This article first appeared in the November issue of Australian Printer.

Diana Nikolic, business development executive at Ball & Doggett Adelaide and Women in Print’s South Australian patron, talks to Australian Printer about her pathway to print and how she’s encouraging other creative minds to consider a career in print: 

Q: Can you tell us a little about your career prior to joining Ball & Doggett?

Diana Nikolic (DN): I studied Visual Communications and Graphic Design at the University of South Australia when I first finished school. After that, I did a bit of travel overseas and lived in London. When I came back 15 months later, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, so I went back to university and studied a masters in management and business administration.

After finishing my masters, I wanted to get into administration management. I started working in an administration role in the emergency department at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. In 2017, I joined Adelaide-based commercial printer Finsbury Green and was there for about three years.

My role at Finsbury was a little bit of everything – customer service, account management, as well as assisting on the production side. In 2021, I joined Ball & Doggett in a customer service role initially, which was great because it exposed me to all aspects of the business – from taking orders, understanding how the warehousing system works, as well as getting to know some of the clients.

Once I started working closely with the account managers and building relationships with clients, that’s when I started thinking that maybe that is my area of expertise. I never thought I would be in sales, but I loved the relationship management side of my role, which is then what prompted me to move into my current role as business development executive in 2022.

Q: What do you enjoy most about your role at Ball & Doggett?

DN: I would have to say the relationship management side of my role – building and fostering relationships that we have with our key customers is what I enjoy most. Working in this industry also allows me to get back to my creative side – being able to share ideas with designers and have a bit of input on the creative process is also really rewarding. 

Q: Can you talk about your involvement with Women in Print?

DN: I’ve been the South Australian patron for Women in Print since January 2024.
I had been to a few Women in Print events in Adelaide prior to becoming patron and was encouraged by [former South Australia patron] Sandy Aspinall to apply.

I was a bit apprehensive at first, but it has been a great experience and exposure
to the print community in Adelaide. Similarly, like my role at Ball Doggett and building relationships, I love being able to help bring the print community together.

Our Women in Print breakfast in Adelaide was a sellout this year, as well as our highest attended, which we are proud of. We also recently hosted our annual Print & Prosecco evening. It has been really rewarding to see these events grow year-on-year and attract a variety of people from the industry, whether it be management or floor staff – these events are for everyone.

We’ve even had design students attend, which is great, to be able to open their minds up to career paths in print and packaging. For the Women in Print breakfasts, we try to get speakers that can not only help our members with professional development but also personal development. Over the next 12 months,
we would like to include more events, whether they be in-person or webinars, related to personal development to help our community feel more supported.

Q: How has your work with design students encouraged them to look at print and packaging as a career pathway?

DN: The challenge for a lot of printers is that the print industry can be often overlooked as a career path. A lot of people that are fresh out of high school don’t know what they want to do or will usually think more about getting into a mainstream trade.

I was at the recent Sign & Print Career Connections stand at the Adelaide Careers & Employment Expo, and it was great to have the chance to chat to current students about the possibilities of print as a trade. I also present to design students at university and TAFE in Adelaide about the printing and packaging industries, as well as what we do at Ball & Doggett.

A lot of design students and graphic designers are more digital focused, so it’s good to be able to have the opportunity to expose them to the print industry. It really opens their minds when you talk about the pathways that print can offer.

It helps to remind them that print is still very much alive, and you can do great things with it. It’s also about making the students aware that print is everywhere and that it is not just limited to publications – it can be packaging, labels, signage – as well as showing them that there so many different materials involved.

There was one student that was going to create a digital design for her project but after she saw my presentation she decided to create a print-based project instead. The teacher invited me back to see her project, which was around mental health, and it was so nice to connect with her and the lecturer on a deeper level after seeing her project, and I think that’s a good example of the power that print can have.

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