Filed under: Graphic Design, My Friends, School Life, Triumphs & Heartbreaks | Tags: school, friendship
It is at this critical time in the 4th and final year of my educational career that I’ve decided to pick up my blog again. Life has been incredibly insane, incredibly busy. I’m constantly in a state of medium to high stress. But after a 3 hour nostalgia-fest over sushi with my best pals in the program, we were just astonished at how time had flew by. And pretty soon, the one thing that brought us together, and defined so much of our friendship, will be no more.
I want to archive this feeling somewhere, somehow. And this blog will have to do. Mixed in with excitement and wonder is a tiny, but unmistakable, fear and sadness. For the past 3.5 years, I know who I am; what my role is. My life is school. But in 5 months, I will have to figure everything out once again.
And I guess that’s just how life is. You get comfortable, and it’s time to move on.
I want to make a point of savouring and making the most out of this last little stretch of my 4-year program.
And in 5 months, or 5 years, I can look back and decide it was all worth it.
Filed under: Graphic Design, My Friends, School Life, Triumphs & Heartbreaks | Tags: agenda, fundraising, Graphic Design, school
The first week of the last year of my schooling career has come and gone. The workload seems impossibly heavy combined with fundraising for the grad show. I’m already overwhelmed and a little bit scared. But as is with anything that scares me is I avoid it as much as I can until I absolutely cannot avoid it any longer. And then I plunge into it.
And I guess this is as good a time as any.
Like so many years before, I promised myself to be more assertive this year. Except this time, I will be.
Babies for Sale
The Jo and I have been siamese twins for the past 2 weeks trying to construct as many agendas as we can. It’s been tedious work, but at the end of the morning, I couldn’t have asked for a better teammate. It helps that we like each other.
This is probably one of the most extensive and real design projects that I’ve ever done. It was nothing short of a miracle for us to be able to make just about every design decision together.
If Joann and I had a baby, this is what it would look like:
Our babies are 20 bucks a pop. Beatrice not included. Buy them! And do what you will with them. We don’t judge.
Filed under: Graphic Design, My Friends, School Life | Tags: agenda, design, fundraising
School is starting again in 2 weeks, and the first deadline of the year is looming over us in the form of me and Joann’s little agenda fundraising project.
Joann and I are hoping to have some agendas done by the first week of school. It seemed like a daunting task, but it looks like we might just be able to meet the deadline.
For the last 2 months Jo and I have been working tirelessly on the agenda. It’s been quite tedious as a lot of the agenda consists of placing the dates. I just hope to any god that’ll listen that we haven’t made any mistakes.
This project has gone from being a humble spiral bound planner to a fabric hard-covered, 5 signature, coptic bound agenda with a colour-coordinated ribbon. And it has been no more than just an ambitious concept up until a few days ago when we finally chose a fabric pattern and started wrapping our cardboard covers. Today we made further progress when we printing out our first mock-up.
It was a good feeling when we had that first copy in our hands. Finally, our hard work has come to some tangible form of fruition.
I can’t wait to get started on the sewing!
Filed under: Glitter & Sparkles, Graphic Design, My Weekend Pillows, Photography | Tags: emperor, empress, gay, gay bingo, Graphic Design, Japan, Photography, Smile Cafe, Vancouver
Weeks have been going by fast. Aside from my measly paid job at “Segments,” I’ve been busying myself with some graphic design side projects. The FFL non-profit group wanted me to design a postcard and pamphlet for their fundraising, as well as their summer newsletter.
I’ve done 2 out of the 3.
To be honest, they haven’t been the most exciting projects, but I am excited about having my designs printed.
Postcard:
Newsletters:
Generally I hate placing body text on a full colour photograph, but since the newsletter only has its front and back covers printed in colour, I’ve had to just make it work.
Sometimes I wonder if anyone even reads the newsletter other than the editor and myself.
