Graphic Icons: Visionaries Who Shaped Modern Graphic Design

Cipe Pineles

1908–1991 | BORN: Vienna, Austria | EDUCATION: Pratt Institute

Became the first female art director of a mass-market American magazine

Inducted into the New York Art Directors Club and elected to its Hall of Fame as the first woman

Hired fine artists to illustrate mainstream magazines

Today, women make up around half of the graphic design profession. But when Cipe Pineles was looking for her first design job, prospective employers were interested in her portfolio—until they learned that the unusual first name belonged to a woman.

She eventually became an assistant to Condé Nast’s art director Mehemed Fehmy Agha in 1932, and would ...