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Gender disparity is obviously a key issue within graphic design with less than 11% of the world creative directors being female.
In relation to this, and the 40:60 (female to male) gender difference within the creative industry, it is essential to outline my role as a female graphic designer. In conjunction to this, I interviewed Eve Warren, a female designer, who graduated from Leeds College of Art four years ago.
Interview with Eve Warren via email
- Have you ever felt that being a women has limited your job opportunities within the creative industry? If so, how?
No never. I don't think it's a very healthy mindset to think your gender will effect your chances of gaining an opportunity in the creative industry. It's also wrong for an employer to employ and curate creative teams based on gender, race and ethnicity. I completely understand that as a women it can be a really daunting experience to walk into a studio full of men for an interview but in my experience all studios I've interacted with have all been keen to close their gender gap. I've always felt welcome and during my time at Fieldwork we were a very evenly split studio in terms of gender. Rather alarmingly though I've never worked in a studio where there have been people of colour. I do however work with someone who is deaf which is a first for me as I've rarely come across any designers with serious disabilities.
How do you feel design in the north compares to design in the south?
To answer your question though I think freelancing in London, Manchester and Leeds has given me a great insight to how the North compares with the South. There's no doubt about it London pretty much has it all. There's a lot of heritage down here and for a long time London led the way in design on a global scale. However the North has some amazing stuff going on and it really bugs me that for a long time London has been a talent sucker but this is changing and I'm quite passionate to be part of that change.
-What made you stay up north?
When I first graduated I remember being quite petrified / obsessively concerned about what was going to happen at the end of my third year as my parents lived in rural Lincolnshire and I didn't see going home as an option. I also wasn't in any financial position to take sabbatical and go travelling for a few months or move to London. My boyfriend Martin is one half of Hungry Sandwich Club and was offered the free incubator space at Duke Studios, also at the time we signed for a flat with some left over grant money. It was all very frightening but the fact that we were able to sign for a affordable flat and work for free in a coworking space was amazing. This would never happen in London.
-How do you feel the transition between university and industry has been? and is there anything you regret not doing in uni?
In hindsight I had a very smooth transition from university but only because I was organised. I think it's important to keep up some momentum and attempt to get a placement straight away. I won a placement at Manchester based design studio Fieldwork and worked there for a couple of months before interning at Golden. I really enjoyed my summer at Fieldwork and was fortunate that they wanted me back which eventually led to them offering me a full time position.
Most often graduates have no client or project management experience therefore you enter the industry at the bottom of the hierarchy. You go from being in total control of a university project to learning how to follow someone else's lead and vision. The transition can be quite difficult at times as many art degrees don't teach their students how to be commercially minded. This isn't a bad thing as there is always room for great ideas, it's just learning how to sell and execute them.
I think I regret not delving deeper into design theory...there's a lot of books I should have read. I also regret not pushing the idea of doing an exchange of some sort. It would have been great to study abroad.
What has this interview taught me?
- Not to be afraid of fully male working environements
- Once graduating, its probably more liable living up north due to living costs
- Most studios want to balance gender disparity
- Try to get a placement straight after university
- Read up about being commercially minded
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