Are Women Better Graphic Designers Than Men?
I want to start this article by saying that I am in no way biased to one gender, and I am in no way trying to insult or undermine anyone’s level of skill or expertise. With that being said, this is something that hit me this morning.
It takes a lot to mold a person into a successful graphic designer. You have to have a keen sense of color, balance harmony and technical skill to execute your designs. Besides that, it really depends on what you are good at and how you were brought up. Women might naturally be better designers than men, not because they are more intelligent than men are. I do not believe in the idea that any gender is more dominant in any area than any other gender. It might be determined by the way that we are brought up. I hate to say this, but it is true. Women are taught at an early age to color coordinate their clothes, and to apply their make-up based on their skin tone and what looks the most natural based on their own appearance. Men are brought up as boys to be rough, play sports, and any other thing that you can think of, but I cannot recollect any particular instance where I had to consider color and what I wore to school or to go out of the house. I wore jeans and a t-shirt, or khaki’s and a dress shirt or polo. I never had to really think about the colors, because everything goes with jeans and khakis. The only thing my parents ever told me was no to wear khakis and black shoes.
This made me begin to wonder what else might make women have an edge over men in the creative field and the next thing that I realized is the natural expression of emotions. Men are taught to keep their emotions to themselves and up until the 90′s men never really got in touch with their emotions or their feminine sides. An example of this would be to imagine a boy crying in high school, and how likely he would be to endure bullying because of it. If a girl cries in school, most people wouldn’t think much of it, except that they were upset. This isn’t exactly fair, but it’s the truth. This is huge in graphic design, because if you are marketing to a female audience, as with products catered to women, then you need that emotional connection. In all forms of advertising our entire point, where we are most successful, especially in branding, is where we make an emotional connection between the consumer and a brand or product. Is that why some of the most successful marketing and branding experts are women? Are women better graphic designers because of our gender standards and how we think gender roles should be? Is it because of the difference in how we are raised?
I know through practicality that we are all on an even playing field with artistic talent and knowledge, but you almost have to wonder if our upbringing has an effect on our overall view in our designs. Men are not coaxed into considering color and composition as much as women are, unless they were trained in their art classes during school. What do you think? Bringing up these points, do you think that women are naturally better designers than men, or are we all equal no matter the circumstances?
You might also like:
- Pushing the Envelope: Design and Life
- Tools That Help With Color in Photoshop and Illustrator
- Is Education the Key to Design Success?
- Easy Grids in Illustrator
- Blend Colors Easily With Fireworks
- What Does it Take to Succeed in Design?
- Photoshop Alone Doesn’t Make You a Graphic Designer
32 Responses to “Are Women Better Graphic Designers Than Men?”
Leave a Reply
pdesignad@yahoo.com says: Yes, I agree that women are better designers than men are. I was in a design confernece last year and I met a alot of women designers. They are not talented in design but also in marketing and business. We have to give them some respects. I would say that women are taking over the design business. They are not a mom anymore.
Navillus says: Good question. My opinion is that we are made better designers through training, education, experience AND nurturing. As a male I can recall working with design and composition from a very early age (actually I can’t recall not being an artist ever) Women are not better designers nor are they worse as a group. Fortunately, graphic design is subjective enough that we can’t really measure which gender is “better”. BTW, are gay men better designers than straight men?
Al says: I think whether women are better than men (or vice versa) at design is based on each individual rather than a gender reason. Going by what your suggesting, all men should be bad at cooking yet the top chef’s in the world seem to be mostly men. What about the fashion industry (lots of male designers there), figure skating, gymnastics, artists etc…
Navillus hit the nail on the head…it’s about uncovering an individuals talent through education and training (regardless of the subject). I believe everyone has the capability to be talented in many different areas but it’s your passion for the job/subject that determines how good you will be, although there will be exceptions to this.
I think women and men are biologically on equal footing. It’s the environment in which they grow up that invokes certain tendencies toward their ability to design. Not all women are able to emotionally connect to a project just as not all men can.
For those that can, certain women may be less competitive than their male counterparts, becoming satisfied with where they are in their particular area of design. Their careers are then relegated to the background because they choose to do so and their work may not be showcased or they choose not to improve upon their ability.
