Surprise surprise

It’s amazing what you can find when you google your own name and browse through the old links. For some reason or another, this blog I had totally escaped my attention. I’ve been away a whole year!

Well now, where to start?

I’ve been busy working on a travel blog over at Unearthing Asia, do take a look and let me know how you find that. Comments and suggestions are always welcome!

I’m also no longer based in Singapore, but in Jakarta now. I’m helping my dad out with his business and juggling my design freelancing with Unearthing Asia as well.

I just finished a two-weeks road trip through New Zealand. To put it simply, it was amazing! I look forward to my next travel plan, to Koh Samui!

All right then! It’ll be interesting to try and publish two blogs at once, but I imagine this one will be a more personal site where I can simply unload and talk about.. whatever it is I want!

Cheers!

The first week on my new job is coming to an end today. I don’t want to jinx anything by talking too much about it, but.. so far so good. It’s a small homely set-up that allows the designers a lot of freedom in terms of creativity and at the same time not stressing them up too much or slacking too much.

I’m delighted to share that even in my first week, I’ve already done some interesting stuff that I’m proud of. Here is one, a poster design proposal for Nu Zea Bee, a premium brand of honey that retails for slightly above market rate.

The poster practically crafted itself, with one of their current packaging having a nature panoramic landscape and the product itself proclaiming “100% all natural processing”. Interestingly, a quick trip down towards NTUC showed this brand of honey to be the only one proclaiming that on their packaging. Does that mean other brands are actually *gasp* NOT all natural? Hmmmm…

Back to the topic. I used various elements that made the four different products unique and tie that into the poster – the lemons, the sunflowers, the pink orchids, and the pollens (those magical sparks all around the posters, so you see they also act as additional visual appeal!). All in all, a fun project to work on!

The Week That Was

One week. Seven job interviews. Some half-hearted offers I cannot accept, lest I render my past three years of working experience non-existent. Two very uniquely interesting companies, one of which I really loved, one others that got me interested.

Alas! The past week of interviewing has exposed me to some interesting companies, some for good reasons, some others for not-so-good reasons. In light of not dwelling on issues I’d rather forget, I’ll zip through the rest and just share about the two companies which I did enjoyed interviewing for very very much.

One was called Friday, with a swanky website that loads a little slow at the beginning. They are a new advertising outfit founded by three buddies, one of whom was the Business Development guy, another who was the Interactive guy, and yet one other who was the Creative guy.

I really enjoyed the interview for the following reasons:

1. They are friendly, down-to-earth bunch of guys (I interviewed with two of them, the two designers), who are looking to enjoy the work they do first and foremost (or so they say).

2. They do not want their current outfit to be such slave houses. Or so they say.

3. They are very easy to warm up to, and they actually talked about what they want to do with the company – which I liked. They wanted to keep this outfit small and lean, and really focus on the works and be known for good creative advertising. They want this to be more of a homely place, which their employees can look forward going to work too – more like a bunch of friends coming together to do things they are passionate in.

4. They actually joked about me and my girlfriend (ex, and current one)!

There are things however, that stood in between me and the job I really want:

1. They are actually scouting out for an Interactive Designer, instead of Print. They are still open to expanding the team and hiring me, but the main priority is to get an Interactive guy. Gosh darn it, if only Dom was available!

2. I have not seen their actual work place, since the space they are in currently are shared with another company. They are moving out of this space in the near future and moving into a new space, which can be both exciting and daunting.

3. Finally, the sad truth was that they have not gotten back to me in regards to employing me. It’s been seven long days since I last talked to them, and frankly the wait is getting to me. No really, the problem is just that I already have an offer from another outfit, which I also liked.  I’m gonna wait a little more before calling them in and asking them make a decision.

The other company that I really enjoyed interviewing for was VibrantStyle, an interactive outfit headed by Alan Leong, aka ShearNation. What I like:

1. Alan’s website showcased some really nice works, which I feel would be very enjoyable to work in. Although the company’s strength is in Interactive, they are moving towards Print and also have plans to be merging with an Events company come July. What that means is that I’ll be their go-to-guy for all things Print. And at the same time I’ll get a chance to reacquaintance myself with Flash and the likes. Good stuff.

2. The speed at which things are moving ahead with them highlighted the fact that they really do like my works, and are very excited to have me join the team.

3. Finally, they are good to offer what I’m asking for, remuneration wise. Not a formal offer just quite, but his own words as follows: “Anyway, I think we’re good to offer what you’re asking for. I just have to run this through with Alan and possibly, one more chit chat session with my team and we should likely be going ahead.”

Unfortunately, several things I did not quite like:

1. The company’s site was not very appetizing. The works they do are great, but the layout of the company itself was lacking in that Ooomph factor compared to the Creative Director’s personal site. Well perhaps this is just a more ‘corporate’ approach, or perhaps they are just too busy working on their projects. But I do notice some very very interesting projects! PS3, Tamiya, Simon Taplin, Kinemat and Singapore Flyer just to name a few!

