Natalie Cheng / GMD It is an exciting year ahead of us. Although sometimes clouded by self-doubts and insecurities within skillsets, I do believe that I will be fine. Whatever lies ahead of us will eventually be a fruitful and enriching journey that will shape our perception of our craft, and also build our mental toughness. Application process was not a smooth sailing one for me. 99% of my applications were either not responded (I very much appreciate companies who take the time to reply to emails even if they are not hiring), or an email for disappointment. I was mentally drained because it was a tiring process– to seek out for companies, to crafting out a personal email, to a lot of waiting, only to be waiting and left hanging at the end. Whilst I actually managed to successfully receive a response the next day after I sent in my portfolio to Domenic Lippa, a significant partner from Pentagram, I was left hanging for weeks after his first email back of an invitation for an interview. Of course, with such an amazing opportunity, I couldn’t let it slip out of my hands! I was craving for an immediate response, but days slowly turned to weeks. I lost motivation to keep going and also did not want to appear an annoying person flooding his mailbox with so many of my desperate emails. After all of that mental turmoil and with a heavy heart, I had to let the opportunity go. But I told myself to try again after this current 3-month placement I am in now. Currently, I am in a 3-month internship at a wayfinding studio called Endpoint. I count my blessings to have landed in a healthy office environment– colleagues are especially funny and joyful, and my line manager is the kindest in terms of cultivating a work culture where there is minimal hierarchy. Although I have only been here for two weeks, I learnt that a camaraderie between colleagues is the most crucial to create a pleasant working environment. Every single colleague is not afraid to showcase their own personalities, and what I appreciate most is how everyone else embraces it. To add on to cultivating a healthy working environment, we have a thing called Breakfast Fridays every fortnight where we enjoy a plethora of breakfast spreads over a morning meeting. To put it quite simply, the reason why I wanted to do a placement in a wayfinding studio is because I always had the interest in social anthropology. But it is not only that, it was also my passion for architecture and the built environment. I see myself as a nerd towards subject matters– always curious and questioning the psychology behind things, especially if it deals with the whys within human behaviour. And to learn more about the field of wayfinding, the senior designer kindly lent me a book on city planning. It talks about the considerations a city planner will need to make to have have a more vivid and memorable image of the place for city dwellers. In Kevin Lynch’s book The Image of the City, he categorized these physical forms of a city into five types of elements– Paths, Edges, Districts, Nodes and Landmarks. (Lynch, 1960) Not only do these five elements make up a definition of a city, it also helps us retain our directional sense and memories. It made complete sense to me after learning more about the subject matter because if I were to recall my past experiences, it is through the vividness of a district, or a significant landmark that allows me to retain an image of the place in my head. But what are the sub-elements that allow us to remember the image? Some examples include its facades, proximities within streets, or surrounding activities such as shops.
I thought his book was really insightful to learn about the built environment, especially since this is a completely new field for me. These new knowledges will be useful to consider especially during design thinking and ideation process as rationales are extremely crucial. To link back to the question of how design plays a complex, networked and technologically driven world, I suppose the point I’m trying to make here is through my definition of becoming a well-rounded designer who possess various kinds of knowledge from different fields. Although the things I will learn during these 3-months in Endpoint may not expose me to a complete graphic design realm, it will however teach me alternative communicative methods. And to be in a wayfinding studio, it will allow me to gain exposure within human behaviour. Since design itself is a tool for communication for the masses, I believe that by exposing myself to that skillset, not only will my future designs enable me to consider that aspect area, I will come out to become a better enriched and open-minded creative.
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March 2022
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