The One With The Interview

This week I had the pleasure to chat with the very first designer ever hired at St James Power Station, Josaiah Chong. Affectionally known as Josh, this 24 year old is a story of happy accidents, luck and fate. But of course without exceptional talent and determination to one's craft luck can only bring you so far. Josh's story is a testament to what one can achieve with abundance of hard work combined with a little wink from Lady Luck.

Once upon a time in a galaxy far far away, Josh studied Engineering and Industrial Design. His passion however, clearly lies elsewhere and even during his school years he focused his efforts on his personal paintings, holding solo exhibitions here and there. In his own words, he did "a lot of fooling around *wink*, and it just made sense to work in a club when [he is] already working the club like a whore". How he got the gig however, was a sort of happy accident.

He was supposed to head to Zouk, but the management took too long to reply and with his own lease in Johor Baru running out he had to make a do-or-die decision. He took up the gig at St James even while they were still in the planning stages. As such, he's become the go-to-guy whenever St James needed anything visual and or graphical. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as the aforementioned gig allowed him to build up his portfolio, reputation and also forced him to learn video editing, a huge skill advantage in his current freelance practice.

Ever the informative and humble man, he deflected questions about him to talk more about St James and the designer they expect to see, in essence preparing me for the tough journey ahead. I took down personal notes as Josh deftly maneuvered his way to explaining the various characteristics of St James and its 9 outlets–I definitely owe him a meal or a drink, maybe both.

"A day in St James? Uh well, I'd go in at 10.30. Do a little artwork. Many times do fucking text changes, like fucking so many you can never keep count (*nervous laugh from me here*). Like 30 revisions of 1 stupid sentence. Figure out how their 10000000000000 stupid ideas will gel in without destroying the whole look of the poster. Bitch with co-workers, change posters, more last minute changes. Rinse and repeat"

"You'll be working with Keith if you do get in," he said emphatically. "He's a nice guy, very experienced with typo and layout. But not so much an Illustration kind of guy, so if you can do that it'll be a big plus." He also went on to explain how things works in St James, giving me the insider tips on how artworks get done and bitching around about managers and the likes, "you'll be in Marketing, the Marketing girls are great (*cue in huge smile here from me*). It's very informal, a very united department excluding the managers. You'll make real friends there."

That, along with notes of comments and encouragements from his quick browse through my portfolio, definitely sets my pulse racing. Nothing beats a nod of acknowledgment from a fellow designer/artist. "You're like me, you lean more to the art side. But do try to show a range, the last thing they want is for someone to be so caught up in his own style. It's difficult to work so many venues that way," he added.

In between talking some more about the shit-load of work, the laid-down atmosphere and the complaining about how he's got "the worst deal" (10.30am to 7.30pm officially, but you know how it goes), Josh also put the job into perspective for me, "it's a tough job, fucking tough. But if you get it it'll be real good for you. It will be superb for your portfolio. Plus it'll be great for your CV, because you'll be working with a very capable guy there(Keith). It's done wonders for my business now."

Josh was noticeably reluctant to talk about his current projects, like a rock-star that's just made it but still humbly rooted to the ground and not believing all the hype around him. His freelance practice now focuses on Fashion Editorials and Animation. A current project that's keeping him busy nowadays is the Toronto International Film Festival, and that alone proves my point about his humbleness. It's a huge project to be sure, but Josh was so casual and nonchalant about it, not making a big fuss at all.

I said my thanks for his time and chatted around some more with my new found friend. More advises and comments get sent both ways, before he had to leave for a meeting and finished off with this caution–"it'll be good if you can do club flyer, to show them you mean business. But if you do get the job, be prepared to lose all other semblance of your life! *wink*"