When Janet was growing up she was torn between studying fine art, journalism and graphic design. Her desire to design as a means of communicating with many people and an obsession with drawing ultimately won the day, and so she set out on the road to becoming a graphic designer.
After 25 years in teaching, Janet decided it was time she took the theories she had gained over the years and put them into practice, so she joined Flow Communications.
She describes herself as a married mother of two who has been in the design industry since her college days, and who has taught and practised design for the past 20-odd years.
Even though she never formally studied to become a teacher, Janet says she somehow found herself in the teaching profession and loved it.
“Being a teacher is like being a performer, you have to find a way to keep your audience captivated. It’s rewarding when it works because getting through to your students is satisfying,” she says.
What Janet loved most about teaching was the cyclic nature of the profession.
“Each year you get students for a period of 12 months and in that time you have to develop them sufficiently to pass to their next year or to be ready for the industry.
“You get good students who are passionate and those who just aren’t. Theoretically, your job is to get through to everyone, but it’s always those students who are passionate about design who are most rewarding and keep you on your toes.”
When she compares teaching to heading Flow’s design studio, Janet says the environments are not all that different.
“Flow is a wonderful reflection of what South Africa could be if we gave each other the space and time.”
“In the same way as teaching does, working at Flow requires me to think on my feet. I have to know my stuff when I meet with clients. My job here is more of a mentoring role, much like the teacher-student dynamic,” Janet says.
Upon joining Flow Janet says she found herself in an unfamiliar space in which she felt uncomfortable, “but in a good way.”
“I had always been involved in print design and Flow specialises in web design, so I had to get into a space that I wasn’t familiar with, or for that matter, particularly fond of! For months I felt like I didn’t know what I was doing so I had to learn a lot. When I look back at that time I realise how far I have come and how much more comfortable I am today.”
What Janet loves most about working at Flow is the team dynamics.
“I think this is the most diverse team I have worked with in my life – Flow comprises an amazing mix of highly skilled young and old programmers, designers and writers. I think the deliberate lack of hierarchy works well because everyone has a say.
“Passion keeps a person going. If you aren’t passionate about something then drop it, because you can’t invent passion – it’s something you’re born with.”
Janet especially loves the fact that at Flow she gets to merge her two passions – writing and design.
Asked what separates a good designer from a great designer, Janet says: “A good designer is efficient, appropriate and gets the job done, while a great designer applies creativity to every facet of design, from conception to production.
“There are few people who can indulge in great designs. It takes time, indulgent clients, generous budgets, lots of leeway and usually quite a bit of risk. Tough financial times tend to make most of these criteria unavailable.”
Her advice to anyone considering the world of design is to have genuine passion for the field.
In her spare time Janet loves to read, watch movies, watch rugby, spend time with her family, do boring domestic-type things like cooking, knitting and designing tapestries, and relax in her hammock.
In the long term she would like to write and illustrate a children’s book. “I don’t picture it as a best-seller, but more as a legacy. I’d love to leave behind something quirky and uniquely mine for people to remember me by,” she adds.