Mary Hemingway: Shining a spotlight on design by women
INTRODUCTION
DesignbyWomen aims to celebrate, empower, and promote female and non-binary creatives currently working in the design industry and to inspire women wanting to pursue a career in design.
Although around 70% of today’s design graduates are female, women make up only around 11% of senior and leadership team roles. This clearly highlights the gender inequality within the creative industries.
We hope that by showcasing work by women and sharing their insights and stories we can encourage collaboration and mutual support for those at all stages of their careers.
This interview took place over video call in November 2020.
Having initially trained in textile design, what made you switch career paths to become a graphic designer eight years ago?
Becoming a single mum. It was very difficult to find work as a textile designer as most jobs are based in London and remote freelancing is highly competitive. After working in a number of part-time jobs including as a textiles lecturer, merchandiser and art technician, I realised that most of the jobs for designers I’d seen advertised in the Midlands were for graphic designers. Having a degree in textiles meant I had already developed my creativity and making skills and I found that my style adapted quite easily into graphic design. It made me realise that a lot of creative skills are transferrable between disciplines, it’s just a case of deciding which one(s) interest and inspire you the most.
What was the experience of returning to university as a mature student like for you?
Interesting! In my year group, there were no other mature students, which was a shame. I struggled to fit in at first but eventually felt I had a good relationship with the rest of my year group and found we got on well during group tasks. Looking back, I wish I’d been able to do a course like Shillington for career changers, as a lot of the content was aimed at the younger students and repetitive or irrelevant for someone with more life and work experience. At the time that wasn’t a feasible option for me because online distance learning was in its early stages and my son was only four. Things have definitely improved for the better in that respect.
Why did you start DesignByWomen?
The idea for a blog providing advice and support for women who juggle a career in design with raising children came to me whilst doing a workshop with Chris Do called ‘Finding Your Superpower’ at Birmingham Design Festival in 2019. I forgot about it for a while, but the idea of collecting stories of other women working in the design industry was something that kept coming back to me. I also feel that when you hear about successful female designers the same few names keep coming up.
“The idea of collecting stories of other women working in the design industry was something that kept coming back to me.”
It was during the first UK lockdown in spring 2020 that I found time to revisit the idea and decided to start DesignByWomen. I’m based in the Midlands UK and spent the first three months focused on featuring female designers working in my local area. The project’s reach has now extended to include designers based anywhere in the world. I started by contacting around twenty creatives to be featured on the blog, not expecting everyone would respond. The response was brilliant and more-or-less everyone wanted to be involved. Some even contacted me independently asking to be featured! I created the visual identity, enlisted the help of a developer friend to set up the website and started interviewing via Zoom.
The Instagram (@designbywomen_) started because I needed a way to drive people to the blog and read all the amazing stories I was hearing. I realised it could be an inspiration feed for all designers who identify as women or non-binary and should feature designers from anywhere in the world. Since it started at the beginning of June 2020 the Instagram feed has been very successful and the response and support is amazing – far more than I expected! The blog launched in August and we have posted 30 articles including established ‘Featured Females’ and also a ‘Women to Watch’ series showcasing new and recent graduates.
“The project’s reach has now extended to include designers based anywhere in the world.”
What advice would you give anybody inspired by DesignByWomen, who wanted to start their own platform or movement?
It’s a very rewarding experience but it also takes a lot of dedication and commitment, so be sure it’s something you’re really passionate about. Decide how much time you want to put in per week in relation to other commitments and then plan realistically how much you can achieve. Otherwise, it just might take over your life!
How do you see DesignByWomen evolving as a community in 2021?
I’m still working out where I want to take the platform in the future. In 2021 I would like to do a series featuring studios founded by women. A few have contacted me directly to be included and I think it will be really interesting to find out their perspectives on working in the design industry. I want to continue featuring inspirational female designers with interesting stories on the blog, with a focus on women of colour and other under-represented groups. We have a great list planned already. Eventually I’d also love to produce some form of publication. Writing a book is something I’ve always wanted to do.
How do you juggle family life, a full-time job and a rapidly growing platform?
I used to have quite a long commute to the office. Working from home has been quite liberating in giving me more time to focus on setting up DesignByWomen. I usually spend between one to two days per week working on it dividing my time between researching designers, admin, interviewing via Zoom or email, writing up articles and posting on the blog. Sometimes it’s frustrating because there’s so many things I’d like to do with the platform but simply don’t have the time. My family is my first priority, but in terms of work I have to compartmentalise, so for four days a week I’m focused on being an agency designer and the rest of the time I run the blog.
I now have a wonderful team of five collaborators who help with running the blog: Camila Cardeñosa – a graphic designer based in Bogotá in Colombia, who is working on a series of features for 2021 showcasing Hispanic women: Laura Bertinelli – an Italian art director and designer based in London: Helen Tong – a recent Shillington graduate: Rebecca Burrows – a Leeds University 2020 graduate: and Nat Ellis.
How do you think as an industry we can champion female creativity more? Or get more women into senior roles?
I think there has definitely been a positive shift within the design industry to address gender inequality and lack of diversity, particularly in the last few years. Many amazing initiatives have begun recently and supporting them is a great way to start; but there is still a way to go.
I’ve noticed that a few issues have been raised in interviews over the last six months, including experiences of sexism and gender discrimination in the workplace. Often women will discuss this with me personally but don’t want it to be published in their feature. In my opinion, this is primarily because they think talking about their experiences could be considered contentious and have a negative impact on their career. It makes me feel sad and frustrated that we live in a society where women can still feel suppressed in this way.
“It makes me feel sad and frustrated that we live in a society where women can still feel suppressed in this way.”
I believe that a positive way forward is to raise awareness of what women experience by encouraging more open discussion and collaboration between different genders. It’s about realising that we all need to work together effectively to make change happen. What is so wonderful about the design industry is that because we’re all visual communicators we have the tools to do this. I also think it’s important for women to feel supported by each other and form connections. I’m a big fan of Ladies Wine Design – so thank you Jessica Walsh!
Recommended reading
Who are we? How identity politics took over the world by Gary Younge
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Recommended listening
This Way Up Podcast
Creative Lives in Progress Podcast
99% Invisible by Roman Mars
Recommended follow
Follow DesignByWomen
If you’d like to reach out to Mary, drop her an email on: hello@maryhemingwaydesign.com
