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People, at some point in their lives migrate to other places to look for greener pastures. Somehow for me, my greener pastures led me to speaking bad English and eating char koey teow on weekends. Not to mention taking the MRT ALL the time and forgetting what bubble gum tastes like.
I started working as an interactive designer in Singapore exactly 4 months and 6 days ago. The job is to assist Senior designers and Art Director in producing or executing concepts for interactive media and some video productions. I'm given the task to conceptualize and design projects, but during my first few months in the company I'm just asked to look around and observe. It's not that they don't trust my skills, they do. They won't hire me and pay levy anyway if they think I'm a crap. My AD (Art Director) told me that I have to learn the way things are done before I start doing serious big projects, so she's asked me to sit on meetings, participate on discussions, and just observe.
So here's my top 5 observations (in and out of the office) as a designer in a foreign country so far:
Observation 1: Language Barrier causes more revisions than ever.
Being in a multi-cultural community, I have to accept that language barrier is always a challenge. Singapore is a huge melting pot composed of Indians, Chinese, Euro-Asians, and others mixed breed which causes an expected language jumble. Believe it or not, Singlish is composed of 2 or more dialects. They mix English with either Hokkien and Mandarin, and sometimes Nihonggo if they want to "act cute". It's very hard (and confusing) for me to understand a word they're saying even if it's in English (since here, Pacqiao English is surprisingly much better) what more an explanation. You can just imagine a huge question mark above my head when inside a meeting room. The same huge blinking question mark seen in my forehead when my AD or a colleague is talking to to my face.
At one certain period, my AD assisted me on one of the cd-roms I'm handling. She would've been very useful at that time, but instead of understanding the project more and getting advices, I was wasting my time deciphering every word that comes out of her mouth. I don't know if she's asking me to 'skew' an image or 'excuse' her from saying something funny. This creates so much confusion, thus me ending up doing all the wrong work and revising for the 40th time. Not to mention, deciphering her again.
Sometimes, there's also a gang up. All designers will brainstorm for a project and one Chinese dude will start saying something in mandarin then everyone else (who's Chinese, of course) speaks mandarin. The foreigners get so left out that we have nothing else to do but smile (read their mouth and look like were getting the idea) and silently plan an attack for revenge like renaming all layers, folders, and file names in our native language.
Observation 2: Use pirated software to make your life easier. Oops, cannot!
I once had a project that required me to do a special kind of screen recording. To make that happen, I usually go to google and type in "screen, grab, video, record, software" keywords then click on the top link that appears on my search. If it's a free download software, I'm in luck but if not, I'm not losing hope for there are dozens of free serial key generator websites linked somewhere on the web galaxy. Things like free photoshop third party softwares, 3d flash generators, or unregistered after effects plug-ins that can zoom, swing, and thwack your project into limelight.
When I moved into a different country, much so in a country that possibly beheads pirates, I realized that relying on downloaded unregistered software cannot be a possibility anymore. I had to learn how to be resourceful enough depending on what I already have, or in other words, I had to learn things the hard way and not wish for a third party software to do everything for me in just one click. Boo-hoo.
Observation 3: There's always fresh meat available. (new talents, not THAT kind of meat)
True to it's promise, Singapore has produced some of the best graphic designers and illustrators today such as the Phunk Studio (www.phunkstudio.com), UFHO (www.ufho.com), Charlene Chua (www.charlenechua.com), and God knows who else is out there ready to take you out of business.
God knows also that it maybe one of the recent graduates of Temasek Polytechnic or Nanyang University that can have you penny-less for days because these young graduates are seriously ready to take over the world and your job by storm. I've seen thesis design exhibits from universities and I can say that some of their work can already pass as a professional. Their edge is not only that they are younger (and obviously cuter), is that they don't have a high salary expectation...some even don't have any expectation at all. What they need is experience and a lot of small companies get attracted to that so the challenge is to keep up with the trends and innovate to stay ahead of the competition. I can also try to "act-cute" to get the attention I want but that would only be possible if my boss is of the opposite sex. Lol.
Observation 4: If hired from another country, always try to impress colleagues...
Or else they would wonder why the hell are you there when their younger brother has better photoshop skills that you.
At first, they were all eyes on me. Every design I make is another intriguing piece that they have to see and measure up with. They will see if I'm really worth the levy they're paying.
I do this in most of my projects, add in a little extra to stir interest. Even if it's just a few fancy glowing lights here and there, thrown in a little concept of why this and that, a little more light glows it's enough already to make them all "nice, wow, and oh's" as if you already "belong". I also once did a funny thing of jazzing up a boring black and white storyboard by using bright colors and a few 3d shapes and the next thing I know was my AD calling my senior designer telling her that it was a bit too nice - or that I was also good illustrator who's putting in too much effort in a simple cellphone animation storyboard.
It's fun to do something over the edge once in awhile to impress but if done all the time, it may seem like I'm kissing ass already. I don't want to be foreigner who gets left out because she's kiss ass or something hehe.
It may seem like I'm putting myself in too much pressure, but honestly I just want to do my best (yeah whatever) and prove to them that even if I'm from a third world country that is popular of having house helpers that go to Lucky Plaza every Sunday, I can design kick ass stuff too that will make Philippines proud. (para sayo... ang interactive cd-rom na 'to)
Observation 5: A designer is a designer, a programmer is a programmer.
Unlike in the Philippines where I have become a jack of all trades, from being a print designer to web designer to GUI designer to animator to illustrator to programmer to technical representative (call center) to voice over to video editor to photographer to councilor to emcee to event organizer to dishwasher... here in Singapore, although being asked to do other simple designer related things as well, if you're job description says you're designer you are really just a designer and no screaming lungs out on you for having no idea what Ruby on Rails is all about. Thank God in this country they understand the difference between a web designer and a web developer.
They even have dla's (digital layout artists) who are skillful enough (they're angels) to help you do all the slicing and dicing of jpegs before submitting to the programmers. This is a huge change for me who is used to being a one woman team to now having a real talented team working on a project with me.
Although being a jack of all trades is good since you get to learn a lot by doing it yourself and you understand what the heck everybody else is doing, being brilliant in one particular skill is still much better because this sets you apart from the crowd and makes you very much marketable.
Being an expat designer is a fun experience because It feels like home seeing all the wonderful art pieces, installations, and decors around and yet it opens my eyes to more cultural influences that will improve my own style.
Even though I am in a company that has a staff as mixed as Yang Chow fried rice, i still believe we're all under the same culture and language of design. We use the same software here, there, and (i believe) everywhere so even if I'm a designer that may have come from Yemen, we can still be able to connect. Everybody is in one same wave length and that helps bridge the communication gap.
I may have to try to be more visual in explaining concepts next time though and probably on meetings, if flash cards or boards and mouthing off the words didn't work.. removing all conjunctions and cutting out a few words in my sentence will help do the trick. For example, instead of saying "If you would excuse me for a moment, I have to go to the ladies bathroom. Please carry on without me, it would only take a moment." I'd rather say "Go toilet. Cannot wait oreddy." and be happy for I was able to relay my point effortlessly.
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