Divergent Paths

Tell us what you do for work! Has it been something you’ve always wanted to pursue?
I’ve been a full-time graphic designer at Plus for about a year now, but I’ve been in the field for almost three years in total now. Although I studied motion graphics design in Nanyang Polytechnic, I decided to pursue graphic design instead because it’s what I enjoy most.

I’ve been designing since I was young, drawing and illustrating in particular—I think it’s the same with most other graphic designers’ stories (laughs). But that’s why I decided to pursue motion graphics. It was something a little different, and it could maybe allow me to expand out into animation. But I realised afterwards I still prefer print work and more hands-on things like that.

One year in, how has working at Plus been?
It keeps me quite busy. It’s a little different from my previous job because we had an in-house design team, which is not the case here. In Plus, there are a lot of big scale projects that we work on, and because our bosses have a background in architecture, we get a lot of jobs that involve spatial design and things like that, which is great because I’ve learned a lot of things along the way, and that’s the fun part!

Is this what you see yourself doing for a long time? 
I think I’m facing a mid-life crisis now (laughs). I’m thinking of exploring different mediums and discovering my own style. I would also definitely like to do more illustration-based projects.

Can we talk a bit more about this mid-life crisis?  What’s been on your mind? 
The thing is there are a lot of things I like to do, but I haven’t really got the time to try them out. In fact, I’m not even sure that design is the ideal long-term career for me. My friends are pursuing careers in different fields, and they seem to be much happier (laughs). So although design does have its fun moments and gives me a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment, I’m not too sure about it yet. I think it’s really about needing some time to figure out and explore my options before I actually settle on one interest to pursue in the long run.

Other things I enjoy doing are photography and playing the guitar—mainly covers. I even tried pottery recently, which was something that’s been on my wish list for a while!

Those are some pretty artistic interests! Do you see yourself eventually pursuing music, pottery or design, as a career in the near future?
Not really. I would say I do these things more to broaden my horizons than anything else. That said, I’m only 23, so I’m still figuring things out along the way.

At the end of the day, how would you describe yourself as a designer?
I’m pretty versatile. I’m still exploring styles, but because I don’t really have a fixed style of my own, I would say the advantage is that I can do most anything that clients want.