Thanks to an ex-colleague of mine, I managed to get screen shots of 2 established companies who are facing a rather sticky situation here…
First, we have our dear Her World magazine, test sending out their EDMs in the masses that are guarantee to irritate users entertaining themselves with the string of repetitions landing in their inboxes:
Then we have popular online fashion store, Reebonz, who clearly thought their user was a test subject:
Our verdict: Your customers’ inboxes are NOT your platforms for beta-testing…bad move, web developers.
Forget about cheap foreign labour when you can get free labour in your own home! That’s right, First World dwellers, you hear me. From the streets of London to the whole EU continent, even up to the Hollywood hills in the USA, why pay cheap when you can get it for FREE? These free labourers are called interns, and if you have not made use of them, you should! You only need to pay for their lunches and transport, and in some cases, non at all! They are young, smart and degree-certified from a credited university in the First World.
What’s more, they are willing to clock in the full hours just like a fully-paid professional (without the min. wage, of course), and if that is not enough, you can also get them to serve you coffee in between.
Why?
Because they are dying to for a job. They thirst for it. Give them countless of empty promises of a full-time position, and they are sure to stick around longer. Perhaps you can even coax them to work overtime, all without pay! Isn’t that fantastic news for all you exploitative bosses out there who are unashamed to fatten your profits while these little minions can simply starve for all you care!
And if this is not enough to make you sick, I don’t know what else can. Even cheap, unqualified foreign labour gets paid, but not fresh graduates in the First World nations. Graduate Fog, a UK-based website dedicated to the cause of the youths while shaming companies that benefit from unpaid internships, has religiously updated any happenings regarding youth employment and internships.
I personally wished I knew all the good advice much earlier in my fledgling years rather than now. Honestly, some of the repercussions from my previous experiences of exploitation can still take an emotional toil on me from time to time even after all these years, and I am too ashamed and angry to name them as references. Waste of my potential, time, money and energy. Not to mention that their names are not worth mentioning in the first place, so no free publicity for them by me.
And why these sick politicians legalise exploitation in the guise of “free internship” for a reason so obvious that is non other to please those fat elites so that they can retain their attractive tax contributions.
Just recently, I was updated by friends that some of them were still doing internships on end after graduating 4 years ago! Studying masters was a way of escape from the dreadful unemployment rather than for knowledge sake. How much time can young people afford to waste?? And as they get older and still out of a job, they will more likely be pushed away as potentials when the next batch of fresh youths graduate each year. Job centres are getting over-crowded and depressing for many who do not get a single call from them.
Gone are the notions that exploitation only happens in the Third World. We are seeing countless of talented, smart young people working for nothing in bright day light, and still pretend that its alright. How much can we afford to stamp out their morals and brainwash their conscience?
If office politics are getting in your way of you succeeding, I would have won the silver medal for that journey which I managed to painfully overcome, and still am.
Half a decade of freelance for so many industries and companies, and the experience has truly been an eye-opener. Some good, some bad, some worst! I could count more than my fingers and toes lumped together, the number of times that I have been framed, made the scapegoat, back-stabbed, exploited…you name it. I can basically write a whole book dedicated to my experiences which I am sure can turn into a great drama script! And still, it never fails to amaze me how others have endured much worst (OK, the Foxconn suicides are out of the question).
From the mean MNCs to the struggling SMEs, the cycle of office politics just continues to amuse me. If my previous post on one of the worst working experiences is not enough to set one thinking why I would continue this journey, just a few months before, I was freelancing for a design agency that frowned upon “unfinished” work (ie. BOO to white space). Designing 1-page layouts on Illustrator rather than on InDesign was law. I was “tested” for a month (honestly, a month is not enough for a designer to settle down in the style and footsteps of the company) to determine whether I would fit for a full-time position, along with another freelancer who was the same age. Sadly, most of our times were spent doing almost nothing as a full-time minion (also same age) hesitated suspiciously to give us work, but was happily offering them to the cheaper, junior staff who were on a 3-month probation (unsurprisingly). We found out later from the director that this minion claimed he had “no confidence” in handing us the projects because “he questioned our abilities”. I was later called in to the director’s room, and was told that I and the fellow freelancer would not be offered the jobs (looking back now, thank GOD!). As much as he was really nice and extremely respectable, my ears could not help ache at his words despite that it was out of good intentions (at least he thought so): “I cannot pay you at the rate you are asking for. Your skills don’t match it…. Most agencies would not hire you because you are a parent…you should seek your dad for financial help, or find another job other than graphic design as you are not cut out for graphic design.”
