Black-or-white
That day, when I first entered
to the classroom, I could smell the ominous premonition stemmed from the
turbid, damp atmosphere. Trying to ignore the symptom of chest tightness, I
pressed my heart and comforted myself that I would be right. However, it was
manifest that I could not breathe well as my frequency of breathing was
significantly increasing. Therefore, I decided to quit all lessons and find my
doctor.
“You are taking too serious on
your work.” Yeah, that was how my doctor explained to me. 2 weeks before, I
stressed myself and worked until morning for 2 days with 3 hours of sleep per
day, which gave a heavy work load to my heart. Wait, I know you might also work
all day long for numerous weeks but you have never been through this. That is
why I am special. With a long history of illness, I discovered that my body
would be weaken whenever I had a strong emotions. For instance, I would have a
stun if I got really angry. And this time, my pressure flood all my veins.
Where my pressure came from? Well,
let’s start from the most obvious cause. Time.
Other than a creative media student,
I am a flute, mandarin teacher, an IT in charge and graphic designer for 2
community centers, a freelance designer and a vice-chairman of a non-profit
making flute ensemble organization – Gavotte Flute Ensemble(GFE). Yeah, I know
the large amount of identities make me seem like an octopus. What will happen
if all the jobs collide with each other? It was what exactly happened 2 weeks
before. I was handling an application system changing project, all promotion
designs of a flag day and 10th anniversary activities, which included
all posters, the flag, booklets, etc. What was more, I also needed to design
the pull-up banner, business card and the change of the old application form in
a week for a public performance of GFE. And do not forget that I am also a
student who also needed to work on academic papers, design proposals and
programming works. Obviously, it was an impossible mission to finish it all
within a week. Limited time became an immense challenge
I might not admit myself as a
perfectionist but I always push myself to do the best. In the design industry
of Hong Kong, it is not difficult to work with the clients who know nothing
about how to promote their message efficiently and still want to control what
you design. I, as a designer, always try to find the best balance between the
commands from clients and my design beliefs. For example, the flag design. I
was being told to design the flag as heart-shape. Oh my god! Heart-shape is no
different from the fake usable floor area stated in the booklet by the land
agent. Although it looks great, heat-shaped can never deliver the message well
with the tiny rectangular area in the center. On top of that, they also embraced
a vain hope that it could contain 2 logos, 2 names and a bible sentence in such
area! In order to persuade them to forgo the use of heart-shaped and the bible
sentence, I designed 2 kinds of flags to magnify the weakness of heart-shaped. Here
I am, I would stress, force and compel myself to think out of the box and do
out of my limit whenever I design. That is how I work.
I completely understand what
would happen to my health if I continue to stay in this way. However, the
identities generated chances and my belief prompted improvements. They are the
one who depicts who am I today, which is the reason why I am not going to
change. This is me.
(627 words)
