The Feminist Design Archive is an open-source, community-generated digital archive that aims to document, preserve and illuminate the work of feminist designers around the globe. Anyone can submit work to the archive in any format, from any time period, including their own work or the work of others.
The mission of the Feminist Design Archive is to document, preserve and illuminate the work of feminist designers around the globe. The archive is transdisciplinary and transgenerational; in an effort to record evidence of what feminist design has been, is and will be, the archive houses works from all disciplines of design, from anywhere in the world, from any time period. An archive prompts questions and discussions of power: who gets to tell a story, who gets to preserve knowledge, and who has access to that knowledge. Through collaborative chronicling and collective authorship, the archive aims to develop a shared understanding and shared ownership of the stories of feminist design, prompting opportunities for connection, learning and self-reflection on our praxis.
Feminist design, like feminism itself, has no precise definition because by nature these concepts resist definitive statements. Karen Warren invoked the edges of a quilt or collage to describe what she calls the boundary conditions of a feminist ethic. "The boundaries delimit the territory of the piece without dictating the interior, the design, the actual pattern of what the piece looks like. Because the actual design of the quilt emerges from the multiplicity of voices ... in a cross-cultural context, the design will change over time. It is not something static" (The Power and Promise of Ecological Feminism, 1993). This archive is a collage of pluralistic, overlapping, conflicting, and evolving ways of knowing and doing feminism through design.
The Feminist Design Archive is intersectional. The voices of marginalized feminists are centered here, including but not limited to: trans people, Black womxn, Indigenous womxn, and voices from the Global South.
The Feminist Design Archive does not claim ownership of artifacts submitted to the archive. The archive is a repository that aims to link submissions to source material whenever possible. The rights holder retains the trademark and copyright of all artifacts.
When submitting the work of others, treat their work with the utmost respect and do your best to include details, contextual framing and links to sources whenever possible.
Be kind and generous in your treatment of others and their work. Harassment, abuse, trolling, shitposting, or discrimination of any kind will not be tolerated.
Coming soon! If you are interested in being part of the inaugural advisory board for the Feminist Design Archive, please contact feministdesigner@gmail.com
The idea for the Feminist Design Archive was conceived in 2022 by Alison Place, author of Feminist Designer: On the Personal and the Political in Design (MIT Press, 2023). During the process of writing the book, it became clear there were far more feminist designers and examples of feminist design than could fit within the pages of a single book. This archive was developed as a companion project to create a more accessible platform to elevate the pluralistic knowledge and work of feminist designers, all over the world, both past and present.
The Feminist Design Archive was designed and developed by Megan Dieudonné, a designer based in Leipzig, Germany. Inspiration for the archive was drawn from multiple other digital archive projects, including the Cyberfeminist Index and the People's Graphic Design Archive. In the feminist spirit of citation, we acknowledge with gratitude the work of others who made this project possible.
What can be submitted to the archive?
Any artifact that represents evidence of feminist ways of doing design, including but not limited to images, videos, audio, writing, and physical artifacts that have been digitized
Work from any and all disciplines of design
Work from any time period, past or present
Work created by you, or work created by someone else that you submit on their behalf with sufficient credits and citations
What "counts" as feminist design?
There is no precise definition of feminism or feminist design because by nature these concepts resist definitive statements. This archive is intended to hold space for diverse, pluralistic, and conflicting interpretations of feminism. Submissions are not required to meet any criteria related to what is deemed to be "feminist" or not, but we ask that submitters include a description of how they view their work to be in conversation with feminism.
How are the submissions moderated?
Submissions are currently moderated by archive creator Alison Place. Submissions are reviewed to ensure they meet the Community Guidelines and clearly articulate a connection to feminism. In the near future, we aim to convene a panel of moderators in order to reflect more diverse perspectives in the moderation process.
Someone else submitted my work. Can I revise the entry or request that it be removed?
Yes. We value the rights of the original creator of the work, and will do our best to ensure submissions in the archive accurately reflect the project and its source. Please contact us at feministdesigner@gmail.com
Bastardo Grotesk by Giulia Boggio
CoFo Sans by Contrast Foundry
University of Arkansas School of Art
Fulbright College Connor Fellowship
The Feminist Design Archive is a living, community-generated, collaborative project. We welcome questions, feedback, suggestions, and insight.