Also, it may just depend on the amount of experience. As the host of my favorite design podcast states, women have a different decisions to make than men, and therefore may choose to have kids and/or to stay home with them, causing their career path to be drastically different from a guy. Less experience then equals “less” technical skill. Coincidentally, I write this as my 19-month old plants herself between me and the computer. lol
By the way, I proposed a similar question to your post in one of my college papers. I hypothetically argued men may get payed more because they may appear to have to make a greater stretch in order to make the necessary emotional connection to a project. The paper was more of a journal entry really and not backed by sources, but feel free to consider this point as an extension with what you wrote above.
-
From my experience in the arts, I have watched one brilliantly talented woman after another disappear and a slew of talented men become top in their field. Why? Because in our society it is still correct for men to sacrifice everything for their art/career while many women will choose to let their careers slip or be put on hold in order to raise a family. If there is a married couple with children and 2 ambitious parents, which one will sacrifice his or her career to make sure their home is a happy one?
-
NewYorkFX says:
Depends on which one is making more money. LOL Talent sinks far below the almighty dollar when it comes to either stay at home Moms or Stay at home Dada’s.
-
For once, we know that in the past, Japanese women were the ones chosen to do detail work at factories, in Japan. Presumably, I read once, because of adrenaline issues found on men. That could be now history, specially with the development of computer technology. —As a male designer, I don’t think “better” depends on the gender, but on the perspective of the designer. Ultimately, what makes a designer is a combo of knowledge, experience and imagination. So the better designer is that one who perhaps, is the one focused on the goal and never considers herself/himself as belonging to a gender group, but belonging to a creative team.
Keith M says: I have met talented and shall-we-say not so talented GRAPHIC designers, both male and female. It is hard to say really whether if one gender or other pre-dominates in the talent aspect. I am currently in a company where the designer balance is very male. The first company I worked for in HK there were only 3 men – me included – versus about 15-20 women!!
Your point about natural talent due to colour co-ordination (make-up…what?!?!?) etc…is disingenuous though. I grew up with 5 brothers and 1 (much older) sister. As a boy I was naturally inclined to Art but Graphic Design was more appealing from its technical and then later from its more strategic aspect. I pushed myself, encouraged by an older brother who was also into Art and then Typography.
Bear in mind the heritage of Graphic Design – the vast majority of the ‘names’ are male. Graphic Design has been and continues to be (especially nowadays) not about “Art” but at one end, more strategy and at the other end, technical. Aspects that are not typically deemed to favour women. There is more in terms of GD than advertising too – Corporate Identity, Packaging, Signage etc…etc… All highly technical and systemic…again very “Male” oriented.
Also Graphic Design with it being more highly strategic and technical – it is clearly possible to tell – fairly accurately what is good and what is not i.e. it is less subjective than most people really think. Again therefore something that goes against the very touchy feely, feminine aspects that are being raised…
What might be more interesting to note though is not whether one gender is better than the other but that the opportunities to discover talent – whether male or female, are ever increasing and not before time.
It is certainly a good sign though that more women are entering the industry – but again that does not necessarily mean that they are in any way more talented or more suited than their male counterparts. Let’s face it – those with no talent at all do not survive very long in the industry anyway, male or female.
It is apparent to me (at least) that women that do enter GD end up not “Designing” as such but rather in “Marketing” or in “Public Relations”, “Sales” etc…anything but actual designing i.e. in front of a machine etc… perhaps the hours and conditions are not their cup of tea…and they therefore gravitate to the ‘softer’ sides of the industry.
Those that really make it big in Graphic Design are still mostly male. It has very little to do with choosing babies over careers…Women these days get to make their cake and eat it too…not so men… The real question ultimately is one of TALENT, not career/ life choices.
-
Jan says:
Keith M – oh my goodness! This article really touched a nerve, yes? And saying the sales and marketing are the “softer” sides of the industry is ignorant. You’ve never had to be responsible for the bottom line, have you? There’s nothing soft or subjective about that. At least those softies keep bringing enough work to keep you employed.
