1. Tell me about your early influences in art and design, and how you came to pursue it as a career.
FILI: Graphic design was not well known as a career choice when I was younger. It was more commonly referred to as “commercial art.” My parents were Italian immigrant schoolteachers, and as far as they were concerned, majoring in art was totally frivolous unless it could be translated into teaching.

I taught myself calligraphy in junior high school, and spent the better part of my time laboring over illuminated manuscripts of Bob Dylan lyrics. Unfortunately, at the time I was discovering graphic design there were few women role models available.

LUPTON: As a young designer, I paid close attention to the women who were influencing the design culture around me: Lorraine Wild, Paula Scher, Marlene McCarty, Katherine McCoy, Sheila de Bretteville, Barbara de Wilde, and April Greiman.

MORLA: My aunt was an editor at Condé Nast in the early ’60s. Early impressions were made visiting the art department. White formica, Corbu chairs, 4 x 5 chromes on light boxes, the largest set of Magic Markers I had ever seen, layouts pinned to walls. I loved it. By the late 1960s I was admiring the fantastic work coming out of Push Pin Studios: posters on barricade walls that enhanced the urban landscape.

HELLER: The most inspiring moment was when the man I was working for told me that I would never be a designer because I didn’t have the talent. I was doing production, taking all this guy’s thumbnail sketches and turning them into finished pieces. It pissed me off just enough to give me the determination to prove him wrong.

SCHER: I loved record album covers, comic books, teen magazines, and paper dolls. I made my own versions of all of them. My teacher, Stanislas Zagorski, encouraged me to move to New York and become a designer. When I told my mother about my plans, she said, “Oh Paula, don’t do anything like that. It sounds like it takes talent.”

OBERMAN: My father is a designer and my mother is an illustrator/painter. They worked together and I always knew I wanted to be like them. My parents used to joke that they would rather have a doctor or a lawyer than another designer, but they were actually proud that I decided to join the family business.

2. What kinds of challenges, if any, did you overcome in the beginning years as a female designer in a predominantly male profession?
MILLMAN: Early on in my career, I felt that I didn’t command as much gravitas as my male counterparts, but that may also have been because I was quite young, fairly unsophisticated, and ... well ... blond. Lately however, I feel that I have taken advantage of and enjoyed the fact that I’m a woman in what is still (regretfully) a man’s world. I feel that I would not get away with anything close to what some of my male counterparts have been able to get away with over the years.

HELLER: In rare instances I had to work to be taken seriously. A few printers tended to be like garage mechanics, taking advantage because they thought they could. But for the most part, being taken seriously has not been a problem for me. I came to realize there are some men who are not comfortable working with women, and in fact, don’t like women.

FILI: I remember when I started as an art director at Pantheon, my employer offered me a very low salary. When I questioned his rationale, he explained that one of my colleagues was being paid more because “he has a family to support.”

MORLA: I moved to San Francisco in 1978, and within the next few years the San Francisco look was being defined by Michael Vanderbyl, Michael Manwaring, and the illustrative silhouettes of Michael Schwab. I considered changing my name to Michelle.

SIEGLER: Funny, I don’t think of design as a predominantly male profession on a day-to-day level, but when you go to conferences and see who the industry holds up as its stars it seems to be pretty male. So maybe it seems more male, but there are a lot of women out there doing great work.

WERNER: If I had any problems at all it was in part due to being a one-person studio and maybe more specifically a one-woman studio. I needed to break through the stereotype of working from home, which is perceived as not as serious or working part-time. When clients called they often thought I was in my basement, not in an office with overhead.

SCHER: I was an incredible smart-ass. I used my sense of humor to disarm people in tense political situations. I still do that.

3. Do you think the pay/salaries for women are at the same scale as men? If not, why?
HELFAND: No. Perhaps it’s the mommy track thing, perhaps not. If asked to choose between her job and the constantly changing, unpredictable, and ongoing needs of her children, it’s hard to imagine the job trumping the kids.

FILI: No! There seems to be a mythology that a woman’s salary is merely a supplement to her husband’s, and is therefore not important. Of course, if there is no husband, it’s not important either—even if the woman happens to be a single parent!

SCHER: They are when they are, meaning when women demand equal pay, they can in fact get it. Nothing is given away.

DECKER: There was a period of time when women did not ask for as much money as men in a job interview—and I think there was a difference. I no longer see that. I see young women just as aggressive as young men. I think the AIGA salary survey provided benchmark information and leveled the playing field. Information is power.

MILLMAN: That is really hard to say. In the overall working world, clearly the answer is a resounding no—you can go to the Department of Labor website and see evidence there.

4. As an owner/principal of your firm, what made you decide to go out on your own?
HEIDEN: I had experienced too many mergers and acquisitions to continue believing in the security of a corporate environment. Mergers and acquisitions expose you to real human and psychological carnage. It’s like a death. I wanted to create a workplace that I was in control of, for better or for worse, and be able to express my own philosophy in the work environment.

HELLER: I suddenly became aware that I had spent too many years doing things I didn’t really care about, and too many days in meetings.

SCHER: I don’t want anyone to be able to fire me.

WEESE: Chance and chutzpah, wanting to work exclusively for the kinds of clients I wanted to work with, and setting my own standards. I still enjoy the liberation these choices bring.

MILLMAN: The first time out on my own, it was fundamentally about charting my own course and having issues with authority. The second time [now at Sterling] I earned shares and ownership over the course of my tenure. This was something that I asked to be written into my original contract, as I was looking for a firm to commit a significant amount of time to and I wanted to feel that I would be rewarded with ownership.

WILLOUGHBY: As a young woman I was part of the ’60s generation. We witnessed massive social change as youth and believed we were responsible for creating a better future. We also grew up believing we could send a man to the moon. Anything seemed possible then. It was a lot easier and less expensive to start a business at the time. I have always been a dreamer and a little restless, although I did not understand how these factors influenced my decision in 1970. At the time, I wanted to be with my children and live a more integrated life where I could blend family and work.

5. How did potential clients treat you?
SCHER: Like a little girl, then a big girl, and soon to be old woman.

MILLMAN: They were curious, particularly the women. Remember, 10 and 20 years ago, the brand design business was primarily men. I was one of maybe a dozen women in a senior position on the agency side. I was a bit of an anomaly but frankly, I think that worked in my favor at the time.

RAYE: Initially we were treated with suspicion because of our age and lack of experience. The only incident of poor behavior came from a client where the man in charge said to me that he didn’t like working with women because “they didn’t follow through on their ideas.” We finished the job, which blew away anything he had ever done—and I’m being modest here—then never worked with him again.