Three inspirational women in the creative industry

For International Women’s Day, we’ve chosen three female creatives we think have made an inspiring and powerful impact in their industry, leading the way for women across the world.

Tina Roth-Eisenberg

Residing in Brooklyn, USA, Tina Roth-Eisenberg is a Swiss designer behind the inspirational and entertaining Swiss Miss blog.

Tina also founded and runs Creative Mornings, which brings people together in 214 cities across 65 countries.

She also founded Tattly, a shop of beautifully designed temporary tattoos. Co-created TeuxDeux, a to-do app to help us all be a little more productive. Oh and also founded and runs a co-working space called FRIENDS in Brooklyn.

Wow, just wow.

Tina’s enthusiasm for sharing ideas and creativity, nurturing community and bold approach to problems is something to be marvelled at. Her motto is “Let’s flip it” when faced with a problem or issue, rather than complaining or giving in to defeat, Tina looks for the good which can come out of it. When she was too busy and had a crazy to-do list, instead of crumbling, she chose to create an app to help herself and everyone else.

Tina’s top tips:

1. “Flip it” – You can either start complaining and feeling sorry for yourself or you can channel all of that frustration into how can we look at this from a different angle and make it to something good.
2. Choose wisely who you surround yourself with – You need to feel rewarded by your relationships with people and not be afraid to end the ones which drain you.
3. Give zero fucks – Don’t be afraid to be ruthless. If somebody doesn’t have good intentions, or if somebody can’t be happy for you, then something needs to change.

Mira Kaddoura

Mira Kaddoura is a Lebanese-Canadian conceptual artist, who has consistently promoted and empowered women throughout her career. Mira has worked in advertising for seventeen years, ten of which were spent with Wieden+Kennedy.

It was here that she helped create famous work like Nike’s “Real Women” campaign and Nike “I Feel Pretty” commercial, as well as “The Girl Effect: The Clock is Ticking” film for the nonprofit The Girl Effect.

The “I Feel Pretty” campaign in 2006 was the first time that Nike featured a female athlete in a big TV spot. Up until that point, only male athletes were getting all the money!

Mira Kaddoura then went on to found Red & Co, a female-founded, strategically-minded, technology-forward, creatively ambitious agency in Portland. One of the agency’s first projects was creating ‘Made with Code’ for Google. This is, to date, one of the search engine’s most important and ambitious marketing efforts to date, helping teach millions of young women to love code.

Top tips from Mira

1. Trust your gut – Sometimes you know in your gut when it’s time to try new things, push yourself to take a few risks and see what else is out there.
2. Push yourself – Figuring out who you are gives you the confidence to put yourself out there, take some risks and do things that make you vulnerable. When you’re comfortable, it’s hard to push yourself to learn new things.
3. ‘Digital’ isn’t a separate discipline – Everything is digital. Technology has fundamentally changed every industry in the last five to ten years.

Jo Arscott

Jo Arscott became Britain’s first black female Creative Director in 1990, flourishing in a male-dominated industry by simply ‘being herself’. Her career in the advertising industry has focussed on understanding the personal and political challenges of the global consumer and the emotional and authentic brand connections needed to bridge those gaps.

“I’m all about culturally relevant experiences that drive purchase, loyalty – and ultimately, improves lives.”

Jo has worked with brands including Coca-Cola and Proctor & Gamble to help them promote diversity though-out the UK, North America, Europe, and the Middle East.

She has also been a judge for the D&AD Awards and also mentors, lecturing at UAL: Saint Martins College of Art, The American University in Dubai and The University of Gloucester to advising businesses on creative diversity challenges.

Her biggest inspirations have been Boy George, for his outspokenness, individual dress sense and not fitting into ‘acceptable’ public camps. And Margaret Thatcher for being a strong female lead in a male-dominated world. In terms of inspirations from the advertising world, Jo looked to individualists like Trevor Beattie, Graham Fink, Dave Droga.

Top tips from Jo

1. For a successful advertising career – Be yourself. Follow your instincts. Understand the politics.
2. Authentic diversity -Show diversity in your work authentically. No more ‘colour collages’ of people.
3. Design is EVERYTHING – Your phone, the roads, your dress – it’s a never-ending education.