I’m not one for making sweeping generalizations about gender unless it comes to communication – there are some real solid findings there between men and women. But that may be where the design spin came from – as it just a form of communication. This article MAY have intended to go there, but came up short. Again, it’s just different in many instances, not better across the board. But please remember Graphic Designers are not Gods! Don’t give them a bad rap, please!
Erin says: Studies have shown that women perceive a vastly different array of colors then men as well. In my experiences though, men tend to design more aggressively, in composition and in message, than women. Women tend to take a more subtle approach to message, especially. Sometimes a client needs a good upfront approach to a concept. Sometimes they don’t. I don’t think one gender’s abilities outweigh the others’ abilities.
Patty says: One of my first art jobs was as a paste-up artist in 1985. The Paste-up Department was the step below the Design Department. When I started there, the paste-up department was comprised of 8 women and two men. The design department had 6 men. The art director was also a man.
At one point, one of the guys in paste-up was promoted to designer, despite having less experience and obviously less talent than any of the paste-up “girls.” (We were always called “girls,” despite the fact that some were well into their 30′s.)
Hell broke loose. When I left there, THREE of the designers were women…However, I was let go when I refused to come back to work after 6 weeks of my company-approved 3-month maternity leave.
We are still in our infancy as far as how enlightened the sexes are in the way they treat each other. Women still often expect men to pay for the date, even if the woman was the one who asked the guy out. Men are still not allowed to cry. I think that may be why men default to anger instead of any other emotion. Real men are “allowed” to be angry. They are still not always allowed to be sad, worried, confused, remorseful, bereaved or frustrated.
Women still only make up a disproportionately small percentage of the power positions in almost all fields, (i.e. CEOs, Chefs, school principals) despite making up more than half of the workforce. I suspect that my Boomer generation–who grew up in a blatantly sexist world–will have to die off before this starts to be truly put to right.
Are women better designers than men? Women and men are different, and do approach design problems differently. I suspect that women do–either by nature or nurture or both–see more colors than men. (It’s a scientific fact that a huge percentage of color-blind people are men.) Are men generally more focused–like hunters–and therefore excel in pointed-and-direct projects while the “gatherer” women notice many more things all at once and are better-equipped to design complex projects?
I dunno.
pdesignad@yahoo.com says: What can I say ? My wife just promoted an Art Director. I am still a production artist.
Virtual Dave says: As a male I am forced to admit that women are superior to men in every way. There is no upside to disagreeing with that statement.
-
Someone has taught you well, sir. LOL
jolly says: Obviously men and women are different yet equal. Some things that men can do, women can probably do also but women need to work on it twice as much effort then men… and of course the same applied to men. Some men need to struggle much more to do what women can do easily.
Having said that, who is a better designer depends on how much effort an individual give in working on their weaknesses and be better in the things they are not.
Val says: It all depends. Period.
I am freelancing for this guy who does hair products for women. When I came in I had to redue the logo for the company. The old logo was harsh in color, not catering to the female target market. And the designer who did is a guy.
So with research, I found a color fitting to the female market. And the owner loved it!!
A few years ago I researched and published an article on gender difference in web design. An important area of the work we do.
The skills of a good designer relate to their ability to solve a problem whichever discipline of design you look at, clothing, communications, building, product, or any one of the hundreds of design categories that exist.
The gender of the designer is not relevant except when it comes to websites. If the end user of the website is predominantly female the designer should be a female. Research carried out in Glamorgan University on this subject indicated: the empathy towards a female designed websites was greater by females than males and the opposite when it came to males.
I have also found this to be true when carrying out independent user experience reviews on websites. It is possible to identify the gender of the designer from the work.
Regards
Nigel
-
I’d love to test that theory and prove it wrong on so many levels.
Yob says: No,they are not.
cbraxton says: The great thing about design and creativity (and to borrow the cliche’)…it takes a village to design the world. Men are different graphic designers than women. Period. Men are different GDer’s from other men (and women from women). Period.
Likewise to peg GD into any box of such a varied field limits the nature of creativity. Business tact, style, marketability, connectivity + networking, perspective, and experience make designers; tools not always measured simply by the “eye” of the designer.
