Every Friday Jobs at DOC will take you behind the scenes and into the jobs, the challenges, the highlights, and the personalities of the people who work at the Department of Conservation.
Today we profile Bronwyn Aalders, Team Lead Graphic Design…

Living in Canada for a few years made for many breathtaking moments
At work…
What kind of things do you do in your role?
I head up the design team that provides design and layout services for any DOC office around the country. We design a huge variety of different products including brochures, posters, banners, advertisements, interp, stickers… the list goes on! My job is to ensure DOC’s identity is strong, consistent, and recognisable. We also provide support and advice to staff.

The journey back home from Canada took me through Thailand where air conditioning isn’t really necessary when on the road
What is the best part about your job?
Working with all the wonderful imagery from around the country and actually being able to use the products we design when out and about. It’s also great working with so many people who are situated in stunning areas around the country. I always like to visualise the view from their window (compared with mine).
What is the hardest part about your job?

Aoraki/Mount Cook: I was a tourist in New Zealand when this photo was taken. Now I live here, which is heaps better!
Probably the pace of working across such a large variety of work and jumping between jobs in a split second.
What led you to your role in DOC?
A love of wildlife and the environment, and a need to produce meaningful design. Also, the lure of mountains across the Tasman.
What was your highlight from the month just gone?
Moving into the role of team lead within such a short space of time. Thrilled!
The rule of three…
Three loves
- Putting up a tent and not seeing a soul in any direction
- My 1969 baby blue Datsun 1600
- Seeing mountains from my window—very different to inner city Sydney

A favourite pastime during my last four years in Sydney was rock-climbing. This is in the Blue Mountains looking down over the aptly named ‘Megalong Valley’
Three pet peeves
- Animal mistreatment
- People mocking my love for Australian marsupials
- Aggressive drivers when cycling
Three foods
- Pad grapow gai sup
- A good, authentic, tart lemon tart
- My gran’s blow-your-head-off Malay curry
Three favourite places in New Zealand
- Wellington
- Makara (still Wellington)
- Wanaka

Snowboarding at Treble Cone—the board has just come out for a dusting in preparation for this season
I haven’t lived here long enough yet but hope to extend this list a lot further soon!
Favourite movie, album, book
- Movie: Lost in Translation
- Album: Paul’s Boutique, Beastie Boys
- Book: Jupiter’s Travels by Ted Simon
Deep and meaningful…
What piece of advice would you tell your 18 year old self?
Get that zoology degree!
Who or what inspires you and why?
My dad and his stories of growing up in and around the Malay jungle—complete with tiger sightings, snakes on top of the fridge, and pet baby elephants.
When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A stint of fieldwork last year put me up close and personal with the beautiful fairy wren. I worked as a field assistant right around Australia studying about 10 different wren species. This is a male red-backed fairy wren up in Cairns, temp: about 40 degrees
An architect, but graphic design isn’t too far removed so didn’t do too badly there.
And now, if you weren’t working at DOC, what would you want to be?
A zoologist (so probably working for DOC).
What sustainability tip would you like to pass on?
Rethink the ‘send to print’ button.
Which green behaviour would you like to adopt this year—at home? At work?
Cycle to work every day, not just every second day.
If you could be any New Zealand native species for a day, what would you be and why?
Hmm I guess an albatross would be kind of cool.
What piece of advice or message would you want to give to New Zealanders when it comes to conservation?
New Zealanders have a fresh start. They live in the newest place on Earth. Start as you mean to go on.