As a Certified Woman Owned Business, we love celebrating the brilliance, vision, and diversity of the female mind — especially when applied to creative problems.

Studiolo Secondari has been sharing the work and stories of brilliant women in design, culture, and the arts weekly through our "Women Wednesdays" social media series.  During this Women's History Month, we will take a deeper look at some of the figures we’ve highlighted in our #WomenWednesday series to offer you another chance to celebrate these brilliant girl bosses!

Nina Simone (1922-2003)

Musician and civil rights activist, Simone  pioneered a career that shattered the norms of the music industry in the early 1960s and throughout the rest of her lifetime. Rolling Stone wrote, upon naming Simone the 29th greatest singer of all time, “her honey-coated, slightly adenoidal cry was one of the most affecting voices of the civil rights movement.”

Born Eunice Waymon, the legendary singer was involved with music from the very beginning. From playing the piano at her church at the age of five to making the honor roll at her school, Simone excelled where she put her energy. She received formal training as a classical pianist, paid for by benefactors who recognized her talent, and earned a scholarship for one year to Julliard. She taught private lessons before going on to perform at jazz clubs in Philadelphia, at which point she adopted the name we know so well. She soon signed with Bethlehem Records, using the proceeds from her first album to further her classical training and moved to New York. There, she made a name for herself as a jazz vocalist, though her influences and training spurred her to cross and blur genres, as a singer and pianist.

In the 1960s she joined the Civil Rights Movement, writing many protest songs, as well as performing and speaking at marches and protests. As a result, she was boycotted by the American Music Industry, and she subsequently left the country. She continued to release music, though she slowly stopped performing as much. Despite the slowdown near the end of her career, Simone’s legacy lives on strongly, inspiring many other musicians after her. In 2008 she was listed as one of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine, and in 2018 she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)

“High Priestess of Modernism”, Woolf was an innovative, highly prolific essayist, novelist, and diarist known for pioneering the stream-of-consciousness narrative device. Along with reflecting the turbulence of the inter-war period in which she lived, her work also addressed the status of women in society, resulting in her dual-spired legacy in both modernism and feminism.  

Born to a picture-perfect Victorian family of writers, painters, and photographers, Virginia Woolf’s first major accomplishment was running a family newspaper at the age of nine. Suffering through numerous tragedies, as well as a lifelong battle with mental illness, Woolf channeled her energies into her writing, ultimately transforming the art itself. She introduced a more holistic approach that allowed for expressions of humanness that were often absent from Victorian novels. Woolf was a part of the Bloomsbury Group, where she met her husband Leonard Woolf. Together they established the Hogarth Press, publishing their own writing alongside that of writers like T.S. Eliot and Katharine Mansfield.

Woolf made a name for herself through her prolific writing, her distinctive style earning the respect of her peers. She penned essays, spoke at universities and colleges, and played a prominent role in the 1970s feminist critical movement. Along with being a household name, Woolf, along with her works, holds a strong place in pop culture, inspiring numerous writings, plays, as well as the creation of the Bechdel Test.

Jackie Ormes (1911-1985)

As the first syndicated African American female cartoonist, Ormes created bold, witty comics that pushed back against stereotypical depictions of young women of color in the mainstream media.

Born in Pittsburg, Ormes expressed artistic inclinations from an early age, publishing comics in her school’s yearbooks. She got her first job at The Pittsburgh Courier, proofreading and reporting, eventually running her own cartoon Torchy Brown in Dixie to Harlem, 1937. A stark contrast to the racist, and frequently male-centered depictions in most published comics at the time, Torchy Brown followed the adventures of a young Mississippi girl in New York City, singing at jazz clubs, searching for romance, and struggling against the evils of contemporary society. Another series, Candy, about a witty housemaid, ran in the Chicago Defender for four months.

Ormes’ most well-known series, Patty-Jo ‘n’ Ginger, ran in the Courier for nine years, was ripe with caustic social and political commentary on life as African-Americans, as well as depicting young black women as fashionable, beautiful, and funny. Inspired by the success of the characters, Patty-Jo dolls were made, the first of their kind not influenced by stereotypes, but rather seen as “role models” for young black girls. Ormes provided positive representation for young girls at a time where there really wasn’t anything else out there for them, and she paved the way for future black female cartoonists. She was also a founding member of the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago. Ormes was posthumously added to the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame in 2014, and her works are held at the Library of Congress.

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It’s been a minute, wanna catch up?

I've taken a break from my regular newsletter recently,  but a lot has been happening + I'd love to tell you all about it! My team and I are ready and able to help out with designing big, complicated book projects or developing design strategies that include branding, messaging, and ongoing digital communications. Feel free to grab some time to chat about your next project or just to say "hello"!

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Studiolo Secondari is a certified woman-owned design studio focused on the practical and strategic business aspects of branding and publishing. We offer stylish and intelligent design solutions for organizations seeking to drive storytelling in print, web, and digital communications to showcase their message to the world.

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