You ask me for the best person for a certain campaign, I would be doing us all a disservice to not get ideas from a multi gender panel. Sometimes the rough, less emotional, logic oriented even if painful, and lacking of color experience translates into greater success. Sometimes it doesn’t.
To me, good design is recognition of parameters and finding strategic planning via the design process, as much as raw creation from ideas.
To be able to add and create can be done by any kid with photoshop, and yes maybe there are benefits to women in this and to men. To be able to pullback and edit, to find brilliance, is why we need trained designers though…men and women.
maverick says: Excuses for joining in late.
I have a generic question for all of you to ponder on.
When we say ‘better design’, who’s being the judge here?
I think to say that women are better than men at graphic design is a huge sweeping generalisation, a bit like the term graphic designer, because there are so many different areas to our field.
Throughout my career I’ve worked with many great male and female designers, the two things that I have noticed is that female designers excel at being creative where as male designers excel at producing very technical designs.
The graphic design field is a huge field and I when working with freelance and looking through their cv, I can instantly tell if a male or female has designed something, I’ve just finished working for Braun GP and I used a male team because they understood the market, before you go on one, I did ask some female contractors to submit work, but you could tell they didn’t quite grasp it.
So whether your a male designer or female designer, it’s relative whose the greater designer, as long as the work is of a high calibre, well thought out and the client is left please, gender doesn’t matter.
Hi. I don’t think there is a black and white answer to this interesting question. I think individual perception is the key here – as to what you think of the product / how it should be projected etc.
Yes, women spend more time in life looking at colour, coordinating (clothes/makeup/accessories) etc.
I think that most of the times, men can think freely – they dont have as much ‘conditioned thinking’ as women do (ie. a sense of order / meticulousness / emotional strings) etc) 
!
I think gender has nothing to do with it!
Kay says: Can’t believe someone actually wasted their time writing this. Graphic designers are hired because of their skill, not because of what’s between their legs. Just like women aren’t all mothers and housewives anymore, it’s more acceptable for a man to express emotion, this is not 1969. Upbringing is a dumb excuse, and if you really are that petty, gtfo of the industry. We don’t need people like you.
-
jgeorge says:
This article has nothing to do with my opinion, it is more of a discussion. If you actually read the comments of other designers, you would realize that some people (mostly men) feel that women are better graphic designers all around. It isn’t about man vs. woman, it is about what we perceive in our industry as professionals. My advice is, if you can’t handle an adult discussion about real topics, then maybe you need to “gtfo” of the industry.
I think we are all on an even playing field, but you can’t ignore the fact that some people have an advantage, based on their background or upbringing. Gender has little or nothing to do with anything these days- There are female fighters that could destroy men in a fight, there are men that dominate the fashion industry, it all really depends on your drive and how much you are really motivated to accomplish your goals as a professional.
LR says: No. Women cannot think freely. They always get shamed and ridiculed for certain kinds of work and how they do it. Posters, photographs, and illustrations of men posing in suggestive ways, being aggressive, etc., for example. There’s more male graphic designers than female graphic designers. And men are better graphic designers than women. It’s a male-oriented/dominated business. Women are only good for cooking, cleaning, and caring for children. That’s it.
-
Okay, wow, I can’t believe I let this one slip by me. Women are capable of just as much as we are. This post was not to be a post regarding a gender war of who is better at everything, it was simply a comparison of the upbringing of two different genders. Most boys grow up not worrying about their appearance, but girls are trained from day one to notice how they look, what they wear, and if everything matches. I have a young daughter and we are already teaching her which articles of clothing go well together, good color combinations/choices, etc. Most boys simply put on jeans and a t-shirt and they are off to play. They don’t have to style their hair, braid it, etc.
However, I cannot sit here and allow you to say that women are only good for cooking and caring for our children. What is funny is that many women hold a successful career and do all of the above on top of that. It is our responsibility to increase social awareness and to spread equality, between races, nationalities, genders, etc., and it is critical for people in our profession to be open minded. This article was simply an intellectual comparison in sociology. I hope that you will do some research regarding women and the design industry, because you will soon realize that women are equal to men in every way.