Playtime
For some strange reason, I felt my weekend was drastically cut short after agreeing to stay half an hour longer at work. Despite that, I managed to enjoy a little bit of sun on Saturday.
Pillz took me out on a stroll around the DTES. Bums and crazies are really less scary than one might think. Most they do is stare.
Sunday Afternoon Delights
We had a lovely brunch at one of my favorite restaurants, Smile Cafe on Pender Street, which by the way, is no longer run by eccentric Shanghainese people. I used to love going there just to listen in on their conversations. It seems like it is now owned by 2 older gentlemen who, according to Pillz, is a gay couple. Pillz thinks everyone is gay, so that has yet to be confirmed.
And continuing my strange love addiction to all things Japanese, the emperor and empress of Japan came to visit. I was hoping they’d take me home with them.
They didn’t.
Filed under: Doses of Cynicism, Graphic Design, My Friends, My Weekend Pillows, Photography, School Life | Tags: DTE, Photography, selfishness, summer, Vancouver
It is made even more apparent that people are selfish and they mostly just look out for themselves when a large group of people congregate.
On Saturday, Pillz, his friends, and I went to the Jazz Festival. It got more crowded as it got later in the afternoon.
I sat on the edge of a narrow pathway that kept getting narrower with more and more people standing in front of it. And I was forced to witness the ugliness of human inconsideration.
People whizzing by clearing the way with their strollers. People stopping abruptly in the middle of the pathway to chat with their friends and effectively blocking anyone else from passing through.
I gritted my teeth the whole way through.
On Sunday, Pillz and I went on a nice stroll down the DTE. And I thought I’d haul out my camera from the very back of my closet and make some use of it.
The sunny weather yesterday prompted Joann and I to head out to the beach. However, the slight breeze felt more like the arctic freeze when we got to the beach. We wrapped ourselves in our beach blankets, ate our sandwiches from the Safeway Deli and left.
We then went to Calhouns and further discussed our summer project – the G DM A agenda. It is going to be an agenda tailor designed to the G DM A program. It is becoming more apparent to us that it is going to be a lot of work, but I think we’re up for the challenge.
Filed under: Books, Doses of Cynicism, Graphic Design, Work Life | Tags: Broken, CEO, Choke, Chuck Palahniuk, Daniel Clay, gym, gym etiquette, Snuff, work
Starting this week, I only work 4 days/week. I’m really excited about it. Although I really need the money, I felt my soul could only take so much abuse per week. And this way, I get to do more of the things I want to do: not going to work.
Lately my managers have been freaking out because the big H aka CEO of “segment of a book, synonym of purple” is coming to visit this Saturday morning. All the displays and merchandising have to be up to standards.
And guess what, I’ll be working that morning. FML.
I met the H once, about a year ago. She seemed plastically nice enough. What more could I ask for?
So along with my shortened workweek, I’ve decided that there are things that I’d like to start doing again, like reading and going to the gym.
I like pretty covers
The last book I read was Broken by Daniel Clay. It was a somewhat depressing, but very gripping book that made me cry at the very end while I was having my back tanned at the pool in Bali. No one knew because I had big dark sunglasses on, and the tears running down my face could’ve easily been mistaken for sweat.
I enjoyed it.
I’ve been meaning to re-start reading Choke by Chuck Palahniuk. The thing about reading his books is that I have to space them out because while his stories are always interesting, he has a really distinctive voice that really stays with you. So if you read his books one after another too soon, characters across different novels start to meld together.
And ever since Snuff came out in paperback, I’ve been wanting to read it too.
And he obviously knows the importance of graphic design because his book covers never disappoint.
I like hot bods
The last time I went to the gym was, well I don’t remember the last time I went to the gym. Except that when I went there was this group of teenaged boys (16-19ish) that thought they owned the gym.
They were loud, and one of them had the most annoying laugh. And really, no one cares which girl in school you would “definitely do because she has a fine ass.”
