Defination of PASSION: strong feelings;love, hate, anger, enthusiasm (Oxford dictionary). live and breath with it.

My PASSION for life is undoubtly the arts and design. This is all I want to do in my life. I always thought if I am to do something else, I will still continue to design.

Non-design friends always ask me, why do I put so much time in my work. The truth is, I really enjoy doing what I am doing now. I am happiest working out concepts, fretting over the color, the typography, the paper, the print amongst other things I have to consider to finalize a piece. The end results after you have piece together all the puzzles is without doubt very satsifying. I love the adrenaline rush that deadlines give me. haha. Everytime I get a brief, my mind will start doing the time-management thing already.

I get the Wah, no exams, so good remark alot when I tell people I study design. It is good that there is no exams. But that remarks do sound like no exams means no hardwork, no effort. Let me take you through the process of a project and you can justify for yourself.

It all starts when I get the brief from my tutor/clients.

Write own brief - List out requirements of clients, tutors in brief. Plus consider the time needed to complete project, materials, determine audience, aims, objectives etc. This is to ensure we dont get off track and stays with what is required to complete this project.

Research - After getting the approval of clients/tutor, start doing research. Research include research into the area you are designing. e.g. design a prospectus for a spectacle company. Do reasearch on the company, their aims and goal to know the company better etc.

Concepts/Thumbnails - Start brainstorming for ideas, put them them in sketches then thumbnails. Usual 10 thumbnails of concepts.

Further developement - Choose a few of the concept that work, create it visually in computer. Start looking into the details like choosing the correct typography, mood, feel, color etc. There are alot of print out in this stage while I push my design further and try to step out of the box and look outside of it by experiment and explore my designs. You just keep on working on it till you feel you have the correct combinations and balance in the design.

Production stage - Ok, this is where most designer will die of high-blood pressure. The printer doesn't work last minute. The color does not look right after you print it out. Fret over the type of paper to use. Well, when you are working with machines, things happens...Alot of glue, cutting, mounting for presentation. There are times I need to drive from home to school 3 trips in a day because my zip drive doesn't work, or my printer broke down, or my computer crash! And because we have to hand in everything in Mac format (for school work), and I am using PC for financial reasons, I always have to go to school to convert all my work into Mac format. Sometimes in a hurry and all the running around, you forgot one file..DISASTER! Or the fonts I use in PC is not found in the Mac computer in school! Most of my friends just use the simplest fonts so as not to complicate matters. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Typography brings life to a design.

Anyway, that is why I always set a deadline for myself to finish my work 3-4 days before the original one. So if things goes wrong, you have time to figure things out. Alot of times, I almost give up. Some friends cry over it. I scream!

There you go, it is not so easy. At least this is the in the school context. I find that when i work outside, the clients are easier, everything is not so black and white. I have more time to spend on the further development stage.

I think the bottom line is when you have passion in something, you want the best of it. You work on it tiredlessly because you love doing it. In the end, you know you have tried your best and that is what matters most.