Birdwatching
It’s quite astonishing that despite the fact that that 70 per cent of design students are women, 60 per cent of the industry is male. Trying to tip the scales is Birdwatching, a London-based organisation that promotes and celebrates the work of female graphic designers and creators around the globe.
This month Birdwatching will be launching its new website, soon to be found at www.graphicbirdwatching.com. The website will include interviews and features about inspirational female creatives, recommendations, events and a message board for doing some good old self-promotion.
Organiser Joana Niemeyer, from Studio April, says she hopes that the website will become international. ‘We’re hoping the website will allow people to get in touch and become Birdwatching ambassadors. It would be great to hear from people in countries like Iran, where the role of women and the design world are very different.’
To launch the website, the Birdwatching team will be hosting a celebratory event in East London on 16 July. Under the title ‘Where do the chicks migrate to? Surely they don’t all settle down to lay eggs?’, the evening will include a panel discussion, exhibition and rooftop BBQ.
The Chick Pods exhibition will feature work from some of this year’s best female graduates, including Bethan Jones, whose graphics-based final year project focused on the under-representation of women in the design industry.
‘I began looking into the proportion of women compared to men in design a few months back when the prospect of leaving education for the first time began to dawn on me and I noted how many female class mates would be joining me in the world of industry. It made me curious to find out if this higher proportion of female students was a national trend and if so what happened to these female designers once in industry,’ says Bethan.
If you would like to talk to Bethan and others about their work or get involved in the discussion, Birdwatching will take place at 6pm – 11pm on 16 July at Netil House, 1 Westgate Street, London E8
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great news! as a woman/mother/designer – i too have had to work ’round the system to make it all happen… will be listening out for what you have to say!
Hey Clare
Please do contact us about your experience! Would be great to hear about it.
Joana
Really looking forward to the Launch of the of website. I attend many networking meeting and the majority of Graphic Designers I meet are men.
The launch event was a HUGE success. It was great to have such a lively and engaged Q&A at a design event! Thank you all that came, participated and made it happen!:)
We will hopefully be posting some photos and podcasts from the event on our brand new BirdWatching website as soon as possible.
http://www.graphicbirdwatching.com/
I don’t know how else to contact you (I unfortunately don’t see a ”contact’ on your site.
I very much would like to submit some of my work and also do ‘research’ or get inspiration from your other ‘designers’ BUT 2/3 of the images are just a white square with a blue x in middle. How can this be.?
Hope to hear from you soon
Best
And tell me how best to set up my portfolio (I really honest to god do not see a menu with HOW to’s or Portfolio or Submit, and worst of all ”Contact.”
Best
Athena