So I’ve decided to go back tonight. And I will update if I run into those adolescent boys again.
Filed under: Graphic Design, Triumphs & Heartbreaks | Tags: Graphic Design, internship, interview, job
I have been holding my breath for the last couple days.
One of my instructors notified our class of a summer communications design coordination position at the sustainability office at UBC. And it paid well. Very well. Jo and I jumped at the opportunity and sent off our resumes and portfolios.
Both of us got a phone call the next day for an interview.
My interview was yesterday at 9:30am, and 2 hours before Jo’s. I could barely sleep the night before. I was constantly rehearsing possible interview scenarios in my head. And on top of that was the stress of getting to the interview location at UBC.
After some circling, I found the office 10 minutes before my scheduled time.
The interview started early. There were 2 interviewers with me, and they were incredibly friendly and despite my severe interview jitters, I felt relatively at ease with them.
Most of the questions were about my work process, design experience, and interpersonal skills. 3 pages of questions and 45 minutes later, the interview was over, and I felt it went better than I could’ve imagined.
I got home, and thought I would take a nap before I headed off to work, but my brain had other plans.
The conversation we had during the interview was put on constant replay in my head. And I pretty much laid awake in bed for an hour. I finally got up feeling even more exhausted.
I woke up this morning knowing that if they were going to call, they would call before early afternoon because the job starts on Monday.
And according to the time on my cell phone, at 1:11pm, they called.
At this point I could barely contain my heart in my chest. I had imagined every possible outcome, and the best one was vibrating on my desk.
I try my best to contain my excitement, and pick up.
She says that they really liked my portfolio and design concepts.
How strange, I thought. Her voice does not match my own that’s almost giddy at this point.
She goes on to say that they have decided to give the position to another candidate that had a little bit more event coordination experience.
My heart fell to the floor.
She says that they really liked me as a person and had enjoyed the interview.
I composed myself and concealed my disappointment as much as I could.
I tell her that it was very nice of her to call, and that I had enjoyed meeting them as well.
I guess the good news is, I’m breathing again.
And that’s important.
Nonetheless, it was a valuable experience. And I’m sure one day, I will find meaning in this.
Filed under: Graphic Design, Photography | Tags: camera, Cannon EOS, debt, DSLR, Photography, Vancouver
In addition to the $2500 I owe for my upcoming Bali/Tokyo trip, I’ve decided to put myself further in debt by purchasing a Cannon EOS 1000D.
I know practically nothing about DSLR’s except for several people who own them. Unfortunately they are all out of the country taking photographs. So I decided to do a little research on my own.
After hours of googling, and tabs filled with London Drugs, Future Shop, Best Buy, and Broadway Camera web pages, the Cannon EOS 1000D was an obvious choice – it was the only one I could afford.
I’ve wanted a DSLR ever since my brief encounter with an SLR in 2004. I’ve just never had sufficient funds (I still don’t). But after having photographed my graphic design work with both a DSLR and a point and shoot, and seeing how much of a difference it makes, I just had to have one myself.
And I thought what better time to get it, since I’ll probably want to take pictures in Bali/Tokyo.
So this is my first stab at DSLR-dom:
Today marks the end of my 3rd year graphic design degree program. It has been 1 fiery hell of a week. The things I’ve had to do, the things I’ve seen – I don’t think I will ever be the same again. Yes, if sodomy hadn’t kill my innocence, the 4 major projects have certainly done it.
The Men’s Room Apparel Packaging
Self Promo Press Kit
Radio station project is done, and only 3 more final projects remain. I was somewhat, but not completely, satisfied with the result of my radio project. And I think it has to do with my reluctance to work with Photoshop. It is such a powerful and complicated application that require a certain amount of dedication to fully be able to utilize to your advantage.
I lack that dedication.
This is some of the promotional items for my concept radio station: Rare 88.9FM.
Bus Shelter Ads
Mail-out Coupon
