On
March 10th, 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.
