Celebrating Women In Print - Abby Galley, Pre-Press.

In honour of International Women's Day 2024 we are celebrating some of the amazing women at Micropress by sharing their print stories.

Next up is Abby Galley, Pre-Press.

'My first introduction to print was working as a bindery assistant at William Clowes during the summer months when I was still at college. Together with this experience and my background in art and design I entered a career in prepress.

Starting at Micropress back in 2007, my role as a Mac operator in the studio taught me all the skills involved in preparing artwork for print. I have stayed within this role for last two decades for many reasons. My day to day job role is filled with creative thinking, problem solving and attention to detail. My early bindery experience has been invaluable in understanding all the processes in print along with all the jargon that we use. It also taught me the golden rule, which is check, check and check again! - experience makes you much less paranoid I’m pleased to say.

Although traditionally this area of print has been very male dominated, I have been very fortunate to have colleagues whole have supported me and have been flexible with my maternity leave and family commitments going forward. I have the advantage of working in a 24hr production environment, so I haven’t been restricted to a 9-5 day, which as a Mum of two young children this has allowed me to work around them and utilise evening working and weekends.

Sadly, I don’t think this job role will be around forever, with AI on the horizon the traditional role of prepress will no longer be required in the future. But not to deter anyone thinking about a career in print, what I have learnt is that, the?print industry will always require people who are fluid and ready to change. My job is ever evolving with new software and processes, which it has taught me not to sit still and embrace the change to come.'