Tag Archives: Adweek

I Have a Room

7 Feb

Throughout my professional career as a Graphic Designer/Assistant Art Director/Art Director/Design Director, I have never had a room of my own in the office. Maybe because when one works in a design studio or art department, these places are open concept environments.

At least it was like this for me in all the places that I have worked in. In New York City where I interned and then worked at, WBMG., Inc. was an open concept design and I had a drafting table in the organized design studio. And I must admit I modelled my own studio like their setup when we first started our company.

Then in Adweek, the old office on 23rd Street was also open concept and I had a drafting table amidst other drafting tables of the rather chaotic setup of the art department. Only the Editor had a room if I recall. When the company moved to their new place on Broadway and it was more organized, I had a cubicle workstation.

Although the cubicles were quite high, I could still yak with my colleagues. Now come to think of it, even though I may not see them because the cubicle system obstructed my view, I could still talk to everyone in the whole art department!

The next work place, a publishing house in KL was also the same with an open concept setup. No room, just a table and sufficient to work.

Then my own design studio. Open concept too. But after all these years of being in an open concept work environment, I now find myself having a room at our new office! A definite first for me.

And I think I kinda like it simply because I get to display all my toys in a more organized manner than anything else! They now have a wall to lean against without crowding my workspace. In an open office, it wasn’t easy to surround my space with plushies, my array of display-worthy collectibles and gum ball machine but now, I can do it! Nice.

Plus I can play my choice of music (Michael Buble! yay) without disagreement from the team. So having a room for a change is nice, very nice.

Together

Wonderful Times

27 Nov

The holiday season is here for Christmas shopping and a ‘Toys R Us’ catalog came in the mail recently. It was fun to look at the pictures of the offerings the toy store has for this year. It also brought back memories of when I first worked on a ‘Toys R Us’ catalog when I was an intern in New York City.

A semester prior, I had engineered an opportunity (before graduation) for a summer internship at WBMG, Inc. in New York City. The time, both in New York City and at WBMG, was exciting and the experience priceless. I had the privilege to work with Walter Bernard and his excellent team of designers as well as being counselled by Milton Glaser. My Polaroid picture is still on their website after all these years! (hint: look out for the bright green tee shirt and big glasses me!)

The project was to design a catalog for Toys R Us among other projects. During that time, the studio also redesigned Adweek, which I also assisted and eventually led to a full time job with the magazine.

Ahh… Such wonderful memories. Would I turn back time now to relive it? A definite yes! Do I regret leaving it? Well, no. I know this is contradictory to my earlier yes to turning back time but my life now is equally wonderful, with my two precious M1 and M2. So I will leave it as memories are meant to be made and cherished. Time and life is meant to be lived, move on and go on.