Becky Lee

Design Manager, Hagadone Media & Creative

How long have you been in creative/visual journalism, and how did you get your start?

1978 is the year I signed up for this shindig. I was 17, a few months shy of graduating from high school in Coeur d’alene, Idaho. My high school Distributive Education Clubs of America teacher Terry Herr reminded me that I needed a job to get a credit in his class and graduate.

When I applied for a part-time, minimum-wage position at the local newspaper, the ad director said I was a natural after a simple instruction to make an ad on a graph sheet of paper. I didn’t know anything. I got the job. That was 44 years ago. We didn’t have computers. We had a pica pole, pencils, wax machines, clip art and a proportional wheel scale.

I was instantly fascinated with the whole industry. I started asking other employees in all departments, “What do YOU do? Can you show me how you do it? Why are you doing this? Did you go to college? What is that button for? Why is there a dial there? What is a pica, and why do I need a pole to measure it?”

I began to understand the immense responsibility the hometown newspaper had to provide news and information to our community, how many people it took to complete this task of gathering news and information every day and my role in that responsibility.

What gets (and keeps) your creative juices flowing?

My design employees are so damn talented and such a great, diverse mix of all ages and talents. They teach me something new daily. Hagadone Media & Creative (HMAC) employs about 10 graphic designers producing on average 300 pieces of design from the Hagadone Corporation’s communication division’s 13 weekly and daily newspapers across four states: Washington, Idaho, Montana and Hawaii.

Anything our organization’s 60+ salespeople sell, my team designs. We have a steady and profound amount of design work driven by salespeople and their customers in a time-sensitive, deadline-driven environment.

Now I mostly manage, encourage and teach our designers how to gracefully maneuver through this complicated process with multiple databases and many software programs. When I do take on a handson project myself, like Coeurvoice, once a week, it’s a fun treat, and I cherish that time. Coeurvoice is a TMC product addition to the Coeur d’alene Press, telling stories and sharing

unique content for readers of all ages. The Coeur d’alene Press prints about 16,000 of these six-to-eight-page publications each week for insertion into the Saturday newspaper for subscribers, stuffing with advertising inserts and direct mailing to nonsubscribers in the county. It’s so dang much fun doing the page layout design for these stories. Most columns are by local writers and enjoyed by the community.

What advice do you have for young professionals starting out in the creative field?

I learned long ago that what people think of me is none of my business, so don’t take everything personally. If someone doesn’t like your design work, don’t take it personally. There are many more who will love it and appreciate it.

Knowing the big picture of how all the news and information reaches people is important. Advertising design isn’t about what YOU want to do. It’s a mix of who is paying for what, how much time you have to do it and who and how many people see it. It’s also about a paycheck so do the very best you can, with what you have to work with, in the time you have to do it. Do not waste your employer’s money. Time and money are precious commodities. Do not take them from others; earn them yourself. It’s the most rewarding feeling in the world!

Work hard and tap into your inner creative soul; use the gift God gave you. Practice reading someone’s mind, listen to their emotions, ask them what they are passionate about and listen carefully. Be willing to compromise your vision for a design to create something beautiful and wonderful for them that they will love and admire!