovative and creative expression of ideas. After that, they formed Public Matter, an organization which strives to test and prove the correlation between spatial design and human behavior by using design as a tool to create and measure change and impact. Jae and Yvonne's third venture, Wildrence, was birthed out of their desire to create interesting design for interaction and play. It was founded not only to create, but inspire people who are willing to step out of their comfort zone. For the storytellers of the world, Wildrence is the premier experiential space and consulting studio that gives both creators and audiences one of a kind, end-to-end experiences. Designing with layers of adventure, storytelling, and sensory engagement, seeking to build an inspiring world. The Mist, the first project under the design studio, is an enchanting physical space located in Lower East Side of Manhattan that is designed to fully immerse those who visit in a journey through five individual environments. The space is thoughtfully curated and magically interactive. The space can be booked to carry out immersive performance and game play, the first of which is called Refuge.

WOMEN OF DESIGN:

BARBARA MARY QUANT

Original Designer of the Mini Skirt (and Hot Pants)

Quant had one distinct advantage over previous designers: she was a contemporary of her clients, rather than of an older generation. Convinced that fashion needed to be affordable to be accessible to the young, she opened her own retail boutique, Bazaar, on Kings Road in 1955, with the help of Plunkett-Greene and former solicitor Archie McNair, introducing the "mod" era and the "Chelsea look." The best-selling items were white plastic collars used to brighten up black dresses or T-shirts and black stretch leggings. In her quest for new and interesting clothes for Bazaar, Quant wasn't satisfied with the range of clothes available and decided that the shop would have to be stocked with clothes made by herself. Knee-high, white, patent plastic, lace-up boots and tight, skinny rib sweaters in stripes and bold checks, which came to epitomize the "London look," were the result.
Along with trendy fashion shows and window displays, she secured her reputation through the production of original clothing, sold in affordable boutiques, for the new youth-orientated market. She became an instrumental figure in 1960s style, she is deemed one of the most influential women of this free-love era with its liberation of women illustrated through color and fashion. Quant was one of the original designers of the miniskirt and hot pants and popularized the Mod style. This fun look was synonymous with the changing times of the 1960s and is still very much a part of many looks in the 21st century today.

WOMEN OF DESIGN:

ANN LOWE: Fashion Designer
(of Jackie O's wedding dress)

"I love my clothes and I'm particular about who wears them," Lowe once told Ebony. "I am not interested in sewing for... social climbers. I do not cater to Mary and Sue. I sew for the families of the Social Register."

Ann Lowe was referred to as a "colored dress-maker," when in fact she was Society's secret fashion designer. Inspired by a trip to Paris, Ann Lowe designed Jackie Kennedy's ivory silk-taffeta wedding dress. Part of a lineage of seamstresses, at age 16 she took over her mother's dress company in Montgomery, Alabama. She faced constant racial discrimination while working for America's most elite families, including the du Ponts, the Roosevelts, the Rockefellers, and, of course, the Kennedys. When Lowe arrived in Newport to hand-deliver Jackie's gown, a staff member told her to enter through a service entrance in the back. She reportedly countered, "I'll take the dress back" if she had to use the back door—and walked right in.

WOMEN OF DESIGN:

CALIFORNIA'S DESIGNING WOMEN
Creating the Art of the Everyday

The Women who made California a Leader in World Design

"I was a California designer. Definitely. All my ideas really came from California- from the nature of California, from the lifestyle of California."

This 'ensemble' episode highlights the contributions of California's Designing Women that made CA a leader in world design, beginning in 1897. These pioneers often went unacknowledged and uncredited although their work remains obviously recognizable through the objects they created that we use in our everyday life. From architecture and fashion, to dinnerware, to furniture, rugs and lamps, graphics, computers and technology, California leads the way.