05. Valentina Vergara

Valentina Vergara is a NYC-based art director & designer, who’s interested in using visual communications as a catalyst for change. She’s collaborated on projects addressing gender disparity in graphic design education including her undergraduate thesis at Pratt, Led By Example, which was a (graphic design focused) campaign that rallied for more women at the head of our classrooms and more women included in the history of design education. As part of the campaign, two events took place—a one week installation called Missing Pages & the panel discussion called Against All Odds.

Valentina is also the co-author of Extra Bold: a feminist, inclusive, anti-racist, nonbinary field guide for graphic designers. She's interested in continuing to explore new ways of rethinking oppressive design norms while advocating for/uplifting marginalized perspectives.

In this episode, we discuss how design education can better address the needs of the students once they leave the field, Valentina's work on Extra Bold, and how her thesis project impacted a larger push for representation in design education.