Through a combination of all these factors and more, a male-dominated graphic design canon of designers and design work has been firmly entrenched. The prevailing narratives privilege polemical gestures and celebrated individuals, while the issues and output of women and minority designers remain secondary from such accounts. Design history is so often a history of publicity—of self promotion, high-end catalogs, and keynote lectures. And the resulting lack of diverse representation has lead to a lack of designer role-models that young women and minorities can identify with and learn from. This absence can make it difficult to find one’s direction in the move from lecture hall to office desk.

“Seeing someone of your own gender, with your own skin tone, or someone of own class or caste doing something rad is half the battle won,” says Malhotra from Mumbai. “You don’t find it as difficult then, to see yourself in a similar role. Role-models are about seeing possibility for yourself; when you have them, there’s a greater likelihood that you’ll fulfil your ambition.” Studies have confirmed Malhotra’s sentiment. In 2017, for example, the University of Massachusetts studied the value of mentorship by pairing female engineering undergraduates with female mentors for an entire year. It found that those paired with women felt far more self-assured, motivated, and less anxious that those working with a male mentor.

A historical lack, or rather erasure, reverberates and repeats over time: prestigious journals, magazines, conferences, and the design media at large have typically reflected the socially-accepted, sexist status quo, reaffirming an exclusionary canon for graphic design. And imbalance, of course, perpetuates into the present: In 2019 for example, a report from AIGA’s Eye on Design found that across major design conferences in Europe, the average number of women speaking at events was 35.7%. The report also underlines how women are consistently allotted less time on stage than their male counterparts.

“Being surrounded by mostly white, male designers has an impact on the self-confidence of designers who are less or aren’t represented,” agrees Loraine Furter, a graphic designer and researcher based in Brussels who specializes in intersectional design projects. “Conferences and big studios are still led by men who, consciously or not, work with other men, and that—combined with a lack of role-models—creates a situation in which female-identifying designers refuse to speak at conferences because they feel less legitimate. Or, they don’t apply for high job positions or specific educational programs for the same reason.”