The Importance of Being – True to Yourself

Freelance & Work

These past few weeks have seen me devote ridiculous amount of time towards the coming National Karting Challenge – a fact that has not gone unnoticed by my mates. In fact, even several colleagues at work should have noticed me working on this project during off-peak hours. Not good, but I do believe this will all be worth it, and especially so since I'm basically the solo designer responsible for every single visuals. I'm not one to quit halfway, so even tho these guys are asking for more than they deserve (or mentioned towards the beginning of the project) I'm really quite relishing the coming week. By then all this crazy deadlines will be over, and the posters will start cropping up. I look forward to sneaking around trying to catch a glimpse or two of them!

On another front, our team has dwindled even further at work, with one of the Senior Account Executive leaving the team (4 years worth of experience – or should it be considered a waste of time?) and another new face leaving (Indonesian girl – a shame she's gone). While this pose no surprise to me, I'd be amazed if that stuck up boss of mine doesn't feel even a slight suspicion towards the general feeling at work. More and more talents leaving and surely he must know that something is wrong with the procedures and structure he had implemented at work.

St James Power Station

Alas, I myself have had my efforts diverted elsewhere – towards the karting event, and towards another, more intriguing development:

St James Power Station is looking for a Graphic Designer. Application deadline: 30 August 2007.

Holy smokes!

Unfortunately, my portfolio isn't exactly tailored to appeal the aesthetic style of St James – I doubt they'll be interested at all in Annual Reports nor Newsletter. The good news however, is that I'm very psyched about this particular design style – and I've been doing a ton of digging up old works, along with new works that I feel would appeal to them. I really just have to keep focused and get this month over and done with!

Iris Judotter & 33third

One of those newer projects is one that I will be featuring in a short while. It all started with an innocent conversation I had with a colleague of mine. She owns a small local record label – started with her friends. One thing led to another and I find myself volunteering my services to help her "star" artist with a small job – a brochure/flyer to promote her new album. Her name is Iris Judotter, and she is really quite talented – do check her music out at www.myspace.com/judotter. Solid local talent, and I was very psyched to help her out.

While I look around for inspiration and the likes, I stumbled upon this interesting music-related series of books called 33 1/3 (33third.blogspot.com). Each book in the series is titled upon an album of consequence throughout music history, and are authored by different writers. The style of writing and what the book is all about, are all totally up to the writers' imagination – and amazing imaginations they are! Some talked about the album's significance towards the generation, or about the story behind the making. Some talked about the style and essence of the album itself, or about the lyrics of each songs. Some pushed the boundaries of music literature even further, like what Kate Schatz did with "Rid of Me". Here's an excerpt about that particularly intriguing book:

"Rid of Me" is both romance and psychological horror, its chapters shifting perspective between Mary and Kathleen. Both are escapees from oppressive men and a small town. At the opening, Mary kidnaps a willing and complicit Kathleen -- blindfolding her, binding her wrists and leading her to their new home in the woods -- woods that women are told never to enter.

Instead of talking about the album, or the music, or the band behind the album (PJ Harvey), Schatz chose to 'collaborate' and alternated herself between the music and the writing process, letting the album take her away and writing along an excellent thriller as she rubs the music into her brains. Take a peek into the story here: http://www.amazon.com/PJ-Harveys-Rid-Me-Story/dp/0826427782 and enjoy the amazingly creative style of writing!

I wanted to do the same with Iris, and as I perused through her album, I found that one song which I really fell in love with – Four Leaf Clover. Her honest soothing guitar melted beautifully with her subtlety angst-ridden and heartbreaking lyrics. And then she hit me again with a distinctly evolved remix of the same song, showcasing her versatility and evolution.

I listened, I drew, and I produced:



I do hope she enjoyed my visuals as much as I enjoyed working on it with having her catchy tune play over and over again as I labored. I wanted to visualize her emotional lyrics, depicting her as a silhouette melting into swirling waves of ecstasy and beauty. This is very selfish of me, but I care not if she likes this or not – I will be putting this up in my portfolio. And should she ask for another, I don't think I would mind working on a different concept – but naturally I'll have to break away from this image first. In either case, I'll have to work much harder and produce more posters for my St James application!