I like this guy! I have met a lot of bad designers and i’m not going to say who is better and who is not but more so over and over again, I have ran into guys who have no color concept AT ALL! and if I didn’t have a picture of me on my website, most people think that some of my designs came from a guy.@pdesignad@yahoo.com,
thanks for this article. it’s an interesting debate. i know at my previous company, i worked with two other designers, both male. they weren’t the type of designer you could take on a sales call for sure. one was simply too uninterested to dress nicely, the other was far too sensitive and temperamental and could not take criticism at all. i thought i prevailed there in that i did understand how to not only talk to my coworkers to execute a design, but also clients as well. business sense. maybe women just feel the need to work harder, sometimes, because that’s kind of the role we’ve been given in this world. of course it’s very subjective.
NewYorkFX says: LR – is still living under a rock apparently or some woman took him for everything he’s worth and broke his heart. Regardless, I believe the design process in and of itself all depends on your level of creativity and work ethic.
I have also found that people design concepts based on their knowledge of the industry or business they are designing for. I have seen many men do remarkable things with construction type designs, on the other hand, women can instill a sense of sexy and femininity into designs that related to cosmetics, perfume, fashion, etc. FYI….there are far more top notch female fashion designers than men.
Anyone can design “swooshy” people and abstract designs…kind of like taking a paint brush and flinging paint on a canvas and calling it ART.
Anyhoo….my sympathies to LR…….po’ thing!!!
Yes, I agree that women are better designers than men are. I was in a design confernece last year and I met a alot of women designers. They are not talented in design but also in marketing and business. We have to give them some respects. I would say that women are taking over the design business. They are not a mom anymore.
Good question. My opinion is that we are made better designers through training, education, experience AND nurturing. As a male I can recall working with design and composition from a very early age (actually I can’t recall not being an artist ever) Women are not better designers nor are they worse as a group. Fortunately, graphic design is subjective enough that we can’t really measure which gender is “better”. BTW, are gay men better designers than straight men?
I think whether women are better than men (or vice versa) at design is based on each individual rather than a gender reason. Going by what your suggesting, all men should be bad at cooking yet the top chef’s in the world seem to be mostly men. What about the fashion industry (lots of male designers there), figure skating, gymnastics, artists etc…
Navillus hit the nail on the head…it’s about uncovering an individuals talent through education and training (regardless of the subject). I believe everyone has the capability to be talented in many different areas but it’s your passion for the job/subject that determines how good you will be, although there will be exceptions to this.
I think women and men are biologically on equal footing. It’s the environment in which they grow up that invokes certain tendencies toward their ability to design. Not all women are able to emotionally connect to a project just as not all men can.
For those that can, certain women may be less competitive than their male counterparts, becoming satisfied with where they are in their particular area of design. Their careers are then relegated to the background because they choose to do so and their work may not be showcased or they choose not to improve upon their ability.
Also, it may just depend on the amount of experience. As the host of my favorite design podcast states, women have a different decisions to make than men, and therefore may choose to have kids and/or to stay home with them, causing their career path to be drastically different from a guy. Less experience then equals “less” technical skill. Coincidentally, I write this as my 19-month old plants herself between me and the computer. lol
By the way, I proposed a similar question to your post in one of my college papers. I hypothetically argued men may get payed more because they may appear to have to make a greater stretch in order to make the necessary emotional connection to a project. The paper was more of a journal entry really and not backed by sources, but feel free to consider this point as an extension with what you wrote above.
From my experience in the arts, I have watched one brilliantly talented woman after another disappear and a slew of talented men become top in their field. Why? Because in our society it is still correct for men to sacrifice everything for their art/career while many women will choose to let their careers slip or be put on hold in order to raise a family. If there is a married couple with children and 2 ambitious parents, which one will sacrifice his or her career to make sure their home is a happy one?
Depends on which one is making more money. LOL Talent sinks far below the almighty dollar when it comes to either stay at home Moms or Stay at home Dada’s.
