Tuesday, September 29, 2009

The Tail End

The last two weeks were busy for me. Now that most of my work is either with the printer or lettershop, I have plenty of time on my hands again. I don’t mind working on several project days in and day out with a few short breaks in between, but work comes few and far between, especially in the summer.

However, I had a short chat with the smaller Wendy this morning. She said that work on the second phase of a client’s new business venture would begin as early as next week. She was surprised I was ecstatic. I told her that if the agency on the other side was swamped and I wasn’t busy, I might go there and help Bart out.

Wendy thought that I would get paid extra. I told her no, which she believed was unfair, but I added that the additional work experience would look good on my résumé. Actually, I’d love to help them out to get more exposure, but I didn’t know where to begin.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Back to the Norm Again

So, after a busy week, I’m back to waiting for work to return again. Last week was fun while it lasted. I enjoyed every minute of it. It also made the day go fast. This week is the complete opposite.

There’s not much projects to begin with. Monday, I saw my billable hours diminishing. No matter how hard I tried to prolong the work, it simply wasn’t enough to last the whole day. It’s already the middle of the week and I only have nine client-chargeable hours.

And I never got to work for the other side, even though Petra, Bart and Dennis asked me to earlier.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Busy — So Far

My week started off with typesetting an unapproved copy for a DM letter. I had to do this in advance to give me an idea how the text would fit the letterhead, graphics included. So far, I’m still waiting for the final approved copy. Later, Cathy asked me to typeset a service charge comparison table for the client, which was a bit challenging because this was the first time I created a table using InDesign. It turned out much better than I thought, however.

Then there was this appointment notice that I had to layout quickly. The client wanted six designs, but I came up only with five. However, the smaller Wendy, who was handling this project, decided to hand only four because she felt that the last one, which was my favourite among the five because of its uniqueness, might be too difficult to produce. At least, that’s what she thought.

Then I had to cover for two persons. The bigger Wendy is getting married for the second time tomorrow, and Bart, the graphic artist from the other side of the wing, is taking a day off today to spend some quality time with his wife.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Some Work — Finally

This week was off to a good start. First of all, it was Labour Day on Monday, making this a short workweek. Second, there was work to be done.

I started Tuesday with last week’s outside envelope. Thursday, I worked on some client edits on an existing brochure. Unfortunately, both projects weren’t enough to keep me busy for the entire week; I only clocked 6.5 hours of billable time. I continued to spend the remainder of my day watching online videos on Photoshop CS3’s channels and masks.

It’s going to be a short workweek, too, next week. I have been summoned for jury duty.

Thursday, September 3, 2009

To Work or Not to Work

After working since Monday on this marketing project (an outside envelope in English and French), I now have some downtime while waiting for client approval. However, I’d rather be working on a certain project instead of trying to keep myself busy.

Yesterday, I tried to while away the time by converting logos to duotones and tweaking images to near perfection. Also, Petra from the other agency in the floor asked me if I could help them out with their work. I couldn’t say no because I needed to make myself useful. Besides, working with them would add another feather to my cap. But Bart said that I was off the hook for now, as he didn’t want me to start working in the middle of a long document.

That worked well for me; otherwise, they could have had me working tomorrow and in the weekend (our office is closed on Friday for the long Labour Day weekend).

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Brian

I got to talk to Brian, the new guy in Toronto. The small Wendy said that he’s a graphic designer there; but during my dealings with him, particularly in the graphics field, he sounded more like a creative director. That from a guy who’s only been in the company for five months!

My first impression of him was that he’s another fussy guy who’s hard to please (much like Jim). However, he actually knew what he was talking about. He even gave me tips in working with duotones. He was a cool guy after all; but to me, he’s still another hurdle to jump. (I learned later that he's an art director or something.)

Work!

The title says it all. Last Friday, the small Wendy gave me a heads-up for incoming work (she even said earlier that this was the calm before the storm). It came late in the afternoon.

The job was for an outside envelope for a client’s marketing campaign. It was pretty straightforward, except for the main graphic, which should be in duotone.

It was a good thing I learned this stuff at lynda.com, especially masking, editing channels and the like. I only learned these in theory; now, I got to put them in practice.

Also, the big Wendy told me yesterday that I could help out the other ad agency that occupied the other wing because they’re swamped. Maybe that’s the reason why one of them, Bart, a graphic artist, dropped by my office to check out what I was doing.