complains department
Thursday, July 28, 2011
First, when I woke up sleepily, I saw one person liberally spraying my deodorant onto his armpits. When he saw I had stirred, he said, “eh, I use your deodorant ah.” Then just a short while later, another came by my bed and asked, hey, can I borrow your shower foam? And when I agreed, he made off without a word of thank you. Lastly, some guy came by shortly and asked the same of my toothpaste. Without a word of thanks, too. And these are not some inbred people, neither do they have anything against me, or I, them. I promptly locked up my shower basket and its contents that day before I left.
***
Then just the other day, I agreed to help out a JC classmate, who needed someone to design a poster for her. Her CCA’s dance production was coming soon, and a poster had to be made with some concepts in mind. When I had agreed, adding that she needn't pay me despite her asking what price range I was looking at, she promptly sent me an email detailing the task.
Realising the urgency of the request, I quickly got down to doing it, spending over a good two hours doing something up with the materials she gave. Only to realise when I asked her to take a look, that she was not at all pleased. She hemmed and hawed, and I tried to find out what sort of look she was going for. But I blew my top when she told me the photos I had used were from previous productions, something she had never mentioned before. Calmly, I told her this was news to me, and she quickly uttered a ‘sorry’. Yes, she quickly uttered a sorry and went on with the new brief.
Gnashing my teeth that night, I came to the conclusion that I’d do it one more time for her, despite her having wasted my time on an incorrect brief. I honestly felt she made me feel like an idiot, like I had interpreted her brief incorrectly. I’d do it because in future, seeing her at gatherings would be awkward. But it grated me so, that she was so unapologetic about wasting someone else’s time over such a mistake. I guess I should have seen it coming, when I had to ask for details such as when the dance production was being shown and where it was being held.
Still, the thing that topped it off was when I sent her the new draft, and she mentioned that it was ‘much better than the last one’, and yet adding still that she’d like some changes to be made. Having told her I was occupied with other projects and couldn’t commit any further, she simply replied, ‘Ok.’
So typing this out now, I don’t know what possessed me to do some of the simple changes for her just now, such as changing the stated venue because I guessed it when it wasn’t provided. I’ve sent it to her. I’ve yet to get a reply.
I thought these people were ‘okay’ people. Not about to win a prize for mister or miss Pleasant, but decent. I fucking thought wrong. Anyway, here are the two designs.
Dark, mysterious and abstract. Dealing with finding one's true emotions amidst more convoluted ones, in a dance production that blends dance with wooden installations and paint. That was more or less the design brief. She wanted the second draft to have a black background. I have no clue whatsoever how that could improve the poster.
posted by joseph at 9:29 PM
Thursday, July 28, 2011
I think courtesy in this generation is fast becoming a rare trait. Just the other day when the ship got back from a sailing at nightfall, I witnessed my shower basket get raped. Having not stayed in on ship for some time already, I wondered whether this violation was taking place on a regular basis without me knowing.
First, when I woke up sleepily, I saw one person liberally spraying my deodorant onto his armpits. When he saw I had stirred, he said, “eh, I use your deodorant ah.” Then just a short while later, another came by my bed and asked, hey, can I borrow your shower foam? And when I agreed, he made off without a word of thank you. Lastly, some guy came by shortly and asked the same of my toothpaste. Without a word of thanks, too. And these are not some inbred people, neither do they have anything against me, or I, them. I promptly locked up my shower basket and its contents that day before I left.
***
Then just the other day, I agreed to help out a JC classmate, who needed someone to design a poster for her. Her CCA’s dance production was coming soon, and a poster had to be made with some concepts in mind. When I had agreed, adding that she needn't pay me despite her asking what price range I was looking at, she promptly sent me an email detailing the task.
Realising the urgency of the request, I quickly got down to doing it, spending over a good two hours doing something up with the materials she gave. Only to realise when I asked her to take a look, that she was not at all pleased. She hemmed and hawed, and I tried to find out what sort of look she was going for. But I blew my top when she told me the photos I had used were from previous productions, something she had never mentioned before. Calmly, I told her this was news to me, and she quickly uttered a ‘sorry’. Yes, she quickly uttered a sorry and went on with the new brief.
Gnashing my teeth that night, I came to the conclusion that I’d do it one more time for her, despite her having wasted my time on an incorrect brief. I honestly felt she made me feel like an idiot, like I had interpreted her brief incorrectly. I’d do it because in future, seeing her at gatherings would be awkward. But it grated me so, that she was so unapologetic about wasting someone else’s time over such a mistake. I guess I should have seen it coming, when I had to ask for details such as when the dance production was being shown and where it was being held.
Still, the thing that topped it off was when I sent her the new draft, and she mentioned that it was ‘much better than the last one’, and yet adding still that she’d like some changes to be made. Having told her I was occupied with other projects and couldn’t commit any further, she simply replied, ‘Ok.’
So typing this out now, I don’t know what possessed me to do some of the simple changes for her just now, such as changing the stated venue because I guessed it when it wasn’t provided. I’ve sent it to her. I’ve yet to get a reply.
I thought these people were ‘okay’ people. Not about to win a prize for mister or miss Pleasant, but decent. I fucking thought wrong. Anyway, here are the two designs.
Dark, mysterious and abstract. Dealing with finding one's true emotions amidst more convoluted ones, in a dance production that blends dance with wooden installations and paint. That was more or less the design brief. She wanted the second draft to have a black background. I have no clue whatsoever how that could improve the poster.
Labels: design, opinion, rant, thoughts
posted by joseph at 9:29 PM