Women’s history is about so much more than what women have already accomplished. To keep making history, we have to continuously uplift and celebrate the women who are impacting creative fields.
Check out a few of the women who are shaping the future of creative expression through content, design, and development — and inspiring us to do the same.
1. Hélène Baum-Owoyele
Afropean graphic designer and illustrator Hélène Baum-Owoyele creates vibrant artwork for editorial pieces, advertising campaigns, and children’s books. You might have unknowingly admired her illustrations in major publications like The New York Times, Vox, and Harvard Business Review.
Hélène defines the mood of her artwork as having “a sense of collage and kaleidoscopic identity.” Not only does she draw inspiration from her diverse cultural background, she also draws inspiration from mythology, nature, textiles, art, and Black culture — and blurs the line between nature and magic. Hélène even teaches watercolor illustration classes that teach people how to “transform daily objects into whimsical characters.”
“Hélène Baum-Owoyele has inspired me to think about digital as an extension of physical art and design rather than its own separate category.”
2. Giorgia Lupi
When we hear the word “data” we’re more likely to envision charts and graphs than beautiful designs. But information designer Giorgia Lupi’s work says — why not both?
Rather than confining herself to cold, hard data — Giorgia takes a humanistic approach. She combines data with visual narratives and qualitative information that makes it more personal and approachable.
Take her data portraits project for a TED conference, for instance. Attendees responded to a set of simple but thought-provoking questions that were used to create designs that represented the views and opinions expressed by those responses.
Giorgia and her team developed a design system that connected responses to unique symbols, colors, shapes, and even the position of those elements. Then, either an automated system or Giorgia herself turned that data visualization into a wearable button. Attendees were encouraged to wear the buttons to spark conversations with others throughout the event.
“Her [Giorgia’s] work really resonated with me because it combined both the creative and analytical sides of my brain in a unique way I had never seen before. That combination is part of the reason why I started learning Webflow in the first place!”
3. Corita Kent
Artist, educator, and social justice advocate Corita Kent lived an interesting and impactful life. At 18, she took the religious name Sister Mary Corita and spent the next three decades working in both the religious and artistic worlds. During that time, Corita was commissioned to create art for major events like a Christmas display for IBM and a banner for the 1964 World’s Fair — all while continuing to teach and earn her master’s degree.
In 1968, Corita sought dispensation from her vows and left the Order of the Immaculate Heart of Mary on good terms. She continued to create art, leaning into her passion for social justice advocacy. Some say her work became more political because it showcased concerns about racism, poverty, and war. However, Corita claimed that her billboard design with the words “we can create life without war” was the most religious thing she had ever done.
“Corita Kent has such an unusual background and pathway into design. Her work demonstrates how design looks when it operates from a spirit of play and joy. To me, her legacy is equal parts social justice and undermining the establishment — which we need more of in design these days.”
Although Corita passed away in 1986, the Corita Art Center keeps her legacy alive and her work is still on display in institutions around the world.
4. Linda Rossi
Linda Rossi is an artist and college professor. Her exhibitions include large-scale photo installations along with video and sculpture. After teaching analog and digital photography courses at Carleton College for 20 years, Linda retired in 2021. Carleton celebrated Linda’s career along with two other retiring art professors with an exhibition highlighting their work.
“I loved how she thought outside of the box, allowed us creative freedom and experimentation, and inspired us through thought-provoking assignments...the joy she helped cultivate in her classes is the reason I pursued a master's degree in photojournalism, and why I still run a photography business today.”
Linda has left a mark on her students, as well as the art world. Her art has been featured in exhibitions around the world, and she maintains a permanent collection of her work at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
5. Hunter Harris
As a magazine, website, and TV writer, Hunter Harris is known for her work as a former staff writer at Vulture. But the women of Webflow are all about her newsletter, Hung Up.
Hunter’s relatable writing is voicey, curious, and designed for the extremely-online. You won’t find stuffy essays in the Hung Up archive. Every headline and summary feels like a text from a friend with openings like, “Love is Blind Thread: First of all, Nick Sweat Through His Suit” and “Adele did not take it easy on ME.”
