Olga Levi: Making the news possible

When it comes to making a daily newspaper, there are a few jobs that serve vital roles in getting the stories out every day. 

Reporters are responsible for finding and writing incredible stories and analyses. Copy editors go through those stories to fix spelling and grammar, as well as to improve the flow of the text. Editors figure out where all of those stories go on the pages of the paper, as well as find the appropriate pictures to go along with them. 

But the graphic designers on the layout team are the ones who actually put those articles on the pages, who make everything fit. It isn’t until they are done that the paper is cleared and sent to the printers.

Simply put, without the layout team, there is no print paper. And in the spirit of this column’s focus – shining a spotlight on the people who make the paper possible – that is whom we want to look at. Specifically, we are looking at one of our veterans of the layout team: Olga Levi. 

It is her tireless work, as well as that of our other graphic designers, that keeps everything running. 

In Jerusalem sat down with Levi to learn about her work and how she got into her position. 

This is “Behind the Bylines,” where we bring you a look at the people behind the articles – and layout – who keep our paper running.

How did you get to Jerusalem?

Before I came to Jerusalem, I lived in the Negev in Kibbutz Sde Boker. While I lived there, a friend of mine from the army who lived in Kibbutz Tzora convinced me to move to Jerusalem.

That’s how I found myself here, in the city of gold [a reference to the Naomi Shemer song “Yerushalayim Shel Zahav” (“Jerusalem of Gold”)].

What made you want to be a graphic designer?

When I was younger, I studied at an art school. I always liked to draw, and I originally wanted to study to get a degree in industrial design at Hadassah [Academic] College. 

Unfortunately, I wasn’t accepted there. They told me that I draw too much, and suggested that instead I should study interaction design [a process of making human-to-computer interfaces feel human-like.]. They thought this [more creative and interactive] field was more suited to my skill set.

That’s how I found myself studying interaction design at Hadassah College.

While there, I also learned still photography, videography, and how to make films. This includes the relevant software for use in film equipment and animation. I also learned software for building interactive websites. 

And that brought you to the ‘Post’?

Like all students, I was looking for a job in my field. A friend of mine told me that The Jerusalem Post was looking for a student to work in a part-time position, and I took it. 

That’s how I started working at the Post in 2012.

When I started working here, we used software called Quark. I didn’t know how to use it, as I was trained in school to use Adobe. Every time I had to insert pictures for the sports page, the sports editor wanted to single out an athlete or put him or her at the top of the page. 

To this day, I don’t know how things got messed up when I used Adobe and how it worked with Quark, but for some reason the pictures would come out discolored. The editor of the sports page would always call me, furious. But fortunately, the time of Quark has long since passed. 

Another funny story happened when we worked on the sixth floor of the building. [We have since moved to the second floor.] One day, I was sitting and working in the office, and suddenly a bird flew in through the open window and circled the office and got tangled up with things inside. I went to save her and helped her fly out the window. It was amazing to see her fly by, circling the window as if saying thank you, and then quickly disappear, flying away from the building.

Tell me about what you do at the ‘Post.’

Well obviously, there’s the graphics. But I do more than that. 

I help make the templates for the newspaper and our supplements every day. I also lay out our puzzle sections and the TV guide pages. 

I also work on the digital side of things. I upload our articles to The Jerusalem Post Digital Library on the website. I save PDFs of all our issues and all of our images in our archive, in case we have a fire or a system crash. 

And I help create the pictures for the annual Purim page.