Slightly more than a month after I was let off, I was hired by another agency which I thought was God-sent: way cooler with much more exciting projects, 70% of the staff are parents (thank you!), and of course, a much higher pay with OT (yay!). Meeting angels are indeed rare. I couldn’t stop being thankful enough that God and the circumstances have time and time again, prove the critics wrong, especially those who have tried to pull me down, unintentionally or not. As I write with glee at the thought of a recent big project I completed for a huge client in Singapore which will be projected at a TV screen at an upcoming big event, my parting words for those have been victims of unfair office politics:
Never give up and never believe entirely what you hear. Listen ONLY to good advice that will build you up. Believe in yourself and you will make it!
When Adobe made the announcement of discarding the continuation of Flash for mobile recently, Steve Jobs must now be enjoying the last laugh. While Adobe stated that they will continue to provide support for Flash on mobile, I knew this was the mark of the slow suicide of every web designer’s best friend that have served us well more than a decade. After all, 12-year-olds attempted to master it, tutors recommended it, jobs demanded it, non-web graphic designers feared it, not to mention the appraisals from online galleries and competitions that proudly display the best designed Flash-based sites. Flash was going up…up…up to its heights of glory (or so we thought), until stubborn Apple changed that with the release of their anti-Flash iPads and iPhones.
Adobe’s announcement created a feeling of loss, nostalgia and frustration mixed with the numb, expressionless of “face it, just move on” in me, making Flash harder to let go. After all, I breathed Flash, ate Flash and slept with Flash, despite after it being sold to Adobe by Macromedia (oh…thanks), not forgetting the awful transition from ActionScript 2 to ActionScript 3 which created shudders down my spine at the sight of its almost unfamiliar and longer coding (I admit I have yet to learn AS3, but I guess that does not matter anymore). Right now, the trend is in favour of HTML 5 and CSS 3 as the next big thing after Flash for the mobile and the world wide web, which do not require an additional plugin to play them, despite their developments still at its fledgling years.
The question for us designers is, is Flash still a skill necessary to master? For now yes, if not for the web or mobile, it is still pretty useful for TVs and projector screen presentations. But I worry it may water down that way unless Adobe can come up with something to make Flash remain competitive. We have no choice, but to head in the direction of HTML 5 and CSS 3, and (painful) JavaScript as dictator technology, whose ever-changing evolution that many of us minions do not take charge, commands us to.
Flash will not die off for now, but its suicide bomb has just began to tick…
Is this royalty-free design some popular download or not? At last caught the culprit who supplies it online via their ads! And as if people do not suffer enough shame by already using that on their business cards even though they are from very different companies, this design still lives on. “Fully Cutomisable”? Vistaprint, you should be ashamed of yourself!
SimCity - a computer game that allows you to build your own city was a big hit among the teens for its fun and sophisticated graphics. I, a self-proclaimed fan till this day, recalled the way I built my own cities – built-up, filling every conceivable space with high-rise residential and commercial buildings, and ensuring no space was spared of my invading construction woes. To me, crowded was beautiful, simply because I come from populous, skyscraper-ridden Singapore. My sister was also guilty of building her cities in a similar fashion.
Once in the UK, I was greeted by colourful friends from all over the world, people who come from countries obviously many times bigger than the small dot on the map. No matter how different we were, many of us were united by the single love for computer games. I committed every Friday to visit my good’ol university mates for our weekly computer game addictions, and one of our common fixes was SimCity 4. I was fascinated by my Maldivian game partner’s frequent use of low-lying buildings and open spaces, a far cry to my suffocating layout. And it made sense. His graphic design pieces have always been minimalist but smart, while mine was filled with more components before I melted with the British style of optimized graphic design that is not too overwhelming, and that embraces minimal abstracts that still effectively conveyed the message to the target audience.
