Emma Hepburn - Art Director

How did you score your job at DOLLY?
I completed a 3 year Media Arts degree at Uni majoring in Graphic Design. I always knew I wanted to work in magazines so in my third year I did an internship at the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly (yep in NZ – that’s where I’m from!), after graduating they gave me a job as the junior designer. I worked my way up to senior designer position and also took on the role of Art Director at Creme magazine, which is a teen title for New Zealand girls. I loved working on Creme – it was too much fun to even feel like work. I got to be so creative, learnt so much & made lifelong friends during my two years working there.

I was on holiday in South Africa when my friend emailed me through the DOLLY job advertisement. I had just started to think I was ready for a new challenge so the timing was perfect. I wanted the job so much that I was actually pleased to be going home in two days so I could get on my laptop and send through my portfolio. I think I emailed it over 2 hours after landing back in the country! I was so surprised to get a quick response from Tiff, we had a few chats over the phone about the job and I flew over to meet her and have a look around the Dolly office. After she offered me the job I was so excited and rang everyone I knew, then had a big cry realising I had four weeks to pack up everything in NZ and move to Sydney – eeek!

What does your job involve?
With the help of my team, I put together all the layouts and design the ‘look’ of DOLLY. I have lots of meetings throughout the month with the writers & fashion girls going over their feature ideas and brainstorming how they are could look in the magazine. Once the writers have finished their stories they send us the text then we choose colours, fonts & images and put it all together.

What do you love most about working at DOLLY?
It’s so cool to be working on a title that I grew up with and to know that all our readers love and appreciate the work we do. The team of girls at DOLLY are so much fun, there’s nearly always some little chocolate treat to be found in the office (our art team are big into Freddos!) and everyday is different which keeps life exciting!

What’s the hardest part?
Even though it seems like having a whole month to put together an issue would be loads of time, it just seems like those deadlines come around so quickly! Sometimes it can be hard to keep coming up with new ideas and keep everything fresh when the workload of stories looks so overwhelming!

What advice do you have for anyone who wants to work at mags?
Definitely try and get work experience on a magazine. That way you get to see what its like to work there and the skills you will need, plus you make great connections which is really helpful later when you are looking for a job.

What’s next on your life to-do list?
Travel to New York and Paris, I’m just obsessed with those two cities at the moment – its time to go!