If we want to rewrite the history of design, we must take its beginnings into account. The period before the Bauhaus, the importance of “arts and crafts,” and, above all, the achievements of women in graphic design have long been neglected in the presentation of German design history. UN/SEEN brings together previously unknown material and sheds light on the lives and work of female designers in the fields of book design, poster design, typography, illustration, and packaging.

In ten chapters, UN/SEEN documents the latest research findings and uses numerous examples to show how successful and self-confident the first generation of female graphic designers was and which discourses from that time still shape the discipline today. UN/SEEN questions traditional narratives and contributes to the discussion about design and gender with new role models.