Queensland’s Charlotte Fountain, the winner of the 2021 ProPrint Emerging 50 TRMC mentorship prize, is half-way through her 12-month program and enjoyed the opportunity to attend PacPrint and be part of the Women in Print breakfast panel on gender equality in Melbourne.
Charlotte currently works as a graphic designer at Worldwide Online in Hamilton in Brisbane. She completed her pre-press apprenticeship in 2020 and prior to that graduated with a Bachelor of Graphic Design from QUT in Brisbane.
Nominations for the 2022 ProPrint Emerging 50 are closing on July 29. Click here to nominate a rising star you think deserves acknowledgement.
After many years of hard work, she is now loving her role in the print industry and was thrilled to have the opportunity to attend her first industry trade show, Women in Print event and the National Print Awards.
As part of her mentorship, Fountain has had regular meetings with The Real Media Collective CEO Kellie Northwood. Also included is a $1000 voucher with the Australian Institute of Management. Fountain is planning to do a business management course before the end of the year.
One of Fountain’s goals is to bridge the gap between graphic design and print. She has set her sights on having universities implement a print component into graphic design courses so students graduate knowing how to set files up for print.
“I think graphic design university students need more hands-on community-based training as part of their degrees,” Fountain said during PacPrint.
“It is often the case that a designer doesn’t know what a printer is talking about and vice versa. It needs to be more accessible for design students to learn how to design for print so files are set up correctly which means there is less frustration.”
Fountain also has some great ideas on establishing a creative community of graphic design print professionals so they can learn and innovate together.
“There are also so many people out there doing print, bookmaking or 3D printing as a hobby and I think there are ways to make this more accessible. I have lots of ideas about this.”
If any industry members would like to work with Charlotte on this initiative, please email her at charlottefountain96@gmail.com.
Nominations for the 2022 Emerging 50 are open and can be made at www.proprintawards.com.au. Emerging 50 nominees have around five years’ industry experience. Nominees are recognised in alphabetical order at the ProPrint Awards on October 27, 2022, in Sydney and in print in the December issue of ProPrint. Nominees can also enter to win the mentorship prize with The Real Media Collective. Nominations close Friday July 29.
Comment below to have your say on this story.
If you have a news story or tip-off, get in touch at editorial@sprinter.com.au.
Sign up to the Sprinter newsletter