/ once upon a time II /

(and i’m back with more blabbles… read part 1)

so upon graduation, i came back home to hk and landed my first full time graphic designer job in the corporate commercial world. then reality hits – let alone the world, i couldn’t even save myself. my best ideas were always the ones that got trashed first. from the glowing edge that i was told to implement for “shelf impact”, to the purple script type the client insisted on using. i was sick to the stomach. i got all confused and told myself that I was there just to solve “business problems”. i couldn’t tell good designs from bad anymore. down i fell into a black hole of self-doubt, avoiding design bookstores and waiting for my monthly tiny paychecks. the same went on for a year and a half, i forgot about my little portfolio packet, forgot what it was like to genuinely like the work i created.

and then one day, by God’s grace, i got a call from my absolute favorite designer in town about an opening and bam! i went from slaving my days at a commercial firm to breathing design again with amazing coworkers that i look up to. stuff i appreciated, my boss would too. i genuinely trusted his taste that anything that went thru him, i knew it’d come out better. work became fun (and much easier!) again. oh how i cherish those days with him sitting and watching over my shoulders trying 598 different kernings and 37 typefaces to figure out that the first pick was the perfect solution. i watched him still being the art director, though clients may have been the kings and queens with all these “orders”, he would know when to give in while still making the best out of it. and my inspiring coworkers, that gave the most selfless critique and encouragement, and spent countless sleepless night together in the trenches of page layout and typesetting, became dear friends. and there i was, back on track.

now i’m on my own and may have moved away from the mainstream corporate world, but every wedding set is to me a serious branding project that makes solid marks on people’s lives. i truly love every single project that leaves my studio to help change the world in their tiniest way, for that i am just so grateful. nevertheless, after all these years, i would still start every project with fear and trembling, of the unknown and possible failure, and yet this is exactly why i’m still in it – beheld to the chills, the unpredictable, the satisfactions.

/ Behold, here I am.