I didn’t make it in time for your Friday 5, but I have 8 drawings to maybe make up for it. Since working I’ve started hearing the same phrases over and over again and I couldn’t help thinking about visualizing them the other day.
These are apparently the things I do at work.
This doodle I drew last year during finals week. I have always had a problem with overworking. I said one of my goals was to improve my work-life balance, but I’ve haven’t said much more because I think it sounds like a humblebrag. At CMU, the stress culture is expected and understood. Everyone doesn’t sleep and everyone will tell you about it. It’s been normalized.
But I happened to read this great Medium article today, “The Cult of Work You Never Meant to Join” (Jason Lengstorf) about the creeping overwork culture of a lot of tech companies.
The insidious thing about the Overkill Cult is that it masquerades as all the things we like most about ourselves: dedication, ambition, follow-through, responsibility.
It tells us to push harder, stay later, sleep when we’re dead. It tells us we’re never going to get ahead if we don’t show up first and go home last.
Cleverly, wickedly, the Overkill Cult persuades us to hang ourselves with our own strengths.
Oh man, guys, after today I will have worked an 80-hour work week. Feels like I’m in school again!
What’ I’ve been up to…
01. My new website, of course. It’s eaten my life. I still need to make business cards, but it seriously is such a relief not to have that eyesore anymore.
02. Coincidentally, I received four requests on Tuesday from four different people who had “emergency” design requests that all need to be done..in like two days. Three logos and one advertisement. One of them is 10x more difficult than I thought it would be and I’ve already spent hours doodling in my notebooks for it.#FirstWorldProblems
03. Meanwhile, I had already promised an invitation to be completed by this Friday (I just sent in my draft this morning. You know I mean 3:30am right?). I liked how it turned out a lot, I try to learn something new for projects where I get a lot of creative license and I learned how to do two new things on Illustrator. Exciting!
04. Created two mobile websites whilst working with a new client. Still working out the kinks, but it was interesting. Don’t be impressed, I used a mobile-website builder.
05. Request to design a t-shirt for a major concert. This sounds really fun. I just hope I’m allowed enough time to do a good job.
I’ve decided, starting in 2013 I’m going to have to be more stern against these last-minute requests. It’s not that I don’t want to do it, I usually really do. The plain fact-of-the-matter is that good design takes time. The more time and thought you let me have, the more that will show up in the end. For the most part, I’m not as proud of the work I have to do when I’m rushed. I think people have the tendency to ask for “a quick ____” meaning: “make it simple because I don’t want to pay a lot.” But making something simple—reduced, elegant, impressive—can take even more time. It’s a compromise for me and my clients that leaves both parties a little unsatisfied. Right? Right.
That’s the plan, anyway. I just want to help everyone always, so I’m not confident in my ability to be a gatekeeper.
Oh, hey there. Gosh, I’ve blogged nearly everyday this week (I gave up Facebook and it shows) and I still have to do something today!? It’s kind of crazy right now because I’m at work preparing to do do the art walk and it’s been a crazy day at work:
I was pulled in ten different directions at work and from clients, and then my boss ended day by bringing in overnight-ed stone crabs for us all to eat. So delicious! There might be a lot of things in this world that I cannot do, but one thing I can do is crack a crab claw, stone or no. Seriously, I was functioning at expert mode.
The night is kicking off! Got to go!
…at my first “real” job.
01 | A collection of shot glasses in the kitchen.
02 | A dog carrying a ball, begging different members at a business meeting to play fetch with it.
03 | “BRO!”
04 | “Throw it! Throw it! Throw it!” Chanted in unison by children to an adult (supposedly holding something).
05 | Legit coffee-shop coffee, an espresso machine, and an energy drink station.
Since I’ve starting actually working with social media (for reals, not just my CIA-like facebook stalking that’s all me) I’ve realized how short my attention span is, which I blame all the neat things on the internet. The fact that I always have like 4 windows open with 10 tabs on each, am usually chatting, have 5 different applications open….it’s really madness. Being ADD on the computer just comes naturally to me. One thing will remind me of another, and another, and another, and then I’ll just want to buy something…
But anyway: focus. My Friday Five is going to be five things I’m thinking about right now:
01 | “Hello Little Girl” by The Beatles. I have their anthology so I have all there really old stuff and this was playing on my drive in to work today and I really like it. At first I was like, are they making cat noises? But, I don’t think so. The little noise just says it all, doesn’t it?
02 | I got a MacBook Pro for work and I already feel like we’re best buds. Like, i don’t feel like there was that initial awkwardness as you get used to a new machine. Probably because we already shared a traumatic experience together. We were meant to be together.
03 | I want to learn how to quilt. And knit mittens with the little patterns on them. Pam can do it, why can’t I!?!
04 | I’m worried about my posture. I have always had excellent posture, but I feel like I’m on the computer too much now.
05 | I’m going to start running (it goes without saying that I mean “jogging”) and yoga. It’s going to happen. For seriously.