2. The meeting room itself was quite dusty. But the meeting took place in the second floor, which was rented out towards freelancer, and which would be taken over by the new division of their Events division. So yeah, I’m planning to schedule another talk with them to iron things out, and hopefully I’ll get to meet the rest of the team, etc too before I make my decision.

Aww yeah, in the mean time I’m enjoying the slackness and just spending time with The Chio Bu!

Be Myself Again

The past week or so has been a roller-coaster ride of enough-sleep and not-enough-sleep as I navigated my way through finishing this amazingly-tight-deadline freelance project, finishing up stuff at work, and tidying up my portfolio as well as sending out my resumes. Those of you having some time to kill are more than welcome to check out my portfolio site at www.nikolastjhin.com – and comments and suggestions please! And those who have lobangs, you know how to reach me~! =)

Here’s what has kept me busy throughout the week or so. Fun stuff to work on! These are the 4 fashion spreads that’ll be going into my portfolio – the rest of the magazine are unfortunately very sub-standard (there was no time, and they wanted me to just stick with the original layout).

Looking back at these, they may not seem like a lot of work, but there are actually a ton of stuff that was done to the original photos to achieve this effect. The idea passed to me was to make these look like classic chinese oil paintings, but at the same time to keep the face recognizable enough for people to identify with. It’s been quite a satisfying experience! Now, I just need to get paid properly~ ha! (note: I really have to point this out – the quote: “I have failed over and over again, and that is why I succeed” is actually from Your Airness Michael Jordan, not from that Heng guy!) (no diss Ben, just pointing it out)

I have received some ‘question-mark’ comments in regards to me leaving St James. Ultimately, it all boils down to the fact that I don’t see myself gaining anything valuable from my experience here at St James. The time I spent here would be better spent else-where. While my 2 years at Lancer was tough and extremely hardcore, I learned a lot of things there, and it has been a valuable experience that helped me grow.

In my 3 months here in St James, I felt that this isn’t the direction where I wanted to go, so instead of expending more precious time, I decided to act right away and tendered. To some, that may seem rash, or unwise, or sudden. But to me, it was simply the only scenario that I can be happy with, and as such I took it.

I haven’t been exactly happy at work, and for some reason I can’t quite point out the reason why. It’s not the people. It’s not the work. It just doesn’t feel quite right. I had the opportunity to do some reading earlier today, and visited an old favorite that I have somehow forgotten recently. Steve Pavlina writes extensively in regards to personal development, and I enjoyed his articles very much. He talked about Lightworking here, and one of the paragraph stuck out to me, it truly described the situation I’m feeling at work!

For example, if you work for a company run by darkworkers, you may perceive that going to work at your job actually lowers your consciousness compared to if you just stayed home. Going to work is like entering an awareness-lowering cloud, inviting you to resonate with lower states of consciousness such as fear, greed, apathy, depression, and worry. When you leave work, you feel like you’re coming out of that dark cloud; it’s like you can finally breathe and be yourself again.

There! That’s it! And it struck me that the way I have been working here has been influenced by the people I work with, and as a result it has lowered my consciousness. All that starting work late and finishing early. All that 2 hour lunches and shopping around before heading back to work. It’s good fun. But its not work. Its more like retirement. And to be retiring at 25, earning a measly 2k plus a month, thats really just dumb.

I need a new job, one that can motivate me and help me grow! Action list for the week goes like this:
1. Finish up Zouk mockup and send application
2. Wrap up finishing touches to portfolio site
3. Send out resume to Jess and Christopher
4. Celebrate The One Month! *grins*

Those are the big ones, while the small ones are plenty:
1. Clean up room, again!
2. Work on Serene’s website
3. Work on Pam’s brochure
4. Scour the web for more prospective employer/clients
5. Send invoices! Get paid!

At that Crossroad Again

But this time, not all alone…

Yups, I have tendered my resignation. It only felt like barely a month since I joined St James. However, that one month is enough to point out to me that this isn’t what I want. So once again, I’m tasked with looking for a new job, and one that would allow me to pursue my interest in Illustration.

The theme of the past week however, seems to be .. so many things to do, so little time. I want to draw and send resumes out. I want to play soccer, and do sports. I want to spend time with my dearest, who has been very supportive of my decision in leaving. I want to do a little surprise. I want to take part in Tiger Translate. I want to finish up my freelance project, due to print next Tuesday. I want to sleep. I want to watch Friends. I want to clean up my room. I want to settle my bills. I want to get new specs.

I want to hold her in my arms and just lay still as we take in the scenic breeze. Tickle her a little bit.

All in all, I need to get back to work.

But finally, I also want to thank her for her “Go, Baby!”. I can’t help but smile.