My job defies truly meaningful description

Further to my own letter (DW 26 May) and David Bernstein’s article (DW 23 June), I wonder how many of today’s designers could seriously sit down and write a job description for themselves.

I find myself not only taking on the role of a designer, but also a broad range of other responsibilities, such as Mac technician (how often do you call for support, only to find you have resolved the problem yourself, before anyone gets back to you?), a Microsoft Office consultant (to those in my local office vicinity who are less than PC literate), a copywriter, a Web designer, a copier technician, a corporate adviser (in the loosest possible sense), an animator, and all sorts of hitherto unknown job titles that could be attributed to anyone in the graphic design field.

I am at once, an artworker, a designer, a Mac operator, a Photoshop retoucher, a Web designer, a digital media designer, an illustrator, a typographer, a corporate designer, a packaging designer (to name but a few). Oh, and occasional coffee boy!

Let’s get things straight, I am not blowing my own trumpet, these are all things I am called upon to do. I have no doubt many other designers find themselves in exactly the same situation. It would be impossible to produce a comprehensive job description on a single A4 sheet.

When Bernstein quoted Voltaire – “the adjective is the enemy of the noun” – he was absolutely correct. Why don’t we all just drop the adjectives and get back to what we really are? Designers.

Or should that be Jack of all Trades?

Martyn Feather

Senior designer

Bunzl Fine Paper

martyn@papermark.co.uk