"It can get a bit stressful in the lead up to a print deadline"

Hometown
Northampton

What do you do?
Graphic design and new media manager at Royal & Derngate

Have you got qualifications?
Art foundation and a degree in visual communication

What did you do before you worked in theatre?
Since leaving university I have worked for a graphic design agency and also a publishing house

How did you make the move to working in theatre?
I just saw the vacancy advertised and went for it! The fundamental part of my job as a graphic designer doesn’t really change from industry to industry, so it was really more of a case of learning about the way a theatre operates on a day-to-day basis as well as learning more about the website side of things as I previously had fairly limited experience in this.

What did you want to be when you grew up?
Was never really sure but definitely something to do with drawing! Had a spell when I wanted to be a fashion designer for a few years.

What do you do all day?
A typical day (as far as there is one) would probably involve a bit of design work – possibly on our season brochure, or some other print (eg flyers, posters, newsletters etc), designing adverts for local press, sometimes designing promotional items such as stickers or t-shirts, possibly making moodboards and looking at new concepts for upcoming shows, updating the website, making sure all shows on sale are up to date and possibly liaising with the web company about any problems with the website, designing email adverts and sometimes helping out with promoting the shows to the public.

What’s the best thing about your job?
Definitely designing images for new shows and also working on the big season brochures. And also the variety–no day is ever really the same.

And the worst?
It can get a bit stressful in the lead up to a print deadline. And I suppose some of the technical web issues because I’m still kind of learning them as I go on.

What’s your dream job in theatre?
I’m doing it!

Got any wise words for someone who wants to be where you are now?
Start out by doing a course in graphic design and once you’ve finished that, try and get as much experience in different areas of design as possible to build up a really varied portfolio. It’s been very useful to me to have had a go at lots of different kinds of projects and design work prior to working here because you never know what you’ll be designing next! I think the fact that I’d done that rather than spending the last five years solely concentrating on one area of design has definitely been beneficial to me.