7 Women Web Designers Ready to Set the Web Design Industry on Fire

It’s the 21^st century and women are storming the workforce more than ever before, yet there are very few women making a name in the predominately male web design industry.

Consider the 2007 A List Apart  web design survey results that found that out of nearly 33,000 professionals who participated, 82.8% were male while only 16.1% were female (1.1% gave no answer).

Despite the stats, what captured my interest was that in a relevantly male-dominated industry there are 7 women that stand out and amaze with their web designs. These successful designers have battled the odds and have come up on top in the design industry! The women listed here are from all over the world and are setting the web design industry on fire…right where it counts the most!

Why so few women in the web design industry?

Source: ThinkStock/SergeyNivens

The women in the web design industry are fighting the status quo and the statistics. They cannot support each other or find inspiration from other female designers because there are only a handful of woman who can do both artwork and coding. Consider that while 60% of graphic designers may be women only 3% are computer programmers.

So seriously Kudos to these Fab Seven who have made a name and paved the way for more women to become web designers.

1. Saifaa Shabir, India  (Up and Coming!)

Touted as the youngest female entrepreneur in Kashmir, India to revolutionize web design, Saifaa has a company under the name Sysarche-e. She aims to create an effective web system and standardize the procedure, process, method, and produce a consistent, measurable web system in Kashmir. She will offer services in graphic designing including logos, brochures, brand and corporate identity, packaging design, identity guidelines and Communication designs, which include animation and 3D graphics.

2. Zsofi Koller, Canada Follow Zsofi on Twitter: @zsofikoller

Owner and creator director of Tangerine Sky Designs located in Lunenburg Canada, Zsofi provides women entrepreneurs with clean, open web designs with intelligent company branding that identifies the business for their customers. Her company is all about confidently expressing your brand by helping you make smart decisions. Zsofi provides full package branding, logo, web design and sometimes baking recipes.

3. Irene Nam, Republic of Korea

Irene previously worked in the United States at IBT Media, then decided to give it a go to a freelance career. The verdict is – she loves going solo. Her clients are happy with her and considers her work creative, professional and interactive. Her core strengths lie in web design and user interaction design where she seamlessly adds flow, depth and visual style to create unique layouts in her projects

4. Gisele Jaquenod, Norway  Follow Gisele on Twitter: @giselejaquenod

Gisele has been seen on Lee Monroe, Smashing Magazine, and Vandelay Design repeatedly for her blog designs for small businesses. With a Bachelor in Visual Communication Design, she taught designing until 2009 when she moved from Argentina to Norway. Her designs pop with colorful art work and cute features and she has even created several free blog templates. Her customers compliment her on her patience, keen eye for detail, and working quickly and efficiently once she helps you with your creative brief. Gisele understands the nuances of color and shape, and how these factors will impact the feel and tone of your brand.

5. Janna Hagan, Canada Follow Janna on Twitter: @_jannalynn

Janna the .net Young Designer of the Year Winner (2011) is on the list for 30-Must Follow Twitter accounts for web designers. She is a user interface designer for website and mobile application designs and makes them unique to reflect your brand. She has clients from all over the world some of the most notable being the National Breast Cancer Foundation of America, Consumer Media Network, and East London Royals Professional Baseball team. Janna’s background is in both design and marketing which brings a great mix to each new project.

6. Veerle Pieters, Belgium Follow Veerle on Twitter: @vpieters

Veerle has been the CEO of the company Duoh! since 1992 and chooses projects based on how well she connects with a company. Notable projects she has worked on in the past were Expression Engine 2.0’s GUI and the Library of Congress with interactive mini-websites. She totes that she became known in the industry because of her tutorials on CSS presented in her personal journal. She also runs panels at the SXSWi convention and in 2008 ended up on the NxE’s list of Fifty Most Influential Female Bloggers.

7. Inayaili de León Persson, England Follow Inayaili on Twitter: @yaili

Inayaili is the Lead Web Designer at Canonical, the company that delivers Ubuntu. She is a web designer with 8 years of industry experience, specializes in cross-browser, semantic HTML and CSS, and clean, functional design. She has written numerous articles about design in Smashing Magazine, London Chronicles, and A List Apart. Inayaili has spoken at several conferences including the London Web Standards 2011 and Smashing Conference 2013.

The seven women may not be well known but the contracts they have nabbed suggests they are quickly making their way to the top in an industry that is highly competitive. They are inspirations to all those other women who are contemplating careers and don’t even think about web design because it is not a ‘women’s’ field. Hello to you all. The above list proves the world bows to those who do!

Know of other women out there who are making it in the web design industry? Let us know and we will try to highlight them in another post!