Beat That If You Can! – “Slanted #12 – Women, Typography, Graphic Design” is a stage for extraordinary and intelligent projects by women. This is not a very special thing. For our focus on visual culture it’s all the same whether a (typo-) graphic work has been realized by a female or a male being. But it’s undeniable and strange that still only very few women are visible in graphic design (more) and typography (less). We want to contribute to more visibility for at least some female type and graphic designers – design by women is at least just as well. Beat That If You Can!

With great pleasure we present the work of Ariane Spanier (Berlin), Julia Born (Amsterdam) and Verena Gerlach (Berlin), the photographic essays “Brides of Krishna” by Kalpesh Lathigra (dmbmedia / London) and “Female Marines” from the archives of the U.S. Marine Corps as well as contemporary typefaces, illustrations and graphic projects by female designers. Type essays by Laure Boer (Berlin) and Gerda Breuer/Julia Meer (Wuppertal) are dealing with the role of women in graphic design and typography and outline a corresponding history. Numerous interviews with Verena Gerlach (Berlin), Ariane Spanier (Berlin, Nadine Chahine (Bad Homburg), Veronika Burian (Prag), Laura Worthington (Washington), Kapitza (London), Geneviève Gauckler (Paris), Esen Karol (Istanbul), Akiko Kanna (Tokyo) and Susanne Baer (Tokyo) as well as the second part of the Tokyo report by Ian Lynam (Tokyo), a musical travelogue and a paper report round up stuff to read.