For once, we know that in the past, Japanese women were the ones chosen to do detail work at factories, in Japan. Presumably, I read once, because of adrenaline issues found on men. That could be now history, specially with the development of computer technology. —As a male designer, I don’t think “better” depends on the gender, but on the perspective of the designer. Ultimately, what makes a designer is a combo of knowledge, experience and imagination. So the better designer is that one who perhaps, is the one focused on the goal and never considers herself/himself as belonging to a gender group, but belonging to a creative team.
I have met talented and shall-we-say not so talented GRAPHIC designers, both male and female. It is hard to say really whether if one gender or other pre-dominates in the talent aspect. I am currently in a company where the designer balance is very male. The first company I worked for in HK there were only 3 men – me included – versus about 15-20 women!!
Your point about natural talent due to colour co-ordination (make-up…what?!?!?) etc…is disingenuous though. I grew up with 5 brothers and 1 (much older) sister. As a boy I was naturally inclined to Art but Graphic Design was more appealing from its technical and then later from its more strategic aspect. I pushed myself, encouraged by an older brother who was also into Art and then Typography.
Bear in mind the heritage of Graphic Design – the vast majority of the ‘names’ are male. Graphic Design has been and continues to be (especially nowadays) not about “Art” but at one end, more strategy and at the other end, technical. Aspects that are not typically deemed to favour women. There is more in terms of GD than advertising too – Corporate Identity, Packaging, Signage etc…etc… All highly technical and systemic…again very “Male” oriented.
Also Graphic Design with it being more highly strategic and technical – it is clearly possible to tell – fairly accurately what is good and what is not i.e. it is less subjective than most people really think. Again therefore something that goes against the very touchy feely, feminine aspects that are being raised…
What might be more interesting to note though is not whether one gender is better than the other but that the opportunities to discover talent – whether male or female, are ever increasing and not before time.
It is certainly a good sign though that more women are entering the industry – but again that does not necessarily mean that they are in any way more talented or more suited than their male counterparts. Let’s face it – those with no talent at all do not survive very long in the industry anyway, male or female.
It is apparent to me (at least) that women that do enter GD end up not “Designing” as such but rather in “Marketing” or in “Public Relations”, “Sales” etc…anything but actual designing i.e. in front of a machine etc… perhaps the hours and conditions are not their cup of tea…and they therefore gravitate to the ‘softer’ sides of the industry.
Those that really make it big in Graphic Design are still mostly male. It has very little to do with choosing babies over careers…Women these days get to make their cake and eat it too…not so men… The real question ultimately is one of TALENT, not career/ life choices.
Keith M – oh my goodness! This article really touched a nerve, yes? And saying the sales and marketing are the “softer” sides of the industry is ignorant. You’ve never had to be responsible for the bottom line, have you? There’s nothing soft or subjective about that. At least those softies keep bringing enough work to keep you employed.
I’m not one for making sweeping generalizations about gender unless it comes to communication – there are some real solid findings there between men and women. But that may be where the design spin came from – as it just a form of communication. This article MAY have intended to go there, but came up short. Again, it’s just different in many instances, not better across the board. But please remember Graphic Designers are not Gods! Don’t give them a bad rap, please!
Studies have shown that women perceive a vastly different array of colors then men as well. In my experiences though, men tend to design more aggressively, in composition and in message, than women. Women tend to take a more subtle approach to message, especially. Sometimes a client needs a good upfront approach to a concept. Sometimes they don’t. I don’t think one gender’s abilities outweigh the others’ abilities.
One of my first art jobs was as a paste-up artist in 1985. The Paste-up Department was the step below the Design Department. When I started there, the paste-up department was comprised of 8 women and two men. The design department had 6 men. The art director was also a man.
At one point, one of the guys in paste-up was promoted to designer, despite having less experience and obviously less talent than any of the paste-up “girls.” (We were always called “girls,” despite the fact that some were well into their 30′s.)
Hell broke loose. When I left there, THREE of the designers were women…However, I was let go when I refused to come back to work after 6 weeks of my company-approved 3-month maternity leave.
