Discovering Australia's first female graphic designer — Australian Historical Association annual conference hosted by The Australian National University

Discovering Australia's first female graphic designer

Discovering Australia's first female graphic designer (42)

Jane Connory ¹

Monash University, Vermont South, VIC, Australia

This paper seeks to identify Ruby Lindsay (1887-1919) as one of the first women to practise graphic design in Australia. It explores the social context in which she worked, during the 1900s, and her relationships to other women in order to raise the visibility of her contributions. The justification of labelling her work as graphic design is explained through its evolving discourse and connecting its typology through the terms applied art and commercial art. Lindsay’s personal participation in the 1907 Women’s Work Exhibition (WWE), also offers an opportunity to categorise her as one of Australia’s first women to practice graphic design and raises the importance of creating a more inclusive history of Australian design. Currently, her voice remains almost silent however, led by historical documents, I have created a speculative conversation in the form of postcards written between her and fellow WWE participant Eirene Mort. This practice based research makes their stories more accessible and aims to demonstrate ways of widening the scope of graphic design history while encouraging a more intersectional approach to history on a broader scale.

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Authors contributing to this abstract.

Connory, J

Jane Connory is a PhD candidate at Monash University, Art, Design & Architecture, working towards a gender inclusive history of Australian graphic design. She was awarded a Masters of Communication Design (Design Management) with Distinction from RMIT in 2016 and has been a practising designer and illustrator in the advertising, branding and publishing sectors, in both London and Melbourne, since 1997. Alongside her research exploring the visibility of women in design, she is currently the National Head of Communications at the Design Institute of Australia, a radio presenter on JOY94.9 and an active participant in the Creative Women’s Circle, Illustrators Australia and the Australian Graphic Design Association. Jane’s research through design is quantifying the visibility of women in the history of Australian graphic design through data visualisation, information graphics and generative art. Her installations and interactive workshops reveal a discipline producing a majority of female graduates and an industry that has been slow to recognise their contributions. The primary focus of her research is to critically examine the complexity and subtleties in the discourse surrounding design and to analyse how gender and power impact the graphic design industry in Australia.

Discovering Australia's first female graphic designer (42)

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