And now back to Singapore. Minimalist design? Nope, not very much welcome here. “Portfolio looks…unfinished,” so remarked a creative director who once hired me for freelance, whose “finished” taste led him to doubtfully question if I was even cut out to be a designer (lol). Other creative directors had mixed reactions as to my artworks during my first year at home after a 6-year stint overseas. A few of them insisted me adding more components to the artworks, while the rest remained content with my artworks…”unfinished” or not. It wasn’t a matter of good or bad design, it was a problem of differing aesthetic tastes shaped by different cultures. My Chinese friend shared with me similar experiences where her British-taught design skills were not entirely welcome in her homeland China, as she was made to add more components than needed. Needless to say, we were foreigners in our homeland who had to relearn all over again.
This time around, when I design for an Asian client, I made sure I add a bit more spice to my graphic works than I’d normally do for a European client. And as the ever-growing waves of globalisation continue to rise, the now 40% foreigner-filled Singapore will be challenged on whether keeping its current taste for “crowded” design will stand with time. It is vital for any graphic designer to understand the culture and design tastes of your client’s host country, even if that country is your home. Let me part with this finishing video for those who still remain in debate whether a minimalist design is considered “unfinished” or not:
Ever since I graduated from the UK during the early years of one of the world’s worst economic crisis, I realised that I have arrived this far through persistent hardship and commitment as a freelance graphic designer, having right now under my belt, more than 10 big clients on my clientele list.
Now that I am based in Singapore, I still cannot ignore the news about what is happening to my 2nd home. UK and the whole European continent are still in financial shatters, and with the recent riots in London, the situation is not any better. With many European nations suffering a 2-digit percentile of youths aged 16-25 years in unemployment (Spain being the worst at a staggering 45%), my heart goes out to them as each individual is a constant reminder of my humble, struggling beginnings in a foreign country – no networks, no contacts, no job. Even more heart-breaking was the suicide of talented British job-seeker, Vicky Harrison. And yes, the unemployed are 2-3 times more likely to commit suicide, as many statistics show.
I chanced upon this very interesting video about the struggling British youth:
Though I should count myself lucky for now, my early journey was quite similar to Vicky’s: send out 100s of CVs till the cows go home and not a single call for interview, doing multiple unpaid internships with little hope of gaining full-time employment at the work place, you-tubing hours on end to distract myself from my unemployment miseries and clinging on to a brighter hope of getting it there when potential employers show interest, only to be crushed flat to the ground by their excuses of not wanting to hire me.
Yes, I’ve been there, knocked hard, dragged through the dust, succumbed to endless imaginations and wishful thinking of making it there like the happy workers who walk past me, driving own their own cars, dining out and feeding their families. Such simple fares became luxurious as the bank account grew smaller by the enormous daily living expenses.
I sympathise with Vicky in every way who lost her self-esteem, hope and meaning to life when the 200th rejection came. Such was I adamant to get the job I studied a degree for that I went freelance after a year of free internships. The humiliation of not getting paid for the work I do while the fat cats became fatter was way too much for me. I did some research of course, before plunging into the ocean of the unknown like that. Within less than 3 months, I was able to fish in some clients to be able to pay my London room rent every month.
Trials and errors soon pursued, as my inexperience led to some mini disasters along the way (thank God they were not costly!). However, I was quite determined to cut through the tough fabric of the dog-eat-dog world and within less than 2 years since I started my first freelance job, I won 2nd place in London’s 2009 Cut-and-Paste 2D Design competition, along with getting some of my work featured in a few press and my articles published. Mind you that I did not start off with a business-savvy mindset, only just the strong will and determination to be where I want to be that led me to this day.
That is not to say I did not have my bad moments. Coming home to Asia proved as much difficult despite the much brighter economic stability, as long-term freelancers were interrogated during interviews as to why they did not commit themselves to any company, and the constant competition with cheap foreign labour and fresh graduates are just as exhausting.
Alright, enough of my personal story here but my point is, not every one is born or bred with entrepreneurial smarts. I am sick and tired of those rich, arrogant entrepreneur morons who love to flaunt fashionably their earlier struggles while shaking their heads away at the youth’s inability to achieve that level of success. This cruel world will do anything to feed its greed in a midst of difficult times, even if it means getting you in a hire-and-fire temporary job situation than a permanent one. They don’t care about if we have families to feed or if you are going to die tomorrow while we continue to seethe in jealousy and resentment as the young new duchess of Britain enjoys her luxurious life with her rich Prince William, immune to unemployment and financial woes.