“Hunter writes the type of content that you think only you are uniquely interested in. But knowing so many of us subscribe to Hung Up and patiently wait for it to hit our inbox any time a remotely big culture story breaks, she's forged a unique and hilarious community through her writing. I also am pretty sure she has reinvented the boundaries of what's possible for an email subject line.”
While her staff writing work focused mostly on pop culture, Hunter says Hung Up is for everything else — essays, gossip, love notes, recommendations, interviews, and more.
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Build completely custom, production-ready websites — or ultra-high-fidelity prototypes — without writing a line of code. Only with Webflow.
6. Aurelie Maron
As a lettering artist, Aurelie Maron creates unique typefaces, letter toolkits, and online courses about the art of lettering.
Aurelie’s typographic illustrations seem to defy reality, making letters look like they’re embroidered on the page or written in neon lights. Her skills truly turn letters into an art form.
“I'm constantly finding new designers and artists to follow on social media. One of my favorites I discovered recently is Aurelia Maron who does the most incredible typographic illustrations.”
7. Haley Nahman
Writer and editor Haley Nahman was once the deputy editor of Man Repeller and has appeared in publications like New York Magazine, New York Times, and The Guardian. Now Haley focuses on her weekly newsletter, Maybe Baby.
Weekly issues of Maybe Baby feature Haley’s essays, personal stories, and cultural critiques. One week you might get thoughtful musings about our lives being constantly observed and documented, then hear about Haley’s questionable decision to take on a new hobby the following week. It’s modern life, written beautifully.
“I’ve followed Haley Nahman since her Man Repeller days — RIP — and she was one of the first writers who inspired me to write personal essays, my first writing love. I feel a little smarter for about 15 minutes after reading her work, it’s truly an anomaly.”
8. Dani Dazey
Multidisciplinary designer Dani Dazey is known for her interior design work and encouraging clients to express themselves.
Dani combines her experience in textile and fashion with her knowledge of trends and colors to create unique interior designs. And because she is “refusing to limit herself to one craft” she also runs a fashion line, creates original artwork, and manages a blog through Dazey LA.
“I am a huge fan of Dani Dazey, who is a badass designer and entrepreneur based in LA. Besides just loving her maximalist style, she really inspires me as a businesswoman to pursue my passions and side projects.”
9. Alexis Lloyd
As a product design and innovation leader, Alexis Lloyd has designed experiences for companies like Medium and New York Times R&D Lab. She also co-founded Ethical Futures Lab, a biweekly newsletter that investigates and discusses emerging technologies.
“Alexis is a true systems thinker. She can see the ways our work on a screen affects a person in society who hasn't even heard of the product you make. Few people can do that, and even fewer people can articulate the ethics around those systems in a way that leads design as a discipline forward.”
Alexis continuously pushes for more thoughtful and ethical design, which often requires thinking about an entire system, not just the end-user’s experience. She explains that when you only consider the users, you risk ignoring the potential consequences of a design. For example, food and grocery delivery apps that are great for the users, but rely on a system of underpaid workers to function.
Alexis employs her passion for ethical design both in her practical design work as well as leadership roles like her previous role of VP of Product Design at Medium and her current role as a Senior Director of UX, Trust at Google.
“Alexis has been in the game for a long time, mostly as an executive at this point, but she's still a practicing designer. It's very important for designers to see themselves at the executive level without having to become a founder or switch into product management”
10. Ada Limón
Writer Ada Limón is an accomplished poet and copywriter. While it may seem strange for someone to author six poetry books while also doing advertising copywriting work, for Ada they serve different purposes.
In an interview with The Creative Independent, Ada explained that poetry and copywriting use “an entirely different part of the brain.” She goes on to say that with copywriting, she has fun playing with words but won’t get upset by cuts or changes. Cutting a line from a poem, on the other hand, “would be like losing a limb.”
“Ada is one one of my favorite poets, her work is one of the first that drew me into the world of poetry and inspired me to start writing my own.”
In addition to her writing work, Ada also hosts a poetry podcast, Slowdown. Each episode explores how poetry or even a single phrase can deeply affect us.
We want to be inspired by you
Whatever your passions are, we hope you are embracing them. If you’re already putting your work out there, consider submitting your site to Made in Webflow so you can inspire others.
