Every year, Mohawk College celebrates International Women’s Day (IWD) on March 8, proudly recognizing the hard-working women who continue to make their mark on society. Students from the Graphic Design program create posters featuring outstanding women in their industries. This year, our International Women’s Day poster project is presented in partnership with the Ontario Building and Construction Trades Association (OBCTA).
These posters are created by Graphic Design students at Mohawk College, and they feature many of the incredibly talented women who have joined the skilled trades. Leif Peng, Professor for the Graphic Design program at Mohawk College, explained the process behind the posters.
“Our partners at the OBCTA provide us with the tradeswomen, their names and their contact information. Then we ask them for some nice photos that they're happy with. We also ask the tradeswomen to write an autobiographical paragraph so that we know, in the context of the entire post a project, not just who this person is and what their skilled trades job is, but their journey,” said Leif. “We think that's really important because, I don't think very many people realize that women only make up about 5% of all skilled trades people. It's a shockingly small demographic. So, every single tradeswoman's story is an important one.”
“Once we have all that reference material, my students set about designing what's called a montage. It's more than just a portrait. It's a combination of a portrait and that woman doing her work, in hard hat and gear, doing whatever iron work, bricklaying, welding, or whatever their career might be,” he continued. “We want to demonstrate to our audience not just ‘here's this person with a nice portrait,’ but also, ‘and this is what she does.’ Ultimately, our goal is to convey to everyone, but very specifically to young women and girls who maybe would never consider skilled trades, that these are your role models. These women did this, here's their story and this is what they do.”
Leif believes that taking an illustrated angle, instead of photography, adds weight and depth to the project. “Something like this, if the government we're doing this or even if a college was doing it as a promotional thing, they would probably use photography and there's nothing wrong with photography,” said Leif. “But what we want to convey to people is the value of art. We want to take this graphic design communications message into another realm entirely. Artists are people who have made a massive skilled trades commitment of their own, a lifetime commitment sometimes to learn.
“When an artist actually takes the time and trouble to paint a portrait of someone, there is this sense out there in the broader public that, ‘wow, this person must be someone special to deserve their portrait to be painted,’” he continued. “Kings and queens, presidents and prime ministers, CEOs of major corporations. That's what you think of when you think of painted portraits. But when you see these portraits painted on the wall, you see these are, for all intents and purposes, I guess what people would call regular people, right?”
The project is designed to spark ideas and opportunities that some young women may not even imagine are possible. “The skilled trades are not typically a career option for a lot of young women and girls, they just don't even think about it. Maybe they have a dad or an uncle or a brother in the skilled trades, but many of them may not think, ‘I could do that,’” said Leif. “It is hard work. But at the same time, if they see these examples, they see these posters, then maybe that's the catalyst. Maybe that's the thing that sort of pushes them to think, ‘Hey, you know what? If that woman could do that, I could do that.’ That's what we really hope, is that these posters provide the inspiration that potentially could change a life for the better.”
According to Leif, this is a project where everyone involved can feel like they’ve come away recognized and having gained something. “The importance of this project is that it's about social change. It's about equity, and it's about valuing people. That's what it's really all about, valuing people. Both the people who are creating this project and the people who are the subject of this project, and then ultimately the people who will receive this project and hopefully take something positive away from it.”
Original paintings and finished posters will be showcased in a month-long gallery exhibition at the Workers Arts & Heritage Centre in Hamilton.
Posters: Left to right: Poster 1- Featuring Lea Jacobson, Pipe Welder Apprentice. Designed by Graphic Design student Nayah Mistry. Poster 2 - featuring Reta Swift, Carpenter. Designed by Graphic Design student Wendi Nie. Poster 3 - featuring Melissa Hill, Sheet Metal Worker.
