The creative achievements of women in graphic design are still often invisible today, especially when it comes to the period before Bauhaus (1919). The BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and Research) project UN/SEEN investigates the beginnings of the professionalization of women in the field of commercial graphics and typography from 1865 onwards.
But what freedoms have women been able to seize since then and what (gender) discourses influence the field of design today? To find answers to these questions, UN/SEEN focuses on multimedia and international networking: In addition to a comprehensive publication, a website, Wikipedia workshops, and an Around the World Symposium (2025) are in the works.
Would you like to get to know women graphic designers of the past and their work, understand how they and their work relate to today, and find out more about the research project? Then follow UN/SEEN on Instagram, where news and information about the project will be published weekly:
Visit the degree program website of the Communication Design Department here (in German):
@hsm.kommunikationsdesign