I hate to acknowledge it, but yes, we are experiencing a lost generation of talents. Bet you graduates did not expect you’d be in the bandwagon, did you? After all, life under mum and dad was so comfortable that the hint of economic trouble wouldn’t be able to shake us from our naive ignorance. That, I will have to blame our generation of elders who have shielded us too much from the hardship necessary to mould us. One more year on the dole without a job and your skills will go down, down, down the hill. Some of my European ex-schoolmates who graduated at the same time with me, have since resigned to a life of being a cashier, waiter, salesgirl etc. while struggling to pay off student loans on a degree that never blossom into a profession.
Seriously, I see many of the youths sending CVs and doing all they can to get their foot in the door. Visit a restaurant and you’ll can find as many as half of the staff are fresh graduates. The last thing these Gen Ys need are to be accused for their ‘laziness’, as some ignorant members of the older generation do. Blame it on the system, the disastrous political decisions and the economic situation that are making life very difficult for many of them. Temporary jobs are not going to kiss all the pain away in the long run, so while employers may enjoy the low-cost benefits of hiring temporary workers, they can lose out on workers’ loyalty and commitment to the company which are essential to the company’s overall health.
Authorities should not ignore the importance of investing back into the young rather than focus heavily on the already rich and capable. Education must think outside the academic box to prepare students in the event of a recession, as the conventional saying that “you can get a better paying job with a degree” no longer holds true. The London riots speak for themselves after the withdrawal of government funds on youth activities and investments, not to mention the social ills of binge drinking, drugs and the widening rich-poor income gap that come along with it.
Until things do change for the better, it will be a jaw-breaking situation to see the scores of millions of youths out of jobs and out of their minds. By the time the economy does recover for the better, it may be too late for many of them to gain back their confidence. The future repercussion from what is happening today may be yet another tsunami waiting to be unleashed.
MySpace or My _____, as it is now known, was the ultimate holy grail of social networking way back then – those born in the 80s and 90s can reminisce with me…NOT!
You were out of the space of you were not in my Space. It was the undisputed leading social network that took over the world, the social drug that circles of friends log-in secretly behind computer screens during class . However, MySpace’s early success would eventually be its own bitter medicine.
I recalled how classmates and friends competed with each other to see who has the “prettiest and coolest” profile layouts. MySpace enabled each user to customise their profile by adding and altering their own HTML/CSS codes. To facilitate such demand, there were dozens of sites providing free ready-made MySpace layout designs based on a variety of themes: celebrities, weather, party, fantasy….etc. You just copied the code and pasted it into your profile palette. The task can be daunting if your customised buttons or images did not aim well at where the default links are supposed to be underneath…those who frequently design MySpace layouts would know what I mean.
Meanwhile, everyone who opened a MySpace account would have this default friend called “Tom”, whom I thought, since its “A Place for Friends” as their slogan points out, why the heck would I want him there anywhere? It was also the place for musicians to reach out to their target audiences since it provided the convenience to attach a music player to play selected songs, as well as send out multiple invitations and establish many viral marketing schemes. Rumours has it that Lily Allen’s claim to fame through MySpace was nothing but a marketing sham in order to attract more artists and musicians to its site… sorry Lily.
On the back-end side, MySpace was not compliant with the HTML/CSS citeria set out by WS3. With little set restrictions, malformed CSS codes and poorly contructed layouts meant longer loading times, or freezing altogether. It became a hotbed for spams and spyware alike, peppered with cheap-looking emoticons and irritating gif. banners. I can go on and on about its faltering elements which Wikipedia has pretty much got it covered in detail.
Despite that, we still had fun checking out our friends’ updates daily. We seemed pretty much accustomed to live peacefully with the faults of the network, until an avalanche of a new, burgeoning social network shook our deep slumber – Facebook.
How on earth were we mortals prepared that a mere college student our age would one day topple this giant from its pedestal? I know – a good user-interface that was clean, easy-to-use with a much faster downloading time. The opportunity for big money could not be easier.
Facebook’s USPs were practically the opposite of MySpace. No more fanciful layouts, kill off those spam comments and bulletins, and of course, ultra-privacy. The layout was monotonous throughout for every individual (and we appreciate it), and the apps and little games that came along with it were fun. See, you still can make money out of the cleanest and minimalist layout. Loading time was much faster, and getting automated reminders of your friends’ updates were one huge sigh of relief. New functions included update tweets (which Twitter eventually expanded upon), tagging of photos and the “like” buttons. Ads are strewn neatly on the right while our profile information sits still in a much more readable manner with black text on a white background. Can we never stop being forever grateful to the elimination of vommit-induced, coloured texts that became unreadable on multi-fanciful layouts in MySpace!
