The PrintNZ Apprentice of the Year Myra Anderson’s has received the top honour at the 2017 Got A Trade? Got It Made! Industry Training Awards.
During the event, held at Parliament last week, Louise Upston, associate minister for tertiary education, skills and employment, presented Anderson with the Industry Trainee of the Year Award.
Fiona Kingsford, chief executive at Competenz, says the industry training organisation was incredibly proud of Myra’s achievements. Kingsford says of Anderson, “She’s a talented young woman and a wonderful ambassador for the print industry. Myra is someone to watch out for in future – I’m sure she will go far.”
Anderson says her three-year apprenticeship with Competenz gave her the skills, knowledge and confidence to turn print from a job into a career.
She works as a web and graphic designer at printing.com in Thorndon, Wellington, where she started eight years ago. She has continued to take on more responsibility and now manages the workflow in the design studio, runs weekly team meetings, facilitates training for sales and design staff around New Zealand, and creates revenue reports for the executive team.
She says, “With three designers in our Wellington studio working in a digital environment, the workload can get hectic. I’m here to manage internal and external expectations and make sure work is delivered on time.”
Project management has given her the opportunity to show her strengths. She exceeded expectations in her work with the Cancer Society of New Zealand to revamp the look and feel of the Daffodil Day campaign.
The organisation admits to being a slightly demanding client with requests that pushed the boat out but Anderson and her team consistently delivered high-quality products under budget.
She says, “We rolled out the new designs across magazines, newspapers, billboards, social media, digital campaigns and even Spotify. Seeing your design in a magazine, or walking down the street and seeing a billboard with your design is an amazing feeling.”
Originally from Hawkes Bay, she moved to Wellington when she finished high school to study a Diploma of Interactive Design. She says, “After finishing my diploma I was working at a women’s gym while trying to find an entry level job in interactive design, without work experience, in a highly saturated industry. It was pretty tough going.”
However, through this role, she made new contacts with suppliers, and secured a job as a print finisher. She says, “In 2009, print was just a job. But I was exposed to some amazing women working in the industry and began to realise this was what I wanted to do. This was my career. I saw opportunities and potential for me at printing.com and knew I was lucky to be working for such an innovative company.
“In 2013, the opportunity came up to take on a print apprenticeship – and it was a no-brainer. I have a real passion for ongoing education, I love learning new things, digging beneath the surface to see what makes things tick.”
She completed her New Zealand Certificate in Print in 2016 and she was named PrintNZ Apprentice of the Year 2016 at the Pride in Print Awards in Christchurch.
She says, “My apprenticeship has made me a better designer – the ability to talk about print to clients with ease and advise them on the best solution to their problems, the ability to trouble shoot problem files, the knowledge about correct file set-up, colour management, the ability to lead the design department as a source of knowledge, all have come from my apprenticeship and printing.com.”
She hopes to continue carving out her role at printing.com and hopes to one day become an art director.
