Presenting Forecept’s new Design Machine: She comes in a small package, barely five feet tall, with long black hair (that still keeps on getting long because she finds the hair salons in Singapore very expensive) and bright-colored shoes. A Filipina with 6 years of design experience behind her, this little woman braves six people (read: Project Managers/Account Executives) who regularly turns on “The Design Machine” to create new web design, revise the new web design, create simple flash animations, draw stick figures and rough storyboards, create direct mail marketing designs, design new logos, brainstorm for a pitch project, understand creative briefs and try to create a design brief for clients who wanted to have a website but don’t have any idea on what to place on their websites. This design machine can work with grace under pressure, fragile yet hardened by experience, works best when listening to her favorite music and knows how to laugh at her own mistakes.

This is most likely what will be written in my product brochure if I happen to be a design machine. And I’d like to think that I am exactly that.

On Tuesday, I will be celebrating my 2nd month as Forecepts’ (http://www.forecepts.com/index.php) new design machine. They say that the company is known for its back-end programming and web development services with its back-end operations done in their Johor office in Malaysia. The sales/account executive office is situated near Jalan Besar in Singapore. Companies seek out their web development and programmers and along the way, they were also faced with clients requiring the whole package that includes web design. In the past years, they were able to outsource the design until finally, they decided to hire a new web/graphic designer on board due to increasing demand for the complete package. 

The Road to the Forest

It was April 24 when I first set foot on Forecepts’ cozy office for my first interview with the manager and, like any other job interviews that I’ve had in my whole life, he delivered the default ending to every job interview conversation, “We’ll call you”. Six days after the interview, I received an e-mail from him and told me that they’re having a final round of choosing their new designer, so they decided to hold a sort of “web design contest”, the lucky winner will get the job as the coveted prize. He asked me if I will be participating and of course, the design machine that I am, I bowed to the challenge and willed myself to create a good design.

It was the 5^th of May when I received an email stating a job offer. I thought to myself, so I’m the winner huh? In the field of design, being chosen as the new designer or winning a pitch project does not mean that you’re better than the other designers. I think all of us, the designers, the account executives, the clients, the boss are all playing mind games. Its just a matter of second-guessing what design approach will work for a certain client, and when you hit the target bulls-eye, then you get the job, or the project.

So I think I have to add some new text in my product brochure: Forcepts’ new design machine also comes with the ability to play mind games with clients, account executives and other designers.

To date, this Design Machine was able to produce 9 new web designs, some flash animations and a lot of internet direct marketing materials. She was able to win a pitch project for an international water technology company.

Now, the account executives pressed the “pressure” button, so that the machine can produce Forecept’s new corporate identity that includes logo, letterheads, business cards, new website, the works! The Design Machine just smiled and a button started to light up, blinking are words in red letter, “Grace Under Pressure”.

May 15, 2008

34 days and 2,285.75 miles away from the Philippines, my employer informed me that I have to wait another 7 days for the approval of my Employment Pass from Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower.  So it’s another week of doing what I want to do whenever I feel the urge to do it. I’ve really tried to plan my activities for each day, and at times I was able to follow them. But most of the time, I would take a detour from my plans and let my whims and mood take over.

It was the 5^th of May, 23 days and 5 interviews later, that I received a job offer as a web designer for a web design company.  I felt utter relief and the plain old feeling of happiness when you have finally been given the thing that you need most. 23 days of stress and a feeling of uncertainty is a sad companion, even more so when you’re in a foreign land and you have this feeling that you’re just an outsider looking in.

That was 10 days ago and at last, I was able to really relax and sink in the still unfamiliar way of Singapore’s life. I even received another job offer a week after I received the first one, but hey, first come first serve. For the past ten days, I had watched TV series on video streaming until the wee hours of the morning. I slept late, ate breakfast at 10 a.m. and had lunch at 3 p.m. At times I would go to this place called Kovan City, some 3 or 4 bus stops away from my place. It’s quite near our place and if you’re in the mood, you can walk all the way up to there. I would usually eat my lunch at the hawker food stalls and spend the rest of the afternoon at MacDonald’s. I read Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “Strange Pilgrims” and indulge in melancholy as the characters in the short stories mirror the way I feel to be in a foreign land on my own and for the first time. When I don’t want to read anymore, because these short stories are meant to be indulged one at a time, I would open my sketchpad and doodle my thoughts away.

When my eyes got tired from all the reading and doodling, I would enter the Heartland Mall to feast my eyes on things I couldn’t buy. I only have meager allowance and I reserve it for food, rent and necessary things that I need. Sometimes I would just wander around this small space aimlessly, looking into things that I don’t really see and hearing spoken words that I can’t understand. I feel so detached from the mall and the people, and there I am again, an outsider looking in. I never would have thought that I’m going to miss the familiarity and the “happy atmosphere” that one can feel whenever I enter malls back home. I never would have thought that I’ll fondly remember SM Megamall or the smiles and “good morning ma’am, welcome to Jollibee” warm greetings from fast food chains. Now, I can see and feel with my own eyes that Filipinos are one of the warmest and welcoming people I know.

So here I am, still suspended in the anxiety of waiting. But I carried in my heart the things that can’t fit in my luggage. Faith and hope.