You’ve not only heard their names and seen their work (many on the pages of STEP), but you’ve probably seen them speak at conferences and you may have even met them in person. These women represent the cream of the crop of the design world. But what do we really know beyond their design accomplishments? We see the easy part—the finished design, the façade of the successful studio, the accolades, yet we rarely get a chance to find out what happens behind the scenes.

I had the privilege of asking each of these women about their experiences of owning their own businesses, their drive to be successful, and how they balance the chaos of running a design studio with their home/family lives.

The players:

• Kim Baer, KBDA, Los Angeles, 23 years
  
• Lynda Decker, Decker Design, New York, 10 years
  
• Louise Fili, Louise Fili Ltd., New York, 16 years
  
• Jessica Helfand, Winterhouse, Falls Village, Conn., 8 years
  
• Jeri Heiden, Smog Design, Los Angeles, 6 years
  
• Cheryl Heller, Heller Communications, New York, 3 years
  
• Deanna Kuhlmann-Leavitt, Kuhlmann Leavitt, Inc., St. Louis, 4 years
  
• Ellen Lupton, DesignWritingReasearch, 16 years
  
• Debbie Millman, president, Sterling Brands, design division, New York, 10 years
  
• Jennifer Morla, Morla Design, Inc., San Francisco, 21 years
  
• Emily Oberman, Number 17, New York, 12 years
  
• Robynne Raye, Modern Dog, Seattle 19 years
  
• Paula Scher, Pentagram, New York, 25 years
  
• Bonnie Siegler, Number 17, New York, 12 years
  
• Cheryl Towler Weese, Studio Blue, Chicago, 10 years
  
• Sharon Werner, Werner Design Werks, Minneapolis, 14 years
  
• Ann Willoughby, Willoughby Design Group, Kansas City, Mo.

These are the outtakes from the interview that appears in the Nov/Dec 2005 issue of STEP.

Tell me about your early influences in art and design, and how you came to pursue it as a career.

Decker: I always wanted to be an artist. When I was a child, I never knew there was such a thing as a graphic designer. I grew up in a small working class town on Long Island—my father was an electrician and my mother worked for the telephone company. When I was seven, my Mom took oil painting classes in the local adult education program so that she could in turn pass the knowledge to me. I loved to paint and draw and I went after any adult that seemed to have artistic ability. I sought out local “artists” in town and somehow I got them to teach me what they knew.

One day this old man set up a studio on Main Street (yes, there was a Main Street). He told me he didn’t like kids. Of course, never having the ability to take no for a legitimate answer, I was relentless in visiting him—or bugging him depending upon your point of view. Somehow he gave in and made me his student. I learned how to draw hands and feet from him and I still have the Bridgman books he gave me. He told me I was lousy, but I didn’t give up.

Fili: I always had a fascination for letterforms, for anything typographic.

Heiden: When it came time for college, my parents weren’t convinced that design was an actual vocation or career (especially for a woman). I managed to get some scholarship money based on my high school portfolio so I took the plunge and convinced them I’d be fine.

Baer: To this day I marvel that my parents had no qualms about the hours I spent silkscreening on their dining room table. It was messy, and full of fumes – all this with five siblings running around – but they were always supportive. In college I was very interested in the world of artists’ books. There was a huge renaissance going on – with artists buying old letterpress presses and hot type, to designing and publishing limited-edition books. Many of these artists were women – and extraordinary designers and craftspeople. I met Sheila de Bretteville, who was then head of the Women’s Graphic Workshop. Taking classes from Sheila and helping her with some exhibitions and programs was a kind of graduate school for me.

Siegler: I was lucky because I had a cousin who was a very successful magazine art director (Ruth Ansel), so that gave my parents some understanding and acceptance of what I wanted to do.

Raye: My design dream happened when I was 19 years old. I met my future business partner, Michael Strassburger, at a radio station where we both worked. He told me he wanted to be a graphic designer and I asked, “What’s that?” I wanted to make posters for my punk radio show and hoped someday I would have the opportunity to design an album cover.

Willoughby: My design hero was my Great Grandmother, Elizabeth. She was born at the end of the Civil War and died in 1951. She demonstrated that a life could be shaped and transformed by one’s intentions. Her life was simple and elegant. She taught me how to bring modern ideas and design into my life without losing my humanity and a sense of place and history.

What kinds of challenges, if any, did you overcome in the beginning years as a female designer in a predominantly male profession?

Decker: When I graduated from college, I probably looked about 12. And I was shy. I always got a hard time from printers—until I learned that the best way to treat them was as if they were my Dad. And then many of them were very helpful.

Then there’s the male/female thing: I’ve been asked out on numerous dates (always dodgy getting around that one gracefully) and even had a client once tell me that he worked with me because I was cute. Of course, had I botched his annual report, cute would not have saved me from losing the account. I resented the statement—it was so condescending and dismissive. But you have to move beyond that kind of stuff. Women in every profession face these issues, and we shouldn’t have to, but to be successful, you learn to be graceful and keep your eye on your main objective—do great work and get paid.

Baer: When I did work in a large design firm in NYC as a fairly young designer, the partners and senior execs were definitely all male. Because I ended up starting my own firm when I was 28, I don’t have a lot of experience trying to make my way inside a large firm. I will say that in the first 10 years of having my own firm, I was almost always the only woman in the room when presenting to clients. That still can be true.

Helfand: Men have always been paid more for the same work, no matter their stature, their age, their experience: in comparable positions, I have always been paid less. Not sure I have ever overcome this: in any large institution, to complain is to sound bitchy and whiny.

Heiden: I was accused of being too nice. I was frequently hit-on. I was occasionally intimidated or ridiculed by men in positions of power (mostly managers or clients). I had to prove I could be tough. And of course, I worked really long hours. But to be fair, I have to say many more good men stood up for me along the way.

Kuhlmann-Leavitt: I can’t say that I faced any gender-based challenges in the beginning years but I think that was helped by my nature—I am very much at ease in a man’s world. My challenges came later when I moved into a leadership role. I ran into guys who couldn’t get their heads around me handling the build-out of our St. Louis office space and prospective clients that seemed troubled by my age and possibly my gender. All in all fairly harmless stuff that just makes you a little more determined.

Raye: As a woman designer I honestly have never felt discrimination except for one early, isolated incident. It’s possible I’m not confronted with gender issues because I have a male business partner, and we work as a team.

Willoughby: I started my own company where my personal values and lifestyle were in harmony with my family and employees needs. I also worked hard and took risks.