Emily is a print designer, turned multimedia superhero.

Her first professional job after graduating with a degree in Journalism, was in print design for an alternative newspaper. For nearly five years she designed display and classified box ads with a team of designers. She learned all about pre-press and went on weekly press runs to ensure that the paper printed correctly. She also learned what not to do when creating Camera-Ready artwork.

She also discovered she didn't want to work for a paper all of her life.

More than anything, Emily loved Broadway. She had no talent for acting, certainly didn't have the face for stage, but sang all of the time, often to the chagrin of those around her. She had a penchant for belting out Broadway show stoppers as she pasted up the paper every Monday morning. It felt like that was the closest she'd ever get to show biz.

Several years later — after a chance meeting with a marketing manager at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust — she began to freelance. Over the course of several months she took on the design of nearly all of the shows that were coming through the marketing department, including design for the PNC Broadway Across America-Pittsburgh series. Though she stayed up far too late designing, she couldn't have been happier — she was doing design for her favorite subject matter. Nothing could be better than that.

Nearly two years after she started freelancing, Emily was offered a 'multimedia specialist' position full time for the Trust. This position means that she has to use the Master Collection of Adobe products, as well as turn on her marketing sensibilities every hour of every day. She works on two computers — the company PC as well as her MacBook, Maxwell — in order to keep the work rolling at a smart, fast pace. Managing a number of product lines — PNC Broadway Across America-Pittsburgh, Cohen & Grigsby Trust Presents Series, Pittsburgh International Children's Theater, CDLive!, Three Rivers Arts Festival, Pittsburgh International Children's Theater and First Night® Pittsburgh — as well as overseeing the arching Cultural Trust brand fills her days (and occasionally nights) with amazing projects.

Her work keeps her hopping. Each show needs posters, ads, direct mail, collateral, interactive elements and an emarketing piece. There's no team to help with the work, but Emily has always liked a challenge. She's made time to work on seasonal marketing for our larger series (her favorite being Broadway) and is now managing the marketing efforts as a whole for Pittsburgh International Children's Theater.

Emily also drinks a lot of coffee. It's good that her office is located directly above a small coffee house. Office coffee isn't enough. Green tea works sometimes too, but mostly it's coffee.

When she doesn't have the mental capacity to continue her design work on her bus ride to and from work, Emily will often pull a knitting project from her bag and keep her fingers busy without worrying about analyzing why she's doing things a certain way. It's a hobby passed down from her grandmother, and it's as comfortable as, well, handknit socks.