Representing The Theme Of Gender In Graphic Design

An analysis of contemporary graphic design representing the theme of gender

Graphic Design is highly influential today. Constantly challenging ideas and conventions in our society. Throughout history it has been a powerful tool to inspire, motivate and sway opinions. A graphic designers job is to visually convey a message to their audience. Many designers focus on important social and political issues to appeal to their viewers. It is an essential and extremely vital form of information. Throughout history, perceptions of gender have been constantly changing and the battle between sexes is ongoing. Designer’s have tackled these changes promoting awareness and spreading knowledge to its audience. For this essay, I, have decided to discuss the

Designed by a second-year student Sylvia Wydra in Middle Sex University, London. The campaign was to raise awareness of the discrepancies of men’s and women’s wages. The work displays several statistics of the wages between sexes. Highlighting the disturbing and unjust difference between them. The work reflects on gender inequality within the workplace and how it is an archaic system that men earn more than women. The text, Mind the Gap, references that of warning signs in train stations to accentuate the message as it draws the attention of its audience. The viewer is forced to recognise the message thus raising awareness of the issue. Much like Kruger’s work, it uses text to depict a powerful message. The images are similar as they both tackle the divide between sexes. However, Wydra’s process differs in that she only uses text to communicate her message. Rather than using a metaphor for the injustice between sexes, she uses a realistic and current statistic of the divide. Wydra states that “It seems ludicrous that gender inequality still exists at all since, in theory, it is illegal. We don’t deserve being thought of as less worthy of a decent salary, just because we’re women”. This message echoes Kruger’s work as it shows how society is stuck in the past just like the image of the woman in Your body is a battleground, the text in Mind the Gap seems very outdated

Designed by Memac Oglivy and Mather Dubai, it was used in a campaign for U.N Women. The work consists of portraits of women from different cultures around the world, with search bars blocking their mouths. The search bars are genuine google searches from the 9th of March 2013. The bars display sexists and discriminative comments and stereotypes regarding women and their roles in society. The comments are offensive, unjust, and shocking to read. However, they display the lack of change when it comes to women’s rights around the world. Copy writer, Kareem Shuhaibar stated that,” The ads are shocking because they show just how far we still have to go to achieve gender equality. They are a wakeup call, and we hope that the message will travel far”. The appalling notion that women are somehow inferior, that they should be silenced or disciplined is abominable. However, these are genuine searches and that makes these ads even more terrifying. The message underneath the search bar, “women need to be equals”, is highlighted by the images as we are drawn to their eyes. Their expressions create a very intimate and enthralling connection with the viewer. U.N also produced a film, The Autocomplete Truth, reflecting the campaign. In which clips of women’s achievements throughout history are shown such as Amelia Earhart flying across the