Tag Archives: design studio

Another Use for the T-square

28 Jan

I have three T-squares from my college days sitting in the office. Why three? They are of different lengths – an 18”, a 30” and a 36”, all necessary for different usage. During the dinosaur era, a T-square was the go-to tool to use for cutting mounting boards for artwork presentation to the professors and subsequently to clients.

These days, artwork presentations are hardly physical as we present our work to clients with PDF files projected onto the big white board of a meeting room from the laptop. So my T-squares ceased to see action and remain a relic.

But of late, I found a use for them especially the three-footer. It’s almost gross but practical.

We have baby roaches in the office and these varmints are gross. Who likes them whether they are big or small? Every now and then, one would be crawling on the wall. Ugh. And as the office is an enclosed environment, I don’t fancy spraying them with the Baygon Cockroach Control aerosol due to the smell. So I use my T-square!

Whenever I spot a roach on the wall and usually out of my reach, out comes the T-square to ‘catch’ them. I’d stick two pieces of cellotape onto one end and holding on the T-end of the ruler, the reach is just perfect to tape those varmints down.

Once they get stuck, it’s instant death as I’d fold the tape over to prevent an escape. It sounds cruel but better a quick death than a slow agonizing one. Also, it’s cleaner this way. Imagine if I had to smack the roach and stain the walls? Ugh. My T-squares are not so useless after all in this age.

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It may be tiny (see top right picture) but still a varmint and not sparing it any dignity!

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Serious Music

26 Jan

Yesterday I decided to bring my ‘boom box’ from home to the office to use as it is hardly used at home and just collecting dust. At the office, I must have music in the background for creative purposes. I feel the brain does not function well enough in an all too quiet environment. And I don’t like the radio because DJs in general talk too much regardless of the station.

The Altec Lansing inMotion dock speaker, although old and only works with 30-pin devices, will give my first iPod Mini another lease on its (the iPod’s) life after I retired it from use in the car last year.

It became a nuisance for the many cables required — an aux-in and a power supply, to hook up and it cluttered the gear area. These days, for my music in my current car, I use a pen drive which is hidden out of sight and not a nuisance at all. No cables necessary and everything is controlled within the steering wheel or the iDrive. This then renders the iPod even more obsolete.

So now with the speaker set in the office (all the Spongebobs, the single Patrick and the M&Ms dispenser had to make way for it but not the main gum ball machine), the iPod will have another chance with its 932 songs (it’s an 8Gb capacity) to stimulate me. I foresee creative juices will be in overdrive!

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Aggravation! Aarrghhh…

7 Nov

Last week, the internet at the office was down for a good half of the work week. It was most aggravating as we could not work at all. Nowadays work is so dependent upon connectivity and when the connection is down, we find ourselves on edge.

Important emails could not be sent out or received was the bane of the situation. Forget social media updates or glancing at headline news which could not be accessed from the desktop computer anyway. The stress was most unbearable especially with deadlines looming over the head.

To make matters worse, WhatsApp was also hit apparently and for a couple of hours, we were totally disconnected! I felt as if a limb was cut off.

The internet was finally fixed on Saturday and yesterday morning everything was okay until after two o’clock. The connectivity was down again! Aarrghhh.…

So I find myself unable to work again and there’s nothing we could do except to report the breakdown and wait it out. Aggravation indeed. Aarrghhh.

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One of Mine

7 Mar

I love this painting that I did many years ago. Sometimes I see clouds above the mountains, other times it’s the ocean and the horizon. It gives a sense of calmness regardless of what I make it out to be whenever I look at it.

I took a painting class in summer during college and it was rather enjoyable. Like every other student, I started off using sable brushes but somehow I never did master this tool. Instead I prefer the palette knife.

Naturally, this two feet by four feet oil piece was completed using just the palette knife and no brushes at all. And it used to hang behind my sitting space at the old office. I hope to have it up at the new office in my room soon, one of the few places that can have big paintings up.

  

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Not Enough Walls

2 Mar

Not everyone likes walls because walls restrict and make a place feels confined. But having walls in an office is different. We don’t have enough walls in the new office to hang up our art pieces because the place is smaller with lesser walls.

Unlike world events of having THE controversial wall, our ‘problem’ is an insufficient amount of solid walls to display the big paintings. The room partitions are not strong enough to bear the weights of these pieces, so we have to be selective to see which ones get to be put up.

All these years at the old office, there was ample wall space and I guess we took it for granted. Sigh…

That’s my Karel Appel. Nice?

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The Gum Ball Machine

9 Feb

I love my gum ball machine. It’s quite an authentic piece, made of metal and glass instead of plastic. I bought it in New York City during a blind date set up by my room mate dinosaur years ago. I agreed to the date only to oblige her. 

The date and I went to SoHo and ended up at the Cupping Room Cafe for lunch. Thereafter we browsed some shops nearby and I stumbled upon the gum ball machine. An unusual buy on a first date but what the heck? It’s a gum ball machine(!) just like the one in WBMG., Inc. albeit smaller. So the purchase was made.

Now, about the date… He was nice, polite and gentlemanly but too hairy for me. Gosh! Funny I can still recall the places we went and details like the hair at the back of his neck sticking out of his round-neck t-shirt but not his name. Ugh to the hair! There was no further second date. Thank goodness, otherwise I wouldn’t have tales of my M1, M2, hubby and Rooney to tell! 

Over the years, the gum ball machine has been in a discreet corner in the old office just collecting dust. Somehow I never considered displaying it at home, and it’s not like it’s a bad reminder of the date with Hairy Guy in SoHo. But I think it’s more of not wanting it filled with candy and enticing the girls (and myself) to have a sweet tooth.

Today, it sits proudly in a visible position in my office room! I will have to fill it up with M&M chocolate soon. The debate now is whether to have normal ones or with peanuts? Hmm… tough decision here.

  

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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

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