Ellen Lupton & Jennifer Tobias 
Extra Bold 
A Feminist, Inclusive, Anti-racist, Nonbinary Field Guide for Graphic Designers

Extra Bold is the inclusive, practical, and informative (design) career guide for everyone!
Part textbook and part comic book, zine, manifesto, survival guide, and self-help manual, Extra Bold is filled with stories and ideas that don’t show up in other career books or design overviews.


• Both pragmatic and inquisitive, the book explores power structures in the workplace and how to navigate them.

• Interviews showcase people at different stages of their careers.

• Biographical sketches explore individuals marginalized by sexism, racism, and ableism.

• Practical guides cover everything from starting out, to wage gaps, coming out at work, cover letters, mentoring, and more.


A new take on the design canon.

• Opens with critical essays that rethink design principles and practices through theories of feminism, anti-racism, inclusion, and nonbinary thinking.

• Features interviews, essays, typefaces, and projects from dozens of contributors with a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds, abilities, gender identities, and positions of economic and social privilege.

• Adds new voices to the dominant design canon.


Written collaboratively by a diverse team of authors, with original, handcrafted illustrations by Jennifer Tobias that bring warmth, happiness, humor, and narrative depth to the book.
Extra Bold is written by Ellen Lupton (
Thinking with Type), Farah Kafei, Jennifer Tobias, Josh A. Halstead, Kaleena Sales, Leslie Xia, and Valentina Vergara.

About the author

Jennifer Tobias is a scholar and illustrator. She holds a Ph D in art history from the City University of New York, an MLS from Rutgers University, and a BFA from Cooper Union. She served as a librarian at the Museum of Modern Art and Parsons School of Design.