We are still in our infancy as far as how enlightened the sexes are in the way they treat each other. Women still often expect men to pay for the date, even if the woman was the one who asked the guy out. Men are still not allowed to cry. I think that may be why men default to anger instead of any other emotion. Real men are “allowed” to be angry. They are still not always allowed to be sad, worried, confused, remorseful, bereaved or frustrated.
Women still only make up a disproportionately small percentage of the power positions in almost all fields, (i.e. CEOs, Chefs, school principals) despite making up more than half of the workforce. I suspect that my Boomer generation–who grew up in a blatantly sexist world–will have to die off before this starts to be truly put to right.
Are women better designers than men? Women and men are different, and do approach design problems differently. I suspect that women do–either by nature or nurture or both–see more colors than men. (It’s a scientific fact that a huge percentage of color-blind people are men.) Are men generally more focused–like hunters–and therefore excel in pointed-and-direct projects while the “gatherer” women notice many more things all at once and are better-equipped to design complex projects?
I dunno.
What can I say ? My wife just promoted an Art Director. I am still a production artist.
As a male I am forced to admit that women are superior to men in every way. There is no upside to disagreeing with that statement.
LOL Dave. I like how you think.
Someone has taught you well, sir. LOL
Obviously men and women are different yet equal. Some things that men can do, women can probably do also but women need to work on it twice as much effort then men… and of course the same applied to men. Some men need to struggle much more to do what women can do easily.
Having said that, who is a better designer depends on how much effort an individual give in working on their weaknesses and be better in the things they are not.
It all depends. Period.
I am freelancing for this guy who does hair products for women. When I came in I had to redue the logo for the company. The old logo was harsh in color, not catering to the female target market. And the designer who did is a guy.
So with research, I found a color fitting to the female market. And the owner loved it!!
For design, I prefer Italians of course!
A few years ago I researched and published an article on gender difference in web design. An important area of the work we do.
The skills of a good designer relate to their ability to solve a problem whichever discipline of design you look at, clothing, communications, building, product, or any one of the hundreds of design categories that exist.
The gender of the designer is not relevant except when it comes to websites. If the end user of the website is predominantly female the designer should be a female. Research carried out in Glamorgan University on this subject indicated: the empathy towards a female designed websites was greater by females than males and the opposite when it came to males.
I have also found this to be true when carrying out independent user experience reviews on websites. It is possible to identify the gender of the designer from the work.
Regards
Nigel
I’d love to test that theory and prove it wrong on so many levels.
No,they are not.
The great thing about design and creativity (and to borrow the cliche’)…it takes a village to design the world. Men are different graphic designers than women. Period. Men are different GDer’s from other men (and women from women). Period.
Likewise to peg GD into any box of such a varied field limits the nature of creativity. Business tact, style, marketability, connectivity + networking, perspective, and experience make designers; tools not always measured simply by the “eye” of the designer.
You ask me for the best person for a certain campaign, I would be doing us all a disservice to not get ideas from a multi gender panel. Sometimes the rough, less emotional, logic oriented even if painful, and lacking of color experience translates into greater success. Sometimes it doesn’t.
To me, good design is recognition of parameters and finding strategic planning via the design process, as much as raw creation from ideas.
To be able to add and create can be done by any kid with photoshop, and yes maybe there are benefits to women in this and to men. To be able to pullback and edit, to find brilliance, is why we need trained designers though…men and women.
Excuses for joining in late.
I have a generic question for all of you to ponder on.
When we say ‘better design’, who’s being the judge here?
I think to say that women are better than men at graphic design is a huge sweeping generalisation, a bit like the term graphic designer, because there are so many different areas to our field.
Throughout my career I’ve worked with many great male and female designers, the two things that I have noticed is that female designers excel at being creative where as male designers excel at producing very technical designs.
The graphic design field is a huge field and I when working with freelance and looking through their cv, I can instantly tell if a male or female has designed something, I’ve just finished working for Braun GP and I used a male team because they understood the market, before you go on one, I did ask some female contractors to submit work, but you could tell they didn’t quite grasp it.
So whether your a male designer or female designer, it’s relative whose the greater designer, as long as the work is of a high calibre, well thought out and the client is left please, gender doesn’t matter.
