«Queens of their discipline»

The poster is regarded as the supreme discipline in graphic design, its presence in public space combined with its large size ensuring a wide audience. For a long time, poster design was decidedly male terrain, and even today, the history of the medium is still told based on male artists. There are multiple biographical, social, and political reasons for women’s marginal representation, and yet plenty of women can be found who have devoted their skills to designing posters. The development of the poster from the early twentieth century to the present can in fact be wonderfully illustrated by international examples by women only. This approach has the additional benefit of enriching the canon of design history with a number of exciting points of view and narratives – and not least new names.