Little Stories 278 : This Phase - 17 More Days

A couple more weeks to survive this crazy work phase (17 days to be exact) - of working full-time with 2 companies. At the same time, I managed to officially finish all my client work yesterday and that felt like a burden being lifted off my shoulder - a bit. 

Last night, I slept through the night for the first time. 

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I work on weekdays and weekends, early morning until night time, which includes public holidays. None respected my time because apparently as a "freelancer" I made myself available all the time (because I always work odd hours to manage multiple projects, so I just can't avoid contacting my clients during odd times as well). So we don't have the "after-hour" working limit. Af took Sofi out every weekend and I stayed home alone - working.

At times, my stress level is at its peak all day long and I can feel it in my body. That's how sensitive I am now, I learned to feel the changes. When I'm stressed, I can't eat, usually, after I send my submission, all the hunger comes right in and I'll eat anything available then I'd have a stomach ache (perhaps due to indigestion). This keeps on repeating over and over again. 

I can't talk about anything else than work - because that's what I do every day. Multiple works. I feel like the agency is eating my soul (maybe because we have a beef with each other) and it is unhealthy - but what else can I do except to endure this craziness. 

Every time I tried to talk about it with someone they would always mention the money - "ohh, the money would be worth it", "masyukk la kerja double duit double", "at least ada kerja dari takda kerja". Like everything is only about the money. The money does sound nice, yes, but money disappears like water, it helped in certain ways that I needed, but it won't stay for long. To have that much money, in exchange, it will drain my time, my energy, and my mental + physical health. I just want them to realize this part as well. It comes with a cost.

So then, I realized that any problems that we have, we don't have to share it with anyone because no one wants to know - they don't really know what to say (yes, even family). I told Af that I would need to whine and complain for these 2 months because it need them all out of my system - verbally, and I don't need a solution because sometimes, I just want someone to listen to my daily problems. 

I write here - to remember, if you happen to stumble on the blog where I whine and complain about work like any normal human - well, this is the current phase that I'm dealing with right now and I have nothing else to say other than about work. 

Tapi ok lah, only for 2 months. 

But a really unhealthy 2 months.

Ok - see you after the typhoon ends.

PS - I'm reading "The Days of Abandonment" by Elena Ferrante - which triggers the woman angst theme for this post. 

Work Related : Old Navy Poster

Have you seen it ?

I subscribed to Adobe CC for a year, so I got to use Adobe Portfolio. Tried it and kinda like the whole clean curated look of my online portfolio. All images are not auto-compressed like in Behance *even though they are in the same engine - images posted in my portfolios are images uploaded in my Behance, but they are all clean and crisp :F Compared to images I posted in Blogger, Pinterest, Dribbble and Behance - at least these uploaded images aren't auto-compressed by the engine. I'm super grateful. So you can see all my shared works there, none tiny-bit-blurry caused by auto-compression. *you have no idea how this issue disturbed me for a long while back :F

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Note : All works now belong to Old Navy.

My last client before I started working full-time again was Old Navy. The Old Navy. I worked on this project for 2 months, since right after Eid until August 2016. 

This was considered as my first 'big' international client eveeeeer and I was super excited and nervous and everything in between. I took so much time to finish up the project even though I was working as a freelancer for full-time. I want to indirectly thank my art director for the project, Mr Jonathan for helping me and being super patient with the whole slowpoke process T^T

I even took 2-3 weeks for for the research, moodboard and first rough sketches. I don't know how other illustrators work, but I know I did take a long time than the intended timeframe they gave me. But I loved it, I love the whole process T^T It was like I finally been paid for my time and effort to make something that I really-really like in my own style and colours T^T 

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Here are some of other cities' poster made by other illustrators from all over the world. The Malaysia poster was done by Big Mouth - I'm his super faaaaaan, I contacted him to ask for the formal forms that I need to filled in :D 

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My poster was definitely wayyy different than all other posters because I chose to do in hard-line stroke for all the vectors when almost all other illustrators didn't use any strokes at all. But I took the chance. Mine looked different, but definitely my strokes - for anyone who've come to recognize it lah, I looked at it and it looked like my work. And I'm proud of it *at least while I'm writing this, I feel proud of it, who know 2 years from now I want to delete the work because it looked super ugly by that time kan.

Here are my first draft sketches :

My strongest feeling is the 4th sketch, and thank God he agreed with me too. So I came out with the version 2 of the 4th sketch. The detailing, the planning on what to draw, the size of the paper that need to resemble the poster size - so using a squared paper in my Muji planner was very-very useful. I came out with this :

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To digitize it took few more weeks, and to finalize it took more and more weeks :F I had some problems with the colour mixture and the text wording of "Indonesia" and "Old Navy". They gave me a branding guide, so I had to follow their colour guide.  See how many revised files I have in my hard-drive :D 

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We finally decided on huge blocky word for "Indonesia" and main colour : red to represent their national colour. The wording was customized a bit to make it looked like it came from the same person. Ditto the word "Old Navy" in a bubble surrounded by one of their national flower :

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So that's the story of my first 2016 international client :D 

You can view the finalized version HERE. 

