Sheila de Bretteville (born 1940) is an American graphic designer, scholar, and activist.
Sheila de Bretteville photographed in 2014, at her home in New Haven, CT.
She advocates for women's rights in design, setting up a number of women-only institutions. Among them is the famous Women’s Building, a non-profit community and educational center in San Francisco. Now Sheila is the director of graduate studies in graphic design at Yale University.
Poster for Women in Design conference, 1970. © Sheila de Bretteville.
In 1970, De Bretteville organized the pivotal Women in Design Conference in Los Angeles. Her poster for the conference is iconic for its “eyebolt”—a metal bolt in the shape of a Venus symbol. This made an impression on many women in the 70s, who headed to their local hardware shop to make “eyebolt” necklaces. In 1973, De Bretteville—together with Judy Chicago and Arlene Raven—co-founded the Women's Building, a feminist art institution that supported numerous programs, activities, and artist groups. In 1973, De Bretteville created Pink, a broadside meant to explore the gender associations with the color for an American Institute of Graphic Arts exhibition. De Bretteville arranged squares of paper to form a “quilt” from which posters were printed and spread throughout Los Angeles.
Outside the Women’s Building, 1975. Photo: Maria Karras. The Getty Research Institute. Gift of Maria Karras. © Maria Karras, BFA, RBP, MA.
Pink poster. © Sheila Levrant de Bretteville.
Beatriz (Bea) Feitler (1938–1982) was a Brazilian graphic designer who worked for Harper’s Bazaar, Ms., Rolling Stone, and a number of other magazines.
Bea Feitler. We haven’t established the author of this image. Please contact us if you are the rights owner.
She was the first art director to feature a black model in a major fashion magazine. Bea was also a key figure behind the relaunch of Vanity Fair in the early 1980s. She died of cancer slightly before the first issue was out of print, only 44 years old.
Cover of Harper’s Bazaar US April 1965 issue art directed by Bea Feitler.
In 1963, at only 25-years old, Feitler became an art director at the American Harper’s Bazaar. In 1972, after 10 years at Bazaar, Feitler became an art director at Ms.—the magazine of the women's liberation movement. “In one sense, Feitler was always the original feminist,” recalls her longtime associate Carl Barile, who worked with her at Bazaar, Ms., and Rolling Stone. In 1981–1982, Feitler was working closely with Condé Nast editorial director Alexander Liberman to create the prototype for a new incarnation of Vanity Fair. The premiere issue of the revived Vanity Fair was made by Feitler and appeared after her death.
Сover of Ms. issue from December 1972.
Vanity Fair cover from 1982 art directed by Bea Feitler.