Nine-oh-five in the morning… In his most effortless, gorgeous self -- our boss Johann dashed into the room to give us some bit of a news... He was pleasantly beaming as he said: “Ladies, it’s a catastrophe… Apparently, the hotel and mall that we’ve been working on… uhm, well, they are not what the client was expecting for us to design. They wanted us to design the luxury hotel apartments first.. but not the hotel.”
At first, we thought he was pulling our leg. How could he say such terrible news with the most beautiful smile (honest -- it was one of the most enigmatic and beautiful smiles I’ve ever seen in eons! Sidenote: When he dashed and posed by our office doorway, clad in his nice striped blue, white and brown polo with a matching beige jacket (collars flicked up)... I had visions of him jutting straight out of the pages of GQ magazine. Gosh!… (Sorry guys but i don't have any visual aids of Johann.. so i just posted our Office Building called Fairmont. tsk. tsk. too bad.. :-))
Now, where was I? Going back, he was the one who gave us the sheets and more sheets of 30” x 40” blueprints of this huge hotel and mall located in India. We’ve painstakingly worked on the designs for exactly one month today (incidentally, it’s our first monthsary in William and Jones Interior Design and Architectural Firm today)…We eagerly took the extra mile in perfecting the concepts and details. Picked the most luxurious materials. Changed the colors until we got the perfect hue and tone, etcetera etcetera... All these to prepare for our Big Boss’ big presentation in Chennai, India. Suffice it to say, the client is prioritizing the hotel apartments. They also own the mall and hotel.. located in the same city in India. But it’s not on the “rush list” just yet.
Anyway, after Johann finished explaining the “catastrophe” (as he called it), I managed to say.. “You’re kidding, right?…But when he didn’t nudge a bit… as he kept that big sincere smile (or was it a smirk?!) plastered on his face, I started to believe that he was actually really really telling the truth. For one second, I felt bad realizing that a whole month’s worth of hardwork suddenly equated to nothing! Nada, Zilch. As if our designs didn’t exist. As if the whole month didn’t actually happen.
But surprisingly, the terrible feeling only lasted for practically one second. I didn’t dwell on the bad news. It suddenly felt good knowing that I wasn’t too attached to the fabulous designs. Modesty aside, I liked our designs a lot (a collaboration with the brilliant boss and other designers).. It may have taken us around 216 hours to make but it only took a couple of seconds to let go of it and literally shove them into a shelf. Who knows, by some strange miracle, the client might push through with the project (after we finish the priority hotel apartments).
I also realized that they have not exactly gone to waste. All those hours made me realize how much I love my work. How much I love designing. How much I enjoy turning an empty space into something. Now, that’s probably something. Call me baduy but all those hours that I’ve been designing, I would catch myself muttering under my breath.. “Lord, thank you for this. These hands and mind are not mine. They are just borrowed. Thanks for lending it to me. This is to glorify you.” And true enough, the creative outputs and designs are not the only important thing. What matters more is how we remember giving everything back to Him. With these thoughts, designing is much more enjoyable now than it already is.
Nine-twenty five in the morning… We’re looking and studying the new assignment. Research and preparations have (again) started.
Two-Oh-Five in the afternoon... The phone rings. It was Johann – asking us to come into his office. We dashed (yes, it was our turn to dash) into his office which is around twenty steps away. And saw again this dashing debonair boss of ours. This time, he didn’t give us any bad news.. He gave us some directions on this new project. We’re on board again for another challenge.. while hoping that this is the right one this time. The only tiny hitch, we only got a week to finish it. Guess we have to make up for the funny mistake. Can’t waste no time now.
At first, we thought he was pulling our leg. How could he say such terrible news with the most beautiful smile (honest -- it was one of the most enigmatic and beautiful smiles I’ve ever seen in eons! Sidenote: When he dashed and posed by our office doorway, clad in his nice striped blue, white and brown polo with a matching beige jacket (collars flicked up)... I had visions of him jutting straight out of the pages of GQ magazine. Gosh!… (Sorry guys but i don't have any visual aids of Johann.. so i just posted our Office Building called Fairmont. tsk. tsk. too bad.. :-))
Now, where was I? Going back, he was the one who gave us the sheets and more sheets of 30” x 40” blueprints of this huge hotel and mall located in India. We’ve painstakingly worked on the designs for exactly one month today (incidentally, it’s our first monthsary in William and Jones Interior Design and Architectural Firm today)…We eagerly took the extra mile in perfecting the concepts and details. Picked the most luxurious materials. Changed the colors until we got the perfect hue and tone, etcetera etcetera... All these to prepare for our Big Boss’ big presentation in Chennai, India. Suffice it to say, the client is prioritizing the hotel apartments. They also own the mall and hotel.. located in the same city in India. But it’s not on the “rush list” just yet.
Anyway, after Johann finished explaining the “catastrophe” (as he called it), I managed to say.. “You’re kidding, right?…But when he didn’t nudge a bit… as he kept that big sincere smile (or was it a smirk?!) plastered on his face, I started to believe that he was actually really really telling the truth. For one second, I felt bad realizing that a whole month’s worth of hardwork suddenly equated to nothing! Nada, Zilch. As if our designs didn’t exist. As if the whole month didn’t actually happen.
But surprisingly, the terrible feeling only lasted for practically one second. I didn’t dwell on the bad news. It suddenly felt good knowing that I wasn’t too attached to the fabulous designs. Modesty aside, I liked our designs a lot (a collaboration with the brilliant boss and other designers).. It may have taken us around 216 hours to make but it only took a couple of seconds to let go of it and literally shove them into a shelf. Who knows, by some strange miracle, the client might push through with the project (after we finish the priority hotel apartments).
I also realized that they have not exactly gone to waste. All those hours made me realize how much I love my work. How much I love designing. How much I enjoy turning an empty space into something. Now, that’s probably something. Call me baduy but all those hours that I’ve been designing, I would catch myself muttering under my breath.. “Lord, thank you for this. These hands and mind are not mine. They are just borrowed. Thanks for lending it to me. This is to glorify you.” And true enough, the creative outputs and designs are not the only important thing. What matters more is how we remember giving everything back to Him. With these thoughts, designing is much more enjoyable now than it already is.
Nine-twenty five in the morning… We’re looking and studying the new assignment. Research and preparations have (again) started.
Two-Oh-Five in the afternoon... The phone rings. It was Johann – asking us to come into his office. We dashed (yes, it was our turn to dash) into his office which is around twenty steps away. And saw again this dashing debonair boss of ours. This time, he didn’t give us any bad news.. He gave us some directions on this new project. We’re on board again for another challenge.. while hoping that this is the right one this time. The only tiny hitch, we only got a week to finish it. Guess we have to make up for the funny mistake. Can’t waste no time now.
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