Journey in Heritage Council WA so far..

Hi all,

Continuing from my previous post, I have just done designing all the brochures and practice notes. It was not an easy task working with a not-so-familiar software (InDesign) and also appeared to be an older version of it while all these while I was exposed to the newer version of InDesign with much more tools and features. While designing the brochures and so, I came to learn a lot more about HCWA and the professionalism that need to be carried out at all time. For HCWA, as it belongs to an government department, it is crucial to have all the design be in exactly or almost the same design as their other formal documents such as Annual Report, newsletter or even formal letter. This is where I find it tricky. Their previous documents were all designed by a designated professional designer and I am just a newbie in the skills of designing or photo-shopping. My designs were requested to be edited again and again in order to match with other publications of HCWA. An important lesson I learnt from this is that it is extremely important to understand what objectives and goals you are to achieve from these publications. Only by understand what you would want to achieve, then you will have a clear mind of how to work things towards that goal.

Choosing an image to be used in the brochures appeared to be the biggest issue. Firstly, I have no understanding about the history or background of the heritage places or buildings. I would not know if it is the appropriate place to chose or if the place has undertaken the particular renovation. It took me about four to five days spending on going through all the listed heritage places and find the one that is to be publish in the brochures. However, as I have no knowledge in this area, many photos that I have chosen were not the right one. In the end, we have requested help from the manager of Development Department, Dr.Adelyn and manager of Assessments and Registrations, Penny.

Being different from corporates, in HCWA, everything that is going out to be public requires many levels of approval. From your department's manager, to a few other managers, and lastly executive director. This is due to the negative perception that public hold towards government departments. You must make sure that your publication has no flaw so that public will not have a chance to pick up any mistakes and turn it against the government departments!

Despite all the challenges that kicked in during my placement, I am glad that I have been learning day and day and getting better at my tasks. I am excited to see my work to be published soon!

Until my next post. Good luck everyone!

Janica