Fully Justified
A platform that uncovers the truth behind the underrepresentation of women in senior design roles.
In 2018, the Design Council released a statistic stating that 70% of design graduates are female, yet only 11% reach creative director roles.
As soon to be Graphic Design graduates from Falmouth University ourselves, this alarming figure acted as the catalyst, for my co-founder Emma Barraclough and I, to establish Fully Justified.
We have created a platform, building on the progress that has already been made regarding equality, that investigates present gender based issues within the industry. Our research has led us to understand why this is happening in order to seek solutions and initiate change.
Every design decision we made had to reflect the Fully Justified mission. Our visual identity sets a precedent in how gender equality movements are being conducted. A minimal, clean aesthetic makes us more modern, approachable and representative of the time.
When discussing the name Fully Justified, we had the intention to promote a powerful and grounded identity that sought to increase the value of female designers. Our design process was continuously analysed, and we were always aware and sensitive to the fact that we wanted to avoid segregation.
For example, this was explored through our use of colour. Having four swatches gave us a broad and flexible range to work with which included both blue and pink shades. The tonal variations were carefully considered as we were aware about the negative stereotyping regarding feminine and masculine traits. Fully Justified aims to produce work and visuals that truly reflects our name, demonstrated through our use of typography and composition.
Over the last 9 months, Fully Justified has continuously been present throughout our design thinking and practice. Initially inspired by powerful feminist movements and collectives, we formed an understanding of the current cultural climate regarding the treatment of women in design. Yet, Fully Justified was not created based on hindsight since we have not experienced the industry for ourselves. It was formed with the purpose to inspire the next generation of female designers, paving a more transparent career path in light of the Design Council’s statistic.
The most recent work we have created for Fully Justified is a publication that documents a decade worth of stories and voices from female Falmouth graphic design graduates. Structuring the publication in this way led us to compare past and current experiences that would ultimately determine whether the design industry is striving towards gender equality.
Through the collection of primary evidence, we avoided assumptions and the temptation to jump to conclusions. We wanted to create a publication that showcased the truth.
We chose women who work within various design sectors, ranging from conceptual design to publishing and motion graphics, across the world. The subject of Graphic Design is wide reaching and as we’ve seen across each graduate, their experiences have somewhat differed.
We chose Falmouth graduates because we wanted to establish the same starting point for each woman, having all had the same educational upbringing. Every interviewee is portrayed through her graduation photograph in the publication, representing the beginning of each woman’s career. As two women who are just weeks away from graduating, we felt it was only appropriate to personally reach out to female designers who have been in the same position as us.
The future of Fully Justified aims to constantly question the treatment of women in design. We aim to broaden our platform through various touchpoints that reach a greater audience.
Women speaking on stage is something that is lacking from the design industry and as a result, we see Fully Justified hosting stage events and podcasts. At the ages of 21 and 22, we were extremely privileged to speak at 'Birmingham Design Festival 2019', as well as exhibit a piece of artwork as part of the 'Ladies, Wine & Design Birmingham' exhibition.
Through our certification mark, Fully Justified wants to encourage design studios and agencies to adopt policies that work toward gender equality, so that the next generation of female designers understand the type of working environment they are entering, becoming proactive in their mission to help them to overcome the challenges that their former peers have faced.
In the next 10 years, as women, we should not have to fight for the pay we deserve.
In the next 10 years, we should not have to sacrifice our career aspirations to start a family.
In the next 10 years, women should feel confident enough to raise their voices over issues and concerns.
In the next 10 years, we should be seeing as many women in senior roles as men.
We hope that the Design Council releases a statistic as soon as possible stating a more evenly distributed balance for graduates who go into creative director roles.