Rejected version :

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Note : Best kaaaaan. Do you want to be an illustrator now? :D

Work Related : All the nerdy stuffs as designer & illustrator

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Stickers :

Here are my latest sticker packs that I manages to illustrate, print, cut, pack and put up for sale up in my Etsy. I personally like the geeky light bulbs and also the mini ESKP by Af *because it is square and mini and so cute.

I managed to cut and pack these stickers during Af's game play of 'Until Dawn'.

Look at these geeky light bulbs ! :D

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Spotted :

I'm a Backpacker Korea by Halian Azurin at our local Popular bookstore :

I can't wait to find the Europe version in the bookstore.
Note : And I'm in the process of doing the illustrations for another new upcoming book ! Wihuu. 

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Branding :

Two big branding project I did for a startup called Bfab.my & a teaching place in Bangi called Didikan Sakura. Ditto Hello Kitty Gourmet Cafe and Begadang Backpackers last year. I am really happy these full-package projects turned out fine. I created almost everything from the scratch T^T I can finally tell myself that what I've been teaching myself in becoming both designer and illustrator is going quite well. Who would have thought T^T

For all self-learners, don't give up, don't compare yourself with others, and don't feel demotivated. If you really like to learn new stuffs, just do it. One day, your efforts in learning those skills will pay off. You might take several years or even lifetime, tapi takpaaa, as long as you can still grow :D I still got a long way to go, but I'm really happy with where I am now. Imagine from that geeky IT girl, to this. Now I can create all those beautiful colourful things using graphics compared to using boring codes.

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Little Things 119 : Designers vs the World

01 :

One of the editor came to me and asked me to find a suitable image for the latest article. We have accounts for Shutterstock and Bigstock, so finding images aren't so hard. 

He stood next to me while we both searched for suitable image in Bigstock. But none could be used. So he said to me;

"How about Shuttlecock?, 

I looked at him, "Sorry?".

"The other account. Shuttlecock."

I looked at the computer screen and smiled to myself. 

"Oh, Shutterstock".

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02 :

A journalist came to me and informed me : 

"I have new photos that I found suitable for the article. 

Can you do your magic and make it usable for us?".

I sent her the edited version of the images and she said :

"I have no idea how you guys did that".

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03 :

I heard a journalist commented on our work :

"These infographics you guys did are really nice. 

Too bad people don't read it".

=.=

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The great thing about working in a place with a mixture of people from different field is how interesting every one of us can be. There are writers, reporters, editors, translators, designers, web-masters, photographers, videographers, and other people from sub-departments. 

Everyone of them are passionate about what they do, working on one single thing that matters to them. And I feel inspired by their energy. 

PS : Writing this on my Wednesday day-off while eating 'pau kacang' and getting ready for a jog.

Little Stories 62 : Sell bag & work

A friend : What are you doing now ?
Me : Applying for work.
A friend : But it must good for you. You can sell bag.

I am not sure if that was a compliment or a sarcastic note.
But that statement gave a remark to this week's life.

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I ended my contract with Liquid Learning and I'm applying for jobs farther than hometown or even my playground. I've given myself some thoughts on life these days and I think there's nothing much stopping me from going to places anymore. Other than money, of course.

So I applied jobs in JB, Pahang and Penang, places that are not quite near, but reachable, yes. In hopes for chances to go farther than here, with God's willing. So for a month, I applied to almost 15 jobs on Jobstreet, some got rejected *maybe I applied even though I can't speak/read Mandarin, or I demanded higher salary than what they offered. Who would still pay RM 1500 for 1 month designing work when 2 weeks work of freelance illustrating pays the same amount, and even more?  Been called for an interview to somewhat creepy uncomfortable places and replied several emails on online interviews and test.

I know my mom is worried because I stayed at home again like a good girl does and like all modern parents, they want their children to be independent and financially stable - not staying at home, doodling and selling bag. Ha.

But ah well, I'm working on it.

PS : I've never even sleep/relax at home, I do works all the time.
I am so productive, and no one can't imagine that.
Why I need to be in an office to prove that I'm constantly working? Phew.

Note :
Anyhow, other than art prints and stickers on etsy,
I'm compiling doodle in printed books/zine/hand-made doodle books.
Hopefully it will be ready for December's event.

Works : Pahang Tourism

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Alhamdulillah, the website is on the net last week! This is what we've been working on since February 2012, along with my other team members. This is my second full involvement with a project since the previous Petronas Pitstop Apps. 

Check out the new website for Tourism Pahang ! 

Feel free to leave feedbacks & comments to improve the website.

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