Faces

My dream of passing the creative torch to the new-bloods died yet another painful death this year, and the task of designing the station's christmas card falls on my lap, again.

It all started when I heard the station wishing for a more personalized greeting card to replace the UNICEF cards it customarily gave out on Christmas. In between research work, I played with Photoshop and Pagemaker, and submitted my first design.

It got approved (aha, madali palang i-please mga tao dito. haha!), marking my first break into (extremely) amateur graphics design, and my unofficial designation as the station's designs/layout artist. It was only a few years ago when my job description got revised to include those functions.

The task gets gruelling each year: now I have to fit 43 people into a half-letter size postcard while trying to make it pass for a decent greeting card. The pictorials get more complicated (thus messier), the designs more demanding, and the deadline more toxic than ever.

I have to find someone to do this next year!! *reminder entered*

Anyway, there's (always) a certain high with designing the station's christmas card, however simple or amateur. Labor of love, maybe, and the chance to see the faces of people I hardly get to even talk to in this workplace -- taking note of the new faces, how the old ones have changed, and remembering those who were once part of this station's motley mob.

Looking back: a draft of my first proposed design. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a copy of the finished product.

OTY blues....

Unclogged

The mess at Mother Station must have been THAT bad if management had to declare November 2 and 3 as official clean-up days. Anyway, I agree that our area at Tech had been in a "creative, frantic chaos" for the longest time.

It took me nerves of steel to dump nine years worth of documents into garbage bags, scanning papers by the bunch for any sign of value or worth. My first pile ate up the whole morning, with the nagging thought of accidentally throwing away precious notes (like "Leo, use this format from now on" or "Do not use this!" or "Good work. You deserve a raise"-something-like-that-yeah-right-dream-on).

But no, people change and so does this organization.

By mid-day I cast all worries and loosened my grip on old documents and notes. In no time I was rid of over half the papers in my work area. There's much left to be done, but I say it was good enough for one day.

It was exhilirating and liberating -- throwing away all the mess with reckless abandon. I could get used to it. In fact, I just finished cleaning up our Kampo hideout, and threw (or rather, packed in black plastic bags) a LOT.

I hope the basureros (or rather, their kids) will find use to what's inside those black plastic bags. ^_^

Advance Merry Christmas!

Tsk. I need a bigger box...