That type of women is a tribute to women in typography. 26 great designers were selected to compose a memory card game that comes along with a little book showcasing biographies and some of their work. The names were organized into 5 categories according to their field of work: editorial, education, lettering, print and type. Each card contains information about the origin of the designer, date of birth, a keyword to represent their work and information about their presence on the web. You can play it as a regular memory card game, or you can just have some fun trying to organizing it in different ways.
This project was born because I felt a lack of women mentors and idols in communication design, but it became something more. I felt the urge to give voice and showcase these incredible designers to inspire other young designer like me.
THE CARDS
Due to the impossibility of portraying all the important women in the context of typography, the designers were selected to compose the project in order to represent the diversity of origins, ages, works, areas of practice and existing styles. This way, the selected designers are a tribute to the women in design, more specifically in typography. The selected designers were given keywords related to design and typography that had to do with their work, or words that referred to specific projects. These words were assigned in alphabetical order, as shown below.
Advertising: Jessica Walsh
Art decó: Louise Fili
Boom: Irma Boom
Cosac Naify: Elaine Ramos
D.I.Y.: Ellen Lupton
Escola Livre: Tereza Bettinardi
Film titles: Elaine Makatura Bass
Grid: Susan Kare
Harper’s Bazaar: Bea Feitler
In Progress: Jessica Hische
Jewish Museum: Elaine Lustig Cohen
Kerning: Zuzana Licko
LGBTQ love celebration: Kate Moross
MIT: Muriel Cooper
New Typography: April Greiman
Ornament: Marian Bantjes
Paula Scher: Maps: Paula Scher
Road signs: Magaret Calvert
Serigraph: Corita Kent
Twenties: Dore Monkemeyer-Corty
Utilitarian Books: Kelli Anderson
Vogue: Cipe Pineles
Weekly Wood: Cyla Costa
X Akademie: Julia Hasting
Yale: Sheila Levrant
Zine: Teal Triggs
THE BOOK
The book that comes along with the cards contains short biographies and portfolios arranged in alphabetical order. On the left pages, we have images of the designer's works. On the top right-hand pages, the same information of the cards were repeated for easy identification. Beneath it we have the biography with details about education, main works, partnerships, among others.
You can play That type of woman as a regular memory card game, or you can just have some fun trying to organize it in different ways and see how it turns out.
At the end of the book the cards were organized in 4 different ways: by color (category and country of origin), by genealogy (date of birth) and by value (web presence). The cards were organized on folding papers that allow the visualization at once, and makes it possible to notice patterns and relations between the cards.
Organization by color - place of birth.
Organization by color - category.
Organization genealogy - date of birth.
Organization by value - presence on the web.
The project had a very personal motivation as starting point: I missed design mentors and wanted to know more about them and their work. I noticed that in the classroom I always used to hear more about men who were designers than women. So I wondered if the reason for this came from the quality of their work, or if it was just a matter of visibility. In a few minutes of research, seeing so many iconic works from so many areas, it became apparent that it was all a matter of visibility. The project then took another turn, a bigger goal, which was to make those women known, especially among other young designers like me.
Women are still a minority in many areas, design is one of them. It is important to know our stories, our works and spread them. Many were pioneers in their fields, struggled to get where they are, and conquered their places without deviating from their principles. Regardless of their backgrounds, ages and fields, their stories inspire and motivate us to keep on going and help others to do the same.
