Design Skills: Learn or Fail in PR.

Know your computer skills!

When working in PR you need to be a jack of all trades, but one skill which I found is not covered at all in my PR education at Curtin University is how to effectively design promotional documents and use basic web tools.

So far in my internship I have had to design:

• A promotional poster for the HBF Run for a Reason
• The entry ticket for the Arthritis WA Ball
• Design the list of auction prizes for the Arthritis WA Ball
• Create three different generic promotional posters for Arthritis Albany
• Create a promotional image appropriate for Facebook for the advertisement of the fundraising entertainment book 
• Create a banner for the webpage advertising the Arthritis WA Ball
• Two online newsletters 
• a new banner for the website and implement it into the site

All of this was created with the aid of Microsoft Publisher, MailChimp Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. Luckily I studied Applied Information Technology (AIT) for my TER so am competent enough with all of these programs to get by. However my experience with Arthritis WA has now inspired to to look into further advancing my computer skills through further education.

While incredibly difficult design projects, such as the formatting of the Arthritis Today magazine, are sent out to design specialists, the PR section is expected to create most basic designs.

While words are a PR graduates greatest weapon, and correctly formatted visual document is also vitally important. It can be such an powerful and simple way to communicate with your stakeholders. It is highly likely that most of us graduates will be asked to create posters, brochures, information sheets, online newsletters, and various other pieces.

Being competent with computer programs is another vital skill for graduates. During my internship I have also been asked to edit the foundation’s website and create two of the monthly newsletters through MailChimp. Fortunately I have a large amount of experience in editing websites so I did not struggle on that front. However the program MailChimp was completely foreign to me, so I had to spend quite some time learning how to use it. 

I feel that it is so vitally important for any PR graduate to have the appropriate design and computer skills when they graduate.

In the 2013 article written by the PRIA titled ‘3 Skills any PR Pro Needs’ the top two skills were photoshop and design. 

To have a look at the article, follow this link: http://www.pria.com.au/priablog/3-skills-any-pr-pro-needs

This further proves that PR graduates need to have the necessary computer skills in order to survive. It would be very useful if basic design and web skills were taught at Curtin so us graduates could enter the workforce with the appropriate computer skills. 

Since there is probably not enough time or space in the degree to fit this in, I would highly recommend to all of my fellow almost graduates to consider looking at simple youtube tutorials in design. It could be the difference between getting that dream job and missing out!

Do you feel as though you have the appropriate design and  computer skills to work in PR?

Let me know what you think,

Jacqueline Bagshaw.