HAhaaaa…… had a good relaxing weekend. Went for my boss punye open hse. Eventhough hujan lebat macam hape, bt the kambing panggang made my day. Been craving for roast lamb for quite sumtime. Now am looking for good place to eat tempura. Any ideas anyone?

Its been a good week. Had my design picked for Kejohanan Bola Piala MB Selangor. I’m gonna have my first billboard!!! YAY!!!! Jakun gila siot!! And the logo is going to be permanent for the years to come. Bestnyee perasaan! Sorilaa guys, I get excited everytime my work gets published. Eventho. Sometimes the design may kena kutuk ngan golongan professional in the creative industry but it feels good nonetheless, when your work gets to be in the public eye. (Kecoh giler la minah designer sorang ni.)

Hey, bt dats a sign of some1 who loves what she does and has passion in her work tau. Biarpun a small insignificant job, I’ll do my best. I have been told many discouraging things in the past by people in the industry. Ade yang cakap I takde passion in my work. Ade yang cakap my design ketinggalan zaman, tak dynamic…. Bykla lg. When 1 party likes the design, the other party says its horrendous. Biasala tu. You cant please everybody. What’s important is to just keep on swimming and keep on producing good work and be open to learning frm anyone, everyone and everything. Sometimes, its hard to listen to others, I am degil myself, bt give it a while to sink in then I’ll see the light of the matter.

Cita cita dulu nk jd creative director in advertising. Had an interview once kt Leo Burnett bt for the post of malay copywriter. My BM is hampeh bt I went anyway for the oppoturnity. I showed my work to Ali Muhammad and ade yg die suke ade yg tak. Bt not enough to convince him to hire me as a designer. Sedih jugak bt then dh not meant to be. I’m not good enough – YET. Everytime I see a good piece of work I get jealous cos I wish I’d be able to think like that. I hoped it was my work. To work in advertising, you’d have no life. You eat sleep live in the office. N dat way of life wont make me happy or my parents happy.

The creative industry is one dat doesn’t end after office hours. It extends beyond that. There are bt a few yang ikut office hours bt even then, you’d have to bring work home. The more big jobs you take up, the more money you make, the more work you have to do, the more of life you have to sacrifice. Dependsla, nk buat duit byk ke tak. Thing is, money is not my motivation. I just want to experience producing a great piece of work. 1 that touch people’s lives in ways you cant really measure.

I want to have a body of work that will contribute some meaning to the design industry in Malaysia. Like increase awareness of the importance of design in business. In engineering. When people start understanding the role design can play in developing every industry, products will be better, sales will increase, economy will flourish (then perhaps they’ll pay designers better too). The design profession is a profession like any other profession. A designer is a professional. You need skills and knowledge to be a designer. Not just because you were an art student in high school it automatically means you are a designer. Anyone and everyone can design. It is a human activity much like eating and drinking. But to be a good designer, you need more than artistic merit. Creativity is a way of thinking. Design is more about what you can do with your head than what you do with your hands. I am a designer bukan sebab I pandai lukis, drawing is something I learn in Uni. Anyone can learn it. I am a designer because I like the creative process of coming up with ideas for every different thing.

There are times you have to design for Islamic events. Ade time for a sports event. Most times for a new company, a bakery say. A website selling cigars. An annual report for a nuclear research plant. It can be anything and everything. Design is a language. A visual language. So to speak to different people you use different way of speaking. Like a person la. To talk to a VIP, you dress proper, you speak professionally, you send in someone like Wan Zaleha. To talk to the masses, to the makcik makcik so they buy your sabun basuh pinggan, u speak a language they understand, some 1 they like – send in Chef Wan ke.

So for every different job that I get, I get to think of how best to reach their target audience. Be it VIPs, makciks, nerds or rockers. Hip hoppers or jocks, desperate housewives or young wannabes. Suitability and versatility is core. It may be a nice design but if the people you intend the design for think its crap, then crap it is. You nk ckp diorang tak blajar design ke hape ke. They’re the masses, who are you?

Kalau creative industry boleh jadi icon, I think it should be Madonna. You have to be a chameleon and constantly reinvent yourself all the time. You have to be ahead of time but still relevant to the current.

Somewhere in the near future I hope, Malaysia could be the design capital of this part of the world at least. Much like what Ikea is for Sweden, Sony for Japan, Mac for the US, Nokia for Finland or even Disney for the world. I’m sure the designers of Malaysia have their own brand of unique creativity they could bring to design that differs from other parts of the world. It’s not far now. I’ve met a lot of talented designers and I notice a lot of good designs lately. The bus express during balik raya look better, some good packaging for krepek, logos like JKJR… (here’s crossing my fingers for perhaps better signages….)

So far I think our fine artist are doing well internationally, our fashion designers are on par with those in other countries, industrial design have very bright talents, I don’t know much about the ceramic and fine metal development though. Our textiles are being recognized. Our films and ads win awards. Graphic design is really a wide mmm bahagian of design. And apparently the most misunderstood as well.

I’ve been asked many times. “What exactly does a graphic designer do? Lukis lukis?” As much as it irks me to be looked upon like some kind of kuman with no real job, I try my best to explain nicely. I try hard not to get carried away with my “Design can save the world” lecture. A lot of people are still clueless. Some still think it is ART therefore not important and can’t be called a career. Boo Hoo.

So hopefully, this reaches a wider audience. For more details and endless trivia or questions on design. Send me a comment or msg. I am not an acclaimed expert on design but I do love what I do and am still constantly learning to better myself. Roll me ur opinions, suggestions even criticism…. I may be in denial at first but hey, once you’ve heard it, you can’t really get it out of ur head can you?