Debunking Job Titles: Digital/Graphic designer at APRA AMCOS

We’ve all been there – standing at a networking event nodding like a doggy on a dashboard while some stranger rattles off a monolith of a job title, drawing a big fat blank.

Introducing Debunking Job Titles; a series that will de-mystify, decode and most importantly, debunk pesky industry doublespeak (or just simply clear up the difference between publicity and PR).

First up is Katherine McDonald who is the digital/graphic designer for APRA AMCOS.

 How does your mum describe what you do?

“Something creative”.

But seriously, what does a day in the life of a digital/graphic designer at a company like APRA AMCOS look like?

I can be searching for an Aussie animal to use across the next Sounds Australia campaign one minute, then turning around to pump out licensing forms the next.

Throw in the mix updating/troubleshooting our websites, and requests to design a coffee mug/poster/tea towel/zine/EDM on a tight turnaround and you have my day covered!

What’s is one thing about your job that is really obvious to you, but other people may not know?

“Make it pretty” is not a helpful brief. Especially if it’s a PowerPoint file. Those things are impossible.

“Can you save this PDF as a Word document?” Yes it’s possible, but you’re not going to like the results…

What’s the most important skill to have in your job?

Listening, and holding in the sighs until people are out of hearing range.

The thing you find most challenging about your job is…

Being the only in-house designer means doing it all, which often means juggling very tight deadlines.

Avoiding the snack table located next to my desk is a close second.

And the most rewarding part?

Snack table?

As a non-musician who loves music, I’m just happy to be able to do something to help to communicate with the public and our members the value of music.

What do you think is the biggest industry misconception about graphic designers?

It’s all creative fun stuff all the time.

There’s a lot of repetitive work involved once a great design has been locked down. Letterheads, EDMs, forms, templates, business cards, social media assets etc etc all have to come from somewhere.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given about working in the music industry:

Listen to and champion the music that you love. It’ll infect everything you do.

And give us one stellar piece of advice for anyone wanting to do your job:

I’ve been here for 13 years and not planning on going anywhere anytime soon!

However, if you want my job, be prepared to work with anyone and anything across any project you could possibly thing of and many you can’t. But you’ll have to fight me first.

Finally – when you look back at your career as a retired old prune, what do you hope to have achieved?

To have inspired healthier choices on the snack table.

Also, I’m genuinely excited by what our small Communications team is able to produce every day.

Do you have a cool job with a confusing title or know someone who does? Send us an email about a job title you’d like debunked!