Design work and customer service have quite a few things in common, according to Stacy Benning. She is a customer service rep at Panther Graphics who also did graphic design work. Both involve being a strong communicator. People will relate information to you and there is a need to enjoy working with customers. Each year, Stacy has been able to grow and be challenged in her career.

Stacy Benning has been at Panther Graphic for the past two and half years. She has previously worked at Sioux Printing for ten years and then at Lawrence and Schiller, an ad agency. She has done design work, was a prepress technician, and everything in between. Some projects were with South Dakota Department of Tourism and South Dakota Corn Council.

At Panther Graphics, Stacy works in the customer service department, doing graphics on the side. Knowing the design world has helped her work with clients who are designers. Just the other day, she had talked to a client twice on the phone, teaching them how to apply a bleed. Not knowing this, would have made the job more difficult. But with Stacy’s knowledge of the design world, she guided this newbie designer. She can immediately see the details that could be wrong when a project comes to her.

Before any of this, Stacy first had to decide back in high school where she wanted to go for schooling or even what for. She began thinking during her Junior year. Perhaps she would be a nurse, but she was not a big fan of science. What she loved to do was art and took whatever class she could with that. Stacy decided to visit the guidance counselor. The teacher suggested Southeast Tech and the rest was history.

There have been many projects that Stacy has worked on, each unique in some way. Luckily she is flexible since she is able to take an idea from a client and transform it into an intricate design. A favorite project of Stacy’s is an article for the South Dakota Corn Council in Sioux Falls. During this time, she worked with a close friend who was a writer. This made collaboration easier and more fun. Stacy took a photo of pennies falling from a cup and manipulated the corn in to look like the pennies were falling from the corn.

Her proudest accomplishment on the other hand, was working on the Stampede books. It began with a 24 page empty InDesign file with only a few ads done. She had to put everything together. While it was time consuming, it was an amazing feeling to finish it. Seeing the final product go out, in print, and finally getting into the hands of the public is an awesome feeling.

Luckily for her, there have not been many designs that she is not fond of. Optimist is a word that describes Stacy. The one thing she can say is that the firsts are the most overwhelming. The first time doing the Stampede books for Stacy was nerve wracking. Yet, she is the type of person who goes with the flow, and found a rhythm on working with such huge projects. Just because something is disliked, doesn’t mean that it’s the worst thing in the world.

With more than 15 years of experience in graphic design, Stacy has learned a lot about her work style. For example, her motivation to do excellent work is being able to “wow” her client. She says it’s “that look of excitement. You’ve seen it all. It’s oh that’s really cool. Once you see your client do that, you try to get that every time.” One of her favorite parts of working at Panther Graphics is the people. She loves being able to go to work and laugh. The people at a place can make or break a job. Luckily, she has found one that fits her well. Stacy’s job is much easier when things go smoothly. She can leave at the end of the day knowing everything is done and feel good about it. Or if things don’t go smoothly, she is able to help her client who then thinks she is a goddess. Divine. All-knowing and powerful! When she is able to share her knowledge with people and putting a job all together keeps her inspired at work.

However, her job isn’t all roses and candy. There are times when she will have a difficult client. Her suggestion is just to shrug it off. Move on. Their feisty personality only motivates Stacy to do a better job and makes for an interesting day. She is the type to “just shrug it off.” There are enough good people in her job to make that easier. It also helps to “sugar coat” things when deadlines seem to fly by too fast. The most challenging part of the day is the little things. The wacky stuff that has to be dealt with over and over that makes the project go a little bit longer than necessary. Then again, if that’s the only thing to complain about, things are going pretty well.

There are more than a few tips and tricks that Stacy has picked up on in her years. Some advice for any would-be graphic designer is to work as a printer in the print industry even if it is for a year. This will teach any designer how their composition is actually going to be printed. Stacy has seen this first hand when someone didn’t know how to apply a bleed to an InDesign document. Always have everything packaged. It has caused more headaches not to package a file than to take the extra precaution. Stacy will get a ‘working’ file that is missing all it’s fonts or graphics. This is all avoided by just packaging the file. It is also good to know the difference between rich black and black in CMYK build. It’s a basic thing to know. She says that there are so many tricks of the trade to learn by being in print. It is a fast paced but also fun environment and gave a nice variety for day to day activities.