17/09/2026
Confessions of a Graphic Designer
If I could sit my 12 year old self down and tell her one thing about the 30+ years ahead, it would be this: you don’t need to have it figured out, you just need to keep adapting.
I’ve lived through some wild shifts as an ‘Elder Millennial’ designer. Uni files were saved onto 258MB floppy disks (no cap, that’s genuinely what they were called), and the colour wheel in Adobe Freehand, an early ancestor of Illustrator, was my constant companion through some seriously over complicated design work.
A few years after graduating, the Global Financial Crisis hit. Much like today, it made things brutal for graduates trying to get jobs. I went to interview after interview and kept hearing the same line: work for free as an intern, and maybe we’ll hire you in six months. I wasn’t willing to do that, so I cut my teeth in sign writing instead, learning to digitise graphics and replicate logos for the likes of Truck Smash Repairs. It was a blunt introduction to starting at the bottom and working your way up.
From there I moved through a small boutique studio, another sign writing company, and a product development business. Every one of those jobs taught me the same lesson: the most useful skill in any career is the ability to adapt and keep learning, especially here in New Zealand, where we all end up wearing five hats in any role we take.
This week my Year 10 son is choosing his Year 11 subjects, and we’re trying to help him navigate a job market that feels every bit as uncertain as the one I graduated into. It’s had me looking back at my own choices, and I keep landing on the same conclusion. Combine what you love with what you’re naturally good at, add a good work ethic and a bit of stubbornness, and you’ll land on your feet.
If now feels like the end of something and the start of something unknown, just remember you take all your life skills with you, and it will all work out.
