Lost Time project returns to highlight the gender pay gap

Lost Time, a print project launched last year, has returned to highlight the UK's 15.5 per cent gender pay gap.

Designed by Alice Murray, an associate partner at Pentagram, and Lauren Priestley, creative director at Redwood, the B1 print is a calendar that begins on 27 February – the date on which, given the gender wage disparity, women effectively first get paid in 2021.

Since the project's launch in 2020, the gender pay gap has seen mild improvement. The disparity has fallen from 17.3 per cent, with the gap having closed up by 5 days – it now stands at 57 days that women effectively work for free.

Priestley and Murray stress, however, that the figures do not currently account for Covid.

"As soon as you see data visually represented, it comes to life making the problem accessible to all,” says Murray. “We believe in the power of design to make change. It feels like now people are ready to listen, and speak up, for change. The status quo has been the status quo for too long.”

“We chose a wall calendar because it was something that could serve as a powerful daily reminder,” adds Priestley. “This conversation shouldn't just be about the money women lose to the gap, as is so often the focus. After all, time is money.”

All profits from the print are being donated to organisations that work with women in the creative industries: Ladies, Wine & Design, Creative Equals, and Designers Speak (Up). The project is also operating a scheme whereby anyone buying two prints can have one sent directly to their CEO with an anonymous note.

The print uses the new Rail Alphabet typeface, designed by A2 type in collaboration with Margaret Calvert. The typeface is a revival of the British Rail alphabet that Calvert created in the early 1960s.

Source: www.losttimeproject.com

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