Media designers - the creative technicians

Large advertising posters or small mobile apps: media designers are involved everywhere. The profession evolved from out of various disciplines in the printing industry and is internationally very popular.

Passing cars and occasionally the screech of a seagull are heard through the open window. It is quiet in the office. Malte Matheus may be sitting with a view through a window showing the Hamburg port. But his eyes are fixed to the monitor on his desk, showing colourful sentences and characters. The apprentice is rewriting a website for an online issue of the "Computer Bild" magazine with the aim of adding a link to an online mail-order provider. Matheus has worked as an apprentice media designer digital and print at the Axel Springer publishing house since 2012.

A coveted apprenticeship placement: according to the publishing house, in the past year almost 300 young people applied for the eight apprenticeship jobs. The profession of media designer is not only popular because it requires creativity and internet knowledge, which most of the young generation possess. It also brings with it a high degree of mobility, says Martin Vögtle from the Berufliche Medienschule (Vocational Media School) in Hamburg. This applies in particular to the field of digital media.

 

Media designers are in high demand

 

"Some of our students work abroad in Europe or internationally", says Vögtle. The prospects of later on finding a good job abroad are excellent. The new occupation of media designer is internationally in high demand. The reverse mobility seems rarely to apply. At present, only one budding media designer from abroad attends his school. The young Spanish woman has obtained the apprenticeship in the context of a special programme by the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce.

The occupation is structured into various fields. The field Malte Matheus chose for his apprenticeship is called Design and Technology. It requires, for example, the writing of websites and designing of layouts. The young man was attracted by the diversity of the tasks. Add to that his own interest for media, such as smartphone, computer and Facebook. "And then I completed an internship at an advertising agency shortly before my university entrance qualification graduation", says Matheus. After that, his choice of occupation was decided.

He currently works in the "Computer Bild Digital" department. If Malte Matheus had failed in obtaining the job at the Axel Springer publishing house, he would have travelled Australia for a year after graduating from school. But upon receiving the positive answer he knew that he could go abroad any time after the apprenticeship. Possibly even on a professional basis.

The media designer apprenticeship takes three years and is divided into periods at school and in a business. At school, the budding media designers learn basic knowledge, for example, regarding the design and creation of websites and how to process images, sounds and videos.

 

Newly created at the end of the 1990s

 

However, the vocational college knowledge usually is not sufficient for working in a business, says media designer Ulf Hardegen, in whose office Matheus currently sits. Hardegen is responsible for the apprentices in his department. Of course, he explains, the apprentices are being supported, but generally they ought to develop their knowledge also on their own. "Usually, they can productively contribute after a very short time", Hardegen observes.

Emerging media designers no longer have anything to do with the actual printing process. Although the basics of printing processes are covered at the vocational school, the apprentices hardly get to be involved in this field any more. "We visited a print shop only once", says Matheus. Yet this is exactly where his profession has its origins, as Arne Bahruth, in whose department Matheus worked until recently, knows only too well. The 42-year old is an old-school typescript editor. This is one of the print shop occupations that was absorbed by today's occupation of media designer.

"This occupation was newly created at the end of the 1990s", he says. "Since that time, the prepress technology has been less in use; instead, more creativity is required." These days, Arne Bahruth no longer works in the print shop, but heads the "Auto Bild iPad" department at the publishing house, where Malte Matheus spent part of his apprenticeship.

"A lot of technology is behind what the user sees on the iPad. We are responsible for all that", says Matheus. For the young budding media designer this is exactly why he is enthusiastic about this profession. His trainer Bahruth adds that it always is a joy to see the result of one's work. "No matter whether printed or digital."


Source: Deutsche Welle - Germany's international broadcaster, dw.de, revised by iMOVE, February 2015