BS: At times I feel if I was a man in the same position doing the same work, I would be paid more money, and be more famous.

RA: I started out as a graphic designer in the 1960s at Harper’s Bazaar magazine. At that time there were very few women to look up to who had preceded me in the field of magazine design. Of course, there were exceptions like Cipe Pineles and Miki Denhof. But things don’t seem to have progressed much since then. What I mean is here we are in 2005 and I don’t think you can name an equal amount of really talented and deserving women with an equal amount of men who are recognized graphic designers, heads of their own firms, or successful CEOs in advertising. If so I’d love to know who those women are.

BS: We think we’ve come a long way, but then when we plan conferences we have to really work at finding great women speakers. So how do you feel about an issue of a design magazine focusing on women? Some people didn’t think we needed an entire issue about women.

RA: I think from time to time you do. It’s healthy to assess the landscape and know what is happening and who is making it happen.

BS: I know you didn’t study graphic design in college, so how did you get into the field?

RA: I got my first entry level job out of fear. Fear and necessity. I didn’t expect my parents to continue to support me, and it was time to get out of the house. I had been accepted in a master’s program for ceramic design in Ravenna, Italy, but I never went. This story is really shameful. I fell in love with a young lawyer from Buffalo, N.Y., became engaged, and then quickly broke the whole thing off. No regrets. But it was too late for Ravenna, so bye-bye master’s degree. Back in New York I took any job I could get that related to art. I had skipped around working briefly at Columbia records, apprenticing for Erik Nitsche, where I learned how to use a T-square and mix rubber cement to its perfect consistency.

Around that time I met and eventually married the accomplished designer Bob Gill. That lasted a nanosecond. It was then that I began to understand there was such a thing called graphic design and how challenging it could be. I started meeting the big boys—George Louis, Ivan Chermayeff, Tony Palladino, Robert Brownjohn, and the great Saul Bass. I was intimidated and very impressed. When Bob and I divorced I went to Europe looking for work and adventure—not in that order. After meeting Bass, I wanted to try to break into film title design. I was always besotted with movies. With my limited experience, I was very lucky to be hired by a well-known designer at Studio Boggeri in Milan. But Milan was gray, and it was one of the coldest winters ever. So I hopped a train to Rome, looking for the sun. I found the sun but no work at Cinecitta. How naive was that? I woke up one morning realizing I didn’t have enough money to buy soap, I wasn’t becoming a famous film title designer, and my Italian was lousy. But I had a hell of a time in London, Paris, Spain, and Italy, discovering that my adventurous spirit was alive and well.

BS: And then you got a job at Bazaar?

RA: Yes, by accident. At the time [around 1961], I confess I had no ambition or even thought of myself as someone who could have a career. As a young dreamer who had always loved movies and magazines, it felt natural for me to turn to magazines as a potential place to work. I loved Harper’s Bazaar. When I was told by former Bazaar art director Henry Wolf—who was then art director of his newly created Show magazine—that he didn’t have any position open for me, I was crushed. But he then told me that Marvin Israel at Bazaar was still looking for an assistant. So Marvin interviewed me, saw that for the most part I had a fine arts portfolio, and hired me. Bea Feitler was already there. There was only one place left in the art department. I knew nothing about Marvin, but found out afterwards that he liked the idea that my work came from an outsider’s point of view. That I never studied graphic design appealed to his subversive nature. I’m forever grateful.