Meet Anna Ågren

Anna Ågren usually works as an art director at the Bonnier Tidskrifter title ToppHälsa. But as a GROW participant she's gotten the chance to move west for several months - to be specific, to Dorking in the U.K. and Templar Publishing. There she works with design development.

"So far, I've worked mostly with designing mockups  for the Frankfurt Book Fair," Ågren says. "I have learned a bit how to make popups and it's been very hands-on, a lot of literally cutting and pasting, which I think is a lot of fun."

At ToppHälsa Ågren is in charge of the design, manages the photo shoots, assigns illustrators, works with the layout of pages and makes sure the magazine looks as it should. The work at a publishing house is quite different from the magazine world, she says.

"Things take more time," Ågren says. "It's clearly a much quicker tempo for magazines. Plus everything is done on computer there, while here you work more with paper engineering and hand assembly, or as people at Templar say: cut and paste and mount clever popup solutions."

The hand assembly is one of the most enjoyable things at her GROW job, Ågren says. "And it's really fun to design books and work with illustrations of the high quality that Templar books have," she says. "And all my co-workers are extremely nice, too!"

Work times are also quite different at the two companies. "We begin later in the day at Templar, at 9:30 versus at 8:15 at Bonnier Tidskrifter," Ågren says. "And we take a very late lunch, usually around 1:30 or 2:00 p.m. In the beginning, my stomach growled, but now I've gotten used to it."

Anna has just one think to say for anyone considering applying for GROW next year.  

"Apply! To get the chance to work abroad and get a new impression and experiences of a normal day in another country - with your apartment paid for and your usual salary - is an incredible opportunity. It's been so for me and has been up until now one of the best times in my life, actually."

To apply to GROW, follow the instructions here.