Women's History Month is traditionally a time for us to celebrate the women who have created incredible things in the past. For example, last year we looked at some of the most iconic brand identities that were designed by women.
This year, we thought we'd do something a little different and look to the future.
We've put together a list of five women who are blazing a trail in the creative sector right now, from photographers to interior designers. And, of course, we've included their social media handles so you can keep up to date with their work.
Andrea Pippins: Playful, authentic, empowering artwork
You may not recognize Stockholm-based storyteller and artist Andrea Pippin's name, but it's highly likely that you'll recognize her work.
Creator of the iconic Young, Gifted, and Black book series, Andrea is also the illustrator behind Nick Jr.'s Black Sunshine commercial, designed to celebrate Black History Month. Andrea also created artwork promoting HBO's Tina Turner documentary and partnered with Young People's Poet Laureate Elizabeth Acevedo to illustrate her world-renowned poem Inheritance.
What we love most about Andrea's work is that while it's bright, whimsical and fun, it showcases a powerful message about acceptance. One of her first pieces was I Love My Hair, an adult coloring book celebrating natural black hairstyles in a time when women were pressured to straighten and color their hair.
Brielle Jenkins: Embracing the weird and chaotic
Typically creatives find one medium they like and excel at, and stick with it. However, Brielle Jenkins (aka Femlord) celebrates the diversity of engaging in different types of art.
In her own words: "(I have) a ginormous mountain of interests, one of which might have the possibility of fulfilling me. I wish I could bottle up the feeling of optimism I feel when I set out to master the next life-changing career path."
A Master of Fine Arts graduate from the University of Florida, Brielle specializes in jewelry, tattooing, and airbrushing designs on second-hand clothing, celebrating the small intricate details of living in New York.
As designers, we often find that embracing the chaos can lead to innovative and unexpected results. Brielle's artwork is varied and highly intuitive, but is still beautiful and reflects modern life.
Andria Lo: Creator of Chinatown Pretty
We first became aware of Andria Lo in 2020 when we read her stunning book, Chinatown Pretty. This was a glorious love letter to senior citizens living in six Chinatowns across the US, celebrating not only their wisdom and history, but their creative and eclectic fashion style.
Andria is not just a great street photographer, but an experienced commercial photographer, working with prolific brands including Allbirds, Fitbit, Mailchimp, and Pixar.
As well as Chinatown Pretty, we love that Andria injects elements of her heritage into her still-life photography. There's a strong focus on Chinese food and a recurring leitmotif of the iconic 'thank you' plastic bags often seen in Chinese restaurants and grocery stores.
Julia Schimautz: Risograph animations
Earlier this year, we looked at some of the design trends that would be big news in 2025, and we predicted that one of the big trends would be embracing the beauty in imperfect, intentionally flawed design.
With this in mind, we're massive fans of Julia Schimautz's work. Julia specializes in creating risographs, prints made with a special printer that uses stencils, known for creating bright, textured images that oftentimes has some natural overlap between the ink plates. She then animates these risographs, resulting in bold, tactile, retro graphics that feel alive and grab your attention.
Julia's unique work has graced album covers, social media images, magazines, and editorials, and skateboards.
We love that Julia's artwork embraces both the old and the new—it's nostalgic and looks to the past, but it's modern, fresh, and forward-looking too. Julia is unafraid to take risks with her work, and we hope that's a lesson that more women designers can take to heart.
Alexis Tompkins and Leann Conquer: A warm yet minimal esthetic
Hailing from San Francisco, Alexis Tompkins and Leann Conquer head up Chroma, an interior design studio which is making big waves not just in San Francisco, but across the US.
A scholar of art history and a quality control specialist respectively, Alexis and Leann capitalize on mutually different skill sets to design homes that are not only simple and clean, but cozy and lived in.
We particularly love Chroma's 70s Reve spec house, which has a glam rock riff on the sultry vibes and breezy bliss of bohemian life.
Women are typically expected to exhibit qualities that are opposite in nature—for example, to be resilient but also vulnerable. The work of Alexis and Leann proves that it's perfectly okay to be two things at once, and best of all, these qualities can complement and not detract from each other.
Why it's more important than ever to champion women creatives
Five years ago we investigated the gender imbalance in branding and design—while women made up 61 percent of designers, only 11 percent held leadership roles.
While we'd love to say things are better, it's not looking optimistic for either women designers or artists, especially with the current administration urging companies to roll back their DEI programs.
Women creatives bring new perspectives to the table and empower us to talk about subjects that need to be discussed. Think Faith Ringgold and her exploration of race, class, and gender, or the Guerilla Girls fighting against sexism and racism.
And in the modern age, with all that's happening in the world, we need to keep those lines of communication and channels of debate open.
As artist Carmen Lomas Garza famously said: "Art is not a privilege. It's a right. It's a fundamental part of being human."
There's so much we can do to champion women creatives and amplify their voices. While buying their art and using their services is the gold standard, even liking, commenting, or sharing their posts on social media can make a difference.
If you liked this article, you might also be interested in ‘5 women-owned creative agencies you should know about’ or ‘Celebrating Women's History Month with women in design.’
