Sheila de Bretteville: A Feminist Look at Gender, Pedagogy, and Practice

         On March 10^th, Sheila de Bretteville spoke in Wong Auditorium as part of the Roski Lecture Series.  Bretteville is a famous American graphic designer, whose work addresses various social issues, predominantly feminism. She was an integral artist during the 1970s, at the height of Second Wave Feminism’s influence, as she promoted women’s participation in design. Her accomplishments in the feminist field of design include founding the first women’s design program at CalArts, co-founding the Women’s Building (a women’s education and culture center in Los Angeles), developing the Communication Design Program at Otis College of Art and Design, and being the first woman to receive tenure at the Yale University School of Art. Since 1990, she has served as the director of the Yale Graduate Program in Graphic Design.

            I am embarrassed to say that I had never heard of Bretteville before. As a woman, I have her to thank for destroying barriers that were set up against women in the design sphere. She made massive strides during the 1970s Feminist Art Movement in advocating women’s involvement in art and creating programs for them to design. Without women like her, I would have no career opportunities in design.

I enjoyed seeing and learning about some of her most successful projects. I especially enjoyed the raised concrete compasses that she embedded on a street in New Haven in 1993. The compasses had the names and biographies of ordinary working class people. They put average people in the spotlight, as if they were celebrities. The project highlighted how valuable “ordinary” people our in the world, and how profound they can be. It reminds us to embrace our community because every individual is important and integral in society as a whole. The aesthetic of the compasses reminded me of the stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, though Bretteville remarked that this similarity was unintentional.

Although I enjoyed learning about Bretteville’s professional success, I wish she could have spoken more intimately about her biography. I would have loved to hear how things like growing up with immigrant parents or living in Brooklyn shaped her perspective on various social issues. I also am very interested to hear what her creative process is like, and what inspires her. Overall, I enjoyed becoming more familiar with her artwork, and I’m very inspired by the way she advocates gender equality through graphic design.