Growing with instantprint: Leanne

At instantprint, not only are we continually investing in our state-of-the-art facilities, but also in our colleagues’ personal development. We know how important it is to have the best people for every job – from helping you set up your artwork so it’s print-ready, to setting up and running the presses that print high-quality products so your business can flourish with print – which is why we give all our colleagues the opportunity to grow in their role.

In celebration of our colleagues’ growth, we went behind the scenes to find out more about their instantprint journeys. We spoke to Head of IP Studio, Leanne, to find out more about how she ensures every customer gets a personalised print experience and what advice she would give to someone just starting out in their career.

1. What does your current role consist of and what aspect of this do you enjoy the most?

I’m head of IP Studio, so I oversee the Proofing team and Personal Artworkers. We set up artwork for print, give advice to customers, and create and send proofs. We have a fantastic team of people who all come from a creative, design or print background.

2. When did you first starting working at instantprint?

I first starting working here in June 2013, and I started as a junior artworker in the Studio team.

3. What’s the biggest change you’ve seen during your time here?

When I started, we were in 2 small buildings across the road from each other, so the biggest change was moving to our current building. I remember joking that the new factory was so big we could put a go-kart track in. Now it’s full of machines!

4. What standout training opportunities have you had whilst working here?

I’ve been lucky to have the opportunity to learn something new almost every day; whether it’s a new product, machine or a new process. I’ve also taken part in some brilliant team leader training that’s helped prepare me for my current role and given me confidence when managing people.

5. What’s made you stay at instantprint?

Definitely the people; I’ve made friends for life here. We have a great atmosphere in the offices, taking part in special events such as charity days, fancy dress, even a sports day. We celebrate everyone’s birthday too, so we have a lot of cake!

6. How do you see your role flourishing in the future?

As I’m quite new to the management team I’m looking forward to learning from people with a lot more experience than me. The team is constantly growing, so it’d be great to see how I can help people with new opportunities.

7. What’s your best memory of working at instantprint?

We we’re having a particularly bad day and were asked to work quite late. James, one of the instantprint co-founders, ordered everyone pizzas and we watched The Great British Bake Off while we worked! It was great to know our work was appreciated.

8. What challenges have you faced in your role and how did you overcome them?

Like any job, we occasionally have difficult days when something goes wrong and we have to support by working overtime or helping out in another department. We have to be flexible but we always get through it because we have a great team. We overcame this by coming up with the solution of sharing the workload, so we have 4 people working 15 minutes of overtime instead of 1 person working for an hour.

9. How do you feel you’ve grown during your time working at instantprint?

I’d say I used to be a quiet person – I never saw myself as a manager. I started as an artworker then with support of the team and managers I progressed to team leader, then supervisor and now manager. I gained new skills with every new role and learnt a lot about myself along the way. Without those people seeing potential and guiding me, I wouldn’t be where I am now.

10. What advice would you give to someone just starting out in their career?

Get involved! It’s great when people are enthusiastic and want to learn. We look for candidates that are passionate about the industry and will fit in well with the team, so my advice is to show some excitement about the role.