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Design
Hell Part 1 of 2 15
NOV 07
Do you have this
strong interest for design and graphics? |
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Do
you find yourself tinkering with Photoshop and editing photos
till late at night? |
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Have
anyone told you that you are good in art/drawing/mixing colors/making
sculptures with plasticine and suggested that you should be
a designer? |
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STOP RIGHT THERE!
So
you think you are good in art and everybody right down to
your Art teacher suggested that you should sell your soul
to Temasek Poly, NAFA, La Salle or whatever art school that
is growing like toadstools in Singapore. Nobody told me about
the truth of the design industry and if they did, perhaps,
I would have taken a different career path. Since I don’t
want you to be trapped like I am, I thought I‘d share
with you my experience and shed some light to this realm of
creative darkness. And hopefully, you will not make the same
mistake like I did and save tons of your parent’s money
that you are going to spend on countless mounting boards,
Copic markers, PCs etc.
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Yeah right.
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So
lets see.. just right after you finish toiling endless hours,
doing project after project and learning all that graphic software,
you finally got a piece of paper they call a Diploma.. Ahh…
the farce of education. There’s so many topics to elaborate
but I’ll stick to the point. The
1st thing I notice once I got a design job is that, they don’t
work the regular 8 hours. Nope not 8 to 5pm.. not even 8 to
6pm.. When crunch time comes its more like 8 to 11pm. What do
I mean when I say crunch time? Crunch time is when the whole
office starts to go on a frenzy because dateline is near and
the we have to die-die print 10,000 pink panties brochure by
Monday. (Depend on the product lah.. sometimes the brochure
is about a promotion on epok-epok, sometimes its about the latest
designer moth balls and now it’s a sale buy 1 get 5 free
pink panties.) |
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Crunch
time, ie working late pass 6, can go on for days to weeks and
even months! Its true.. imagine coming back home late pass 9pm
every single freaking day. I have the experience working for a
company that I have to SLEEP in the office to get the job done
on time.. Do you have any idea how it feels to SLEEP in the office?
Its like the office suddenly becomes a chalet.. a chalet with
work in it. And mind you, I was not alone.. I saw my co-worker
sleep on his desk with his hand still holding the freaking pencil.
And it was 4am. And just when I thought I am the only one working
for a devil, I comprain to another designer friend that she too
have to sleep in the office.. I stayed for 3 days.. she stayed
for a week.
Then some ignorant guy might
say..
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Before
I elaborate on this, I suggest you sit down. I am telling all
of you design enthusiast, that there is NO OT PAY. Gasp! Is
it true?! Yes it is. So technically speaking, after 6 pm, when
everybody rush to get in the MRT like sardines to go home, the
designer is still in front of the computer, trying to make a
1 inch by 2 inch newspaper ad look nice. And he/she have is
not being paid for this time. There is a word that describes
a person who is forced to work with no pay.. the dictionary
call it a SLAVE. |
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Modern Day Slave |
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And
when you do tell your boss about it, the best answer that he can
come up with, which I have heard so far is 2.
Excuse 1: “You have no
OT pay because you are an executive. And we don’t have
to give OT pay to executives. I don’t know which gahmen
rule says this and if it does exist I hope that whoever came
up with this would rot in hell.)
Excuse 2: “Please don’t
be too calculative EB.. just give and take..” But he refuse
to accept the fact that I have been “giving” for
3 straight days in row and he goes home every night.
Actually, to be honest, I have
to tell you right now, that design.. whatever it is, is a time
guzzling industry. It takes time to make an ad, an animation,
a movie. If you cannot afford to pay your workers because you
need him/her to stay, you can easily appease the workforce by
having this thing call TIME OFF.. BUT even that they take away
from you! Yup I hope you are lying down by now.. because after
the designer work nights without pay, they are deprive of having
quality time with their family and friends.
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Aiyah…
but surely your Diploma salary is high what?
Another
MYTH. A pay for a designer starts at 1.3k to 1,7k. It is high
compared to say, a PSLE holder who is taking home $800 a month.
But if you really calculate the OT hours, the designer makes
just about the same with the PSLE holder and at times worst
cause at least the PSLE holder can sleep on a bed. You sleep
on the company’s sofa.
I
have more points to make but this post is getting too long..
I’ll write the other stuff soon.
Passion
kills,
Evil Bunny! |
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Share
this with your friends! Cut & paste the link below
to your email.
http://www.happeepill.com/blog/2007/designhell1/dhell1.htm |
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Have
a comment? Email me at
happeepill@gmail.com |
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