Necessary restriction enforcement by Facebook ironically meant greater expansion of creative apps, for the network was compliant with WS3 standards and the such, calling for proper web coding and WS3 complaint apps.
MySpace has since been close to reduced to ashes due to rapidly dwindling number of users eager to migrate to Facebook. Not only has it lost millions of dollars, it had to lay-off thousands of employees as a result. Their new look now eliminates all the blasphemous atrocities, having news feeds and functions similar to Facebook, catering to music and entertainment instead. My MySpace profile has since been altered and no longer in working condition after the changes. But the changes may have come too late to win back popularity if MySpace had not sat too comfortably for years in its trophy state, resulting in its complacency and insistence of its monopolist functioning.
The moral of the story? Well, the title speaks for itself!
The recent spotting of fake Apple stores in Kunming, China by American blogger, BirdAbroad, has sparked intense international interest and controversy.
The Apple stores looked so real that even the employees were fooled into thinking that they were really working for Steve Jobs, so said the news. Yet, the stores’ haphazard floor planning and shoddy workmanship were among the few loopholes that aroused suspicion on its authenticity. This was confirmed when the city of Kunming was not on the list of resellers as mentioned in Apple’s website.
The most eye-catching to the graphic design police and to BirdAbroad was the spotting of the words “Apple Store” next to the iconic Apple logo:
(Photos by BirdAbroad)
If it was not for Apple’s brand guidelines, almost non of us could have guessed it. Just in case you do not know what are brand guidelines, this article by Matt McMillann of Fuse 8 explains it. Giant advertising group, Saatchi&Saatchi provides 20 top tips for designing effective brand guidelines.
The moral of the story? Protect your brand, invest in brand guidelines! Brand guidelines is the holy grail that will stand the test of time for generations, the heart that pumps blood into the brand. Following up from my previous post “Good Design + Inconsistency = Bad Design“, I cannot help but repetitively emphasize the importance of establishing brand guidelines to many start-up entrepreneurs before they go on designing their brand. Sadly, many choose to ignore this life-saving advice due to budget reasons and common misconceptions that brand guidelines are “restrictive”.
As evident from the fake Apple store logo incident, brand guidelines are necessary in enabling customers to help identify the real brand itself. If it were not for BirdAbroad’s observation and recognition of a regular Apple store logo based on her travelling experiences, I don’t think she would even think twice about entering the store.
Apple is not the only victim. Major fashion labels are magnets for copycats out there hungry to make a quick buck. In a flea market in Thailand, I once chanced upon an “LV” bag riddled with cartoon-like cherries with eyes (!!) all around its iconic brown leather skin…can someone say ew? Even consumers know its fake, and LV will never sell its products at low-end shops and cheap streets. Why we know that? Exactly because of long-established branding framework and ethos.
I sighed as I recalled a nauseating experience with a company which commissioned me to design their website and site banners. Not only was the boss and the management team inexperienced in their encounters with a designer and design itself, their refusal to spend on brand guidelines in order to cut costs and their unrealistic expectations and differing opinions resulted in banner designs that required changing in its key style every so often after its launch, confusing both its identity and users. The last time I checked, they changed again, this time looking very much like one of their competitors whom they rely as their design textbook, and I wondered truly, any tom, dick and harry out there can copy and design the banners in the similar haphazard manner and still claim they are representing the company itself! Or maybe their competitor would sue over design imitation issues. Even their products were poorly packed before they invested in proper packaging, leading earlier consumers to question if they were really serious about what they claimed they are – upmarket luxury. I was not surprised by the resulting dismal sales and the complaints on their social media. Now that is really costly if you count the loss in potential profits.
If you are not confident in your identity, no one will be confident in you, simple as that. Brand guidelines may not protect the intellectual property completely, but they do protect the integrity and authenticity of the brand.
For start-ups on a low budget, it would be worth-while hiring a small branding agency or freelancer to help you establish your brand guidelines. Take it seriously, because your consumers do too.