Hi. I don’t think there is a black and white answer to this interesting question. I think individual perception is the key here – as to what you think of the product / how it should be projected etc.
Yes, women spend more time in life looking at colour, coordinating (clothes/makeup/accessories) etc.
I think that most of the times, men can think freely – they dont have as much ‘conditioned thinking’ as women do (ie. a sense of order / meticulousness / emotional strings) etc)
!
I think gender has nothing to do with it!
Can’t believe someone actually wasted their time writing this. Graphic designers are hired because of their skill, not because of what’s between their legs. Just like women aren’t all mothers and housewives anymore, it’s more acceptable for a man to express emotion, this is not 1969. Upbringing is a dumb excuse, and if you really are that petty, gtfo of the industry. We don’t need people like you.
This article has nothing to do with my opinion, it is more of a discussion. If you actually read the comments of other designers, you would realize that some people (mostly men) feel that women are better graphic designers all around. It isn’t about man vs. woman, it is about what we perceive in our industry as professionals. My advice is, if you can’t handle an adult discussion about real topics, then maybe you need to “gtfo” of the industry.
I think we are all on an even playing field, but you can’t ignore the fact that some people have an advantage, based on their background or upbringing. Gender has little or nothing to do with anything these days- There are female fighters that could destroy men in a fight, there are men that dominate the fashion industry, it all really depends on your drive and how much you are really motivated to accomplish your goals as a professional.
No. Women cannot think freely. They always get shamed and ridiculed for certain kinds of work and how they do it. Posters, photographs, and illustrations of men posing in suggestive ways, being aggressive, etc., for example. There’s more male graphic designers than female graphic designers. And men are better graphic designers than women. It’s a male-oriented/dominated business. Women are only good for cooking, cleaning, and caring for children. That’s it.
Okay, wow, I can’t believe I let this one slip by me. Women are capable of just as much as we are. This post was not to be a post regarding a gender war of who is better at everything, it was simply a comparison of the upbringing of two different genders. Most boys grow up not worrying about their appearance, but girls are trained from day one to notice how they look, what they wear, and if everything matches. I have a young daughter and we are already teaching her which articles of clothing go well together, good color combinations/choices, etc. Most boys simply put on jeans and a t-shirt and they are off to play. They don’t have to style their hair, braid it, etc.
However, I cannot sit here and allow you to say that women are only good for cooking and caring for our children. What is funny is that many women hold a successful career and do all of the above on top of that. It is our responsibility to increase social awareness and to spread equality, between races, nationalities, genders, etc., and it is critical for people in our profession to be open minded. This article was simply an intellectual comparison in sociology. I hope that you will do some research regarding women and the design industry, because you will soon realize that women are equal to men in every way.
I like this guy! I have met a lot of bad designers and i’m not going to say who is better and who is not but more so over and over again, I have ran into guys who have no color concept AT ALL! and if I didn’t have a picture of me on my website, most people think that some of my designs came from a guy.@pdesignad@yahoo.com,
thanks for this article. it’s an interesting debate. i know at my previous company, i worked with two other designers, both male. they weren’t the type of designer you could take on a sales call for sure. one was simply too uninterested to dress nicely, the other was far too sensitive and temperamental and could not take criticism at all. i thought i prevailed there in that i did understand how to not only talk to my coworkers to execute a design, but also clients as well. business sense. maybe women just feel the need to work harder, sometimes, because that’s kind of the role we’ve been given in this world. of course it’s very subjective.
LR – is still living under a rock apparently or some woman took him for everything he’s worth and broke his heart. Regardless, I believe the design process in and of itself all depends on your level of creativity and work ethic.
I have also found that people design concepts based on their knowledge of the industry or business they are designing for. I have seen many men do remarkable things with construction type designs, on the other hand, women can instill a sense of sexy and femininity into designs that related to cosmetics, perfume, fashion, etc. FYI….there are far more top notch female fashion designers than men.
Anyone can design “swooshy” people and abstract designs…kind of like taking a paint brush and flinging paint on a canvas and calling it ART.
Anyhoo….my sympathies to LR…….po’ thing!!!