 |
Design
Hell Part 1 of 2
15 NOV 07
Do
you have this strong interest for design and graphics? |
 |
|
|
| Do
you find yourself tinkering with Photoshop and editing photos till
late at night? |
|
|
|
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? |
|
|
|
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.
|
|
Yeah
right. |
|
| 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.) |
|
|
|
| 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..
|
|
|
|
| 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. |
|
|
Modern Day Slave
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
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! |
|
|
|
|
|
