Lara-Jane van Antwerpen on the visual identity for Empowerment of Women in Construction and Architecture

Tell us a bit about the event: what is the purpose and how did it come about? 

At Solus, ‘People, Product Planet’ are central to how we operate, and guide us in our decision making. Building Minds came from our focus on people. It’s a way to highlight social issues within the construction and A&D community. It’s a chance to come together to bring awareness and to speak about how we can help tackle these issues as a community. 

This year’s Building Minds, ‘Empowerment of Women in Construction and Architecture’, gave us the opportunity to talk about all the great things women have done, in what is heavily viewed as a male dominant line of work, as well as the challenges they’ve faced, and how they’ve overcome them. We hope this will inspire women who are working within the industry, or thinking of getting into it, as well as giving actionable points for both men and women within the industry to take away and implement.  

How do you go about developing a visual identity for an event? Is there a shared aesthetic between you and the rest of the team? 

Our Creative Director, Sam Frith, approached me to head the branding for this year’s Building Minds. We both share an affinity for collage-style artwork, a bold and simplistic Bauhaus style and (at least on my side) a bit of a punk rock Jamie Ried-style art. What’s more punk and 'anti-establishment' than a woman choosing to work in construction? 

He sent me work from Barbara Kruger. Her work uses black and white photography, bold imagery, and text with a signature colour. We felt this style fits well with our branding, but also is a style often used to shout political statements. Easy to read, bold and memorable. 

Tell us about the process for developing the visual identity. What ideas did not make the cut? Which elements are you happiest with? 

A basic outline of the process for these kinds of projects is, we get an initial idea, the graphics team scurry away and come up with loads of rough ideas, then we have group meetings and discuss different pathways to take, and eventually, we land on the final idea. 

This wasn’t much different to the norm. After my meeting with Sam, I went away with lots of ideas in my head. The main ones were a bold aesthetic. Sam had this great idea of a returning motif; we discussed using an equal’s sign to symbolise equality. I also wanted the artwork to be educational, to teach people an example of something great women have done, something for women to celebrate like “hey, did you know this is an image of a building only built by women!” 

But to do that I had to educate myself first! I started googling famous female architects and construction figures from history. I started collecting images and making collages of female architects from different eras, before deciding it was simpler to focus on one person – less is always more.  

For the first concept, I initially focused on Louise Blanchard Bethune, often referred to as the first known female architect. I chose yellow as my colour (bold, fun, gender neutral), carrying on the Equals symbol motif. While we liked the message, we felt like the story could be stronger. Katie Mitchelmore, our Brand Manager, had the great idea of the Waterloo Bridge, nicknamed the Ladies’ Bridge because it was built by 350 women in WW2. I found an amazing image of a lady referred to as Dorothy welding the Waterloo Bridge. It was when this photo was unearthed, along with three others, that helped prove women had in fact played a huge role in the construction of the bridge.  

And then the biggest decision of all... the colour…To pink or not to pink? That was the question! We wanted the bold colour pop to be linked to our branding. We have lots of great choices, one being pink. But was pink too obvious? Was it fun or was it patronising? After many meetings and artwork iterations, we landed on our blue and grey branding. Blue, these days, is often considered a ‘masculine’ colour, and we liked the juxtaposition play on that. I also liked the link of the blue and grey overalls that women wore to work in during the war. 

The on the grid off the grid style was my way of nodding towards the punk aesthetic but still keeping it tidy and easy to look at. A singular bold equals sign to drive home to purpose of the event and a subtle line telling you the story or the Ladies’ bridge. 

How did you get into graphic design? Tell us a bit about your career. 

I grew up with Dyslexia when It wasn’t really known about. When I was at school, I tended to excel in class but not in tests, so I was placed in pretty low sets and ended up doing after school classes to match my real abilities. I found I excelled in more artistic classes, (drama, art textiles) and I had a weird draw to business studies - I liked the idea of studying consumers and the concept of a brand. I was going through my early 2000s emo phase and used to spend all my nights ignoring homework to edit my Myspace page.  

When I got to break free from high school, I had no idea what I could do, so I decided on a creative mix. I knew I liked the being on the computer, so I took up Graphic Design. Then I was like “god, what skills do I need for that??” So, I did photography and media studies alongside it. I quickly left for a Graphic Design B-tech course instead. From here, I went to university, where I learnt there are three types of graphic job. Freelance, agency and inhouse. I prefer the security of inhouse working, I like getting to know a brand and the challenges of being creative within the limits of a brand identity.  

I got my job at Solus way back in 2016 as a Junior Graphic Designer. I’ve learnt so much since being here and being part of all the different phases of the company. There’s so much more than just tiles and I love the exciting projects I get to be part of.