Oh The Places

As designers, we have a responsibility to better the world around us in any way we can, or to consider the implications or power our designs can have. We have a responsibility to facilitate conversations, easy and difficult in nature, and question the limitations and shortcomings of our cultures. Oh The Places is a publication highlighting and commenting upon the stereotypes women commonly face in the workplace and the business world. With a use of bright pink and its diminutive printed size (5"x7"), the book reinforces the view that women are constantly viewed as falling into one stereotype or another and that the issue is not taken seriously in many cases; stereotyping women in the workforce has, until recently, been often brushed aside or considered a minor cost of business, and it is only in the past couple years that these practices and cultural norms have begun to be challenged. In Oh the Places I seek to further challenge this issue. I contrasted Dr. Seuss' Oh the Places You'll Go against comments and articles about stereotyping faced by the working woman as a way to reinforce the false assumptions women face, both for themselves and by others. Oh the Places You'll Go, as a book read by young children, gives a message of hope, declaring that you can be anything you set your mind to, but so many women have found this to be ridiculed and a falsehood when they have reach the business world, as represented by type that wriggles out of its expected lines and breaks as it is read. I am to raise awareness and concern by creating a satire of this concept of, "being anything one puts one's mind to," by pitting it against the stereotypical realities faced by many women in the workforce; Pink to represent the stereotype that women can only be women and will eventually leave their careers for motherhood. Grey to represent the cold, classical business world that keeps them within these boxes of prejudice. The book is laid out on a grid, with figures to mimic a business report or presentation, and to further emphasize the cold and clean classifications many women face. Oh The Places was designed in Adobe InDesign. Credit to Dr. Seuss for Oh The Places You'll Go, with additional content taken from Leslie Bennetts, "The Scarlet A" as featured in Elle magazine; Lydia Dishman, "The 'Bitch in the Boardroom' Stereotype: Women Speak Out About Success and Likability" as featured in Fast Company; Jenna Goudreau, "The 10 Worst Stereotypes about Power Women" as featured in Forbes; and Sylvia Ann Hewlett, "Do Women Leaders Walk a Tightrope To Be Seen As Effective and Likable?" as featured in Entrepreneur.

Oh the Places Cover Oh the Places Inside Preview Oh the Places Inside Preview