Talk is cheap. Very cheap

◘ Abducted contents ◘

We were supposed to have a company gathering on thurday night, but because myself and CD were busy with projects, we asked the rest to go ahead while we shall stay to work on.

EC needed the stuff by 9am on fri morning, he claim, and hence I felt I will definitely need to stay back or how would I be able to finish the work?

(By the way, it was freaking 6.30 pm then, so it is not even a case of finish-work-quickly-and-we-can-go.)

Uncle and LW began to flutter around me asking me what am I busy with that I can go for the gathering, because I HAVE TO GO.

Excuse me, I am hardly that important. I really cannot comprehend how come just because CD and myself cant make it, they have to eventually cancel the dinner?

They keep pressing me to tell them what is on hand, and what do I have that I need to do so urgently.

I counted off my fingers that I have P081, P079, P074 and P076 that I need to work on, and P081 and P079 must be finished immediately so that CD can then work on it.

Granted that it is actually not a lot to do, but can I be doing it at my pace, and not dash through it so that I can go for dinner?

Uncle and LW began to quite useless things like how come I’ve got so much to do, why did I give clients promises of deadlines that will force myself in a dead corner (he was referring to P074). But I am very eager for this project to materialise, and this client was supposed to give us a reply on fri itself.

If I cant give him a revised layout for him to further firm his decision, regardless it is good news to us or bad news to us, I think it is the least I can do for the client to help him have a better idea on what he wants eventually.

(Update: The client didnt reply yesterday (on friday) as he previously promised. I guess we might have lost the job.)

It was why I had wanted to give him a revised layout as soon as I can, and I didnt count on it that LW would pass the entire P081 to me when the project is in her name, hence I couldnt finish all that was to be finished.

I hate it the way that they will say things like "Oh, we will help you talk to the client" or "I will help you do one of your other projects" or saying things that is talking up my time just to listen to you but not helping me reduce my workload significantly.

Talk is cheap ok.

Like I mentioned to YF yesterday over coffee, it is a real pain in the ass when I need to do drawings or presentation boards for LW. It is not I cant take extra work, but I hate it when it is not my project to begin with, and I will have to study the project from the scratch.

In all honesty, hence I dont blame LW totally, it is impossible to totally brief another person about your project unless you religiously take down every single note and record what your client wants on your mp3 player, then pass it on to the next person.

More often, I take down important information and when I was doing the project, information will come back to me as I scrutinise every area and I will input design according to the information I have in my brain.

So when LW passes me her projects, I know it is not really her fault that she didnt manage to give me all the points. But it is frustrating that she expects the finished work within a certain timeframe, but I had already fully packed my schedule for my own projects.

And when she passes the crap to me, I will have to start to understand everything that is in the project.

I will have to study the site photographs, I will have to quickly look at the client’s website to give me an insight of who the client is, and I will have to ask CD on what are things that was quoted for the clients because I would have to specify the finishes in the drawings.

And then I would have to pray LW had already selected her whole set of laminates, wallpapers and carpets and other materials and had already set them aside for collation. If she had, I just have to put them in a sensible order, doing up a board labeling each material that was used and where it was used.

If she hadnt decided, which is like 50% of the time, then I will have to ask her what she have in mind, and she will send me to ask kok (whom she had briefed once and hence she dont want to brief me again), who will sometimes give me, ermmm, interesting answers and then I will get questioned by LW how come I am not doing her project to what she had in mind.

Because kok does the visuals, and visuals usually feature specific locations like the conference room and the reception, the places like utility is often not featured.

And areas that are not needed to be shown in visuals are often given the last priority (I am only being frank, shoot me down if you think otherwise). And when the materials in these places are hence not decided, I will have to bring laminates after laminates, wallpapers after wallpapers to LW, and hope she can decide on one of them quick and I can quickly get the fucking work done.

It is also why for her projects, I usually end up specifying the most boring and standardised laminates and wallpapers. I really have no energy to choose one that I like, then she decided against it, *repeats for 3 times* then finally she decided on one that is often the least adventurous.

I also mentioned to YF once that I dont believing in specifying wallpapers that is forgettable. If I want a wall that gives a subtle wallpaper feeling, I will choose one that is in one single colour but is characteristically textured.

I will not choose one with grainy bumps in one single colour because that is exactly how a wall might look, with or without wallpaper.

I will not choose one with that is cream colour with bits of latte coloured dashes. If I want it to be that boring, I might as well just paste mahjong paper over it.

Hence I hate it when you tell me my wallpaper is too flamboyant. If someone had studied my design and wants to offer comments, I am more willing to listen it out. But if the intention is to get me changed to something simpler because personally you cannot accept loud design, then too bad. Being loud is my way of life, and hence it manifests in my design.

But I hate the presumption when other designers ‘felt’ the client wont like it. If clients dont like it, it is up to me to convince them. If I cant convince them, and I had to change, then I will dejectedly reasoned it to be that clients are not as receptive as us regarding colours and I will get over it.

But I cant take it that other designers are not openminded to designs other than their own. I can accept that you prefer subtle designs, then why cant you accept my strong design. Ok, dont accept it, but dont run it down with your bulldozer.