Hall of Femmes

Hall of Femmes: Tomoko Miho 

”Good design is about finding solutions.”

A designer’s designer. An architect in paper.« The Japanese-American designer Tomoko Miho was a dedicated modernist. Influenced by her Japanese background she applied spatial solutions to printed matter. Nothing followed a standard format.

Tomoko Miho (1931–2012) began her award winning career in the early 1960s. She worked for design firms as George Nelson and the Center for Advanced Research in Design until she established her own design firm in New York in 1982. Her broad range of work covers corporate identities, architectural signage, environmental graphics, book and brochure design. In 1993 she received AIGA’s Gold Medal in recognition of her entire career.

Hall of Femmes: Tomoko Miho includes an introductionary essay by Véronique Vienne, art director, design critic and writer. It is richly illustrated, much of it never before published.” 

Initiative, art direction, interview, graphic design and photo editing: Samira Bouabana, Angela Tillman Sperandio Editor: Maina Arvas Pages: 72 Dimensions: 130x230 mm Binding: Sewn soft cover Language: English Published: 2013 ISBN: 9789197882750

Hall of Femmes: Ruth Ansel

” Magpie aestetic, shameless borrower, intuitive, and deceptively simple.”

Ruth Ansel has been the art director of Harper’s Bazaar (1960s), The New York Times Magazine (1970s) and Vanity Fair (1980s). Each time she was the first woman to hold that position. In the early 1990s, she formed her own design studio. She designed such notable books as The Sixties by Richard Avedon, Women and The White Oak Dance Project by Annie Leibovitz, and a master monograph for Taschen by Peter Beard. She continued to work closely with Richard Avedon and designed several significant portfolios of his work for The New Yorker. Her studio has also designed ad campaigns for such brands as Versace, Club Monaco, and Karl Lagerfeld. Ruth has received the Gold Medal for Design — the Art Directors Club’s most prestigious award — and the Society of Publication Design Award for Continuing Excellence in Publication Design.

Initiative, art direction, interview, graphic design and photo editing: Samira Bouabana, Angela Tillman Sperandio Editor: Ika Johannesson Pages: 72 Dimensions: 130x230 mm Binding: Sewn soft cover Language: English Published: 2010 ISBN: 9789197882705

Hall of Femmes: Lella Vignelli 

”My ideas are always clear.”

»If you can design one thing, you can design everything.« The Italian architect and designer Lella Vignelli has turned her hand to every kind of project, from furniture, interiors, showrooms and exhibitions to product design, silverware and clothing. In the beginning of the 1960s she established the Vignelli Office of Design and Architecture in Milan together with her husband Massimo Vignelli. In the end of the decade the pair settled in New York and launched one of the world’s biggest design firms at the time, Unimark International. Lella Vignelli received AIGA’s Gold Medal in 1983. Hall of Femmes: Lella Vignelli includes an introductionary essay  by Martha Scotford, Professor of Graphic Design and author of Cipe Pineles: a Life of Design. It is richly illustrated, much of it never published before.

Initiative, art direction, interview, graphic design and photo editing: Samira Bouabana, Angela Tillman Sperandio Editor: Sarah Clyne Sundberg Pages: 64 Dimensions: 130x230 mm Binding: Sewn soft cover Language: English Published: 2013 ISBN: 9789197882743

Hall of Femmes: Paula Scher 

”Good design is about finding solutions.”

Paula Scher began her design career at Atlantic and CBS Records in the 1970s. In 1984 she co-founded Koppel & Scher, and in 1991 she joined the design firm Pentagram NY as a partner. Paula Scher has worked with identity and branding systems, environmental graphics, packaging and publication designs for a broad range of clients. In 2001 she was awarded the profession’s highest honor, the AIGA medal, in recognition of her contributions to the design field. In 2006 she was awarded the Type Directors Club Medal.

Initiative, art direction, interview, graphic design and photo editing: Samira Bouabana, Angela Tillman Sperandio Editor: Maina Arvas Pages: 80 Dimensions: 130x230 mm Binding: Sewn soft cover Language: English Published: 2011 ISBN: 9789197882736

Hall of Femmes: Janet Froelich 

”Risk-taking is very important. Good ideas are the hardest currency.”

Janet Froelich, is creative director at Real Simple, a magazine with two million subscribers. Before this she was the art director and creative director at The New York Times Magazine for over two decades. The New York Times Magazine is one of the world’s most beautifully designed newspaper publications and, with its supplements, one of the most awarded magazines of our time. Or like her friend Steven Heller puts it: ”In short, she’s the art director’s art director – and that is visible to anyone with eyes to see.” 

Initiative, art direction, interview, graphic design and photo editing: Samira Bouabana, Angela Tillman Sperandio

Hall of Femmes: Rosmarie Tissi

»For me, it’s been important to combine intuition and logic in order to
find simple and powerful solutions.

I have constantly thought of solutions, of challenges for projects in
progress. I would rarely slow down if I had a job I couldn’t find a
solution for. I couldn’t focus on anything else so I would prioritise a
lot of other things in order to keep working, revisit ideas or spreads
to find the right path. When the project finally landed and the prob-
lem was solved, I could feel a bit empty inside. I don’t know why I’m
speaking in past tense, it’s exactly the same now as it was then. I
always have to have some project to think about. I would never think to
retire, that must be awfully boring.«
– Rosmarie Tissi


During the 1960s and 1970s, she was a trailblazer for her time. All
around her were strict rules, grid systems and men who completely
dominated the business. She continued on her own trail through the 1980s
and '90s, turning limitations into opportunities. Today she is a leading
female designer, famous worldwide.

This book is part of the Hall of Femmes series, books highlighting the
work of outstanding women in art direction and design. Other titles in
the series are: Ruth Ansel, Lillian Bassman, Carin Goldberg, Paula
Scher, Tomoko Miho, Janet Froelich, Lella Vignelli and Barbara
Stauffacher Solomon.


Initiative: Samira Bouabana, Angela Tillman Sperandio (Hall of Femmes)
Author & editor: Linda Holster / HolsterGreen
Graphic design: Michaela Green / HolsterGreen
Dimensions: 130x230 mm
Soft cover
Language: English
ISBN: 9789198757309

The midwife’s archives are the collections of Elsy Salomonsson: hundreds of brochures, photos and personal notes that she col­lected, wrote, and kept from her time working as a Swedish midwife in Tunisia in the 1970s.

Being a midwife in Tunisia in the 1970s meant being at the center of what was considered to be a key in the shaping of the Modern Tunisian woman, and of the modern nation: family planning.  Elsy’s collected brochures, clinical material and newspaper cuts, allow us to dive into the discourse and imagery around women’s bodies, sexuality and reproduction, an ideal of the modern family, and how it was represented as the condition for the prosperity and development of the newly independent nation.