I only went in college for half a day. I woke up at 7am, but felt shit and went back to sleep. However, I really needed to get work done and so I went in for the second half of the day. I got there at about 12pm.
On my way to the room, Louise, my photography teacher from last year said hello to me and complimented me on the small leaflets I had produced for the exhibition. She had seen them the day before at the exhibition itself and she said she was very impressed. She asked if I could show her how I did it, because she wanted something similar doing. I said that I'd gladly do it for her and she said that she might be interested in it. Nothing came of it there and then however, but she was very complimentary about my work and that made me feel good.
I apologised to Bronek for not being in his lesson once I finished talking to Louise. He said it was fine, since I had finished his work anyway. I was still feeling unwell at the time too and he picked up on it. He said that I should go home, but I said that I'd come in specifically because I had work to do for Tony.
Before he went off to do other things, he gave me a copy of the brief, just to make sure that I had completed everything and he also needed to get me his portable drive, because my computer was still downstairs in the hall where the exhibition had taken place. After he had got it and I was about to head down to the exhibition to get stuff off my computer, I commented on the fact that he had not yet given me feedback for the last project I had completed. He was surprised and said he'd completely forgotten about it. However, he noted that he had already written the feedback out and that although he wouldn't say it in front of the others, he was very impressed with the level of my work and that I had most likely gotten a distinction for it.
Cool.
He also said that he is very happy with the standard of work I've produced throughout the year in general for both him and the other tutors. It was really nice to hear that he thinks I'm doing great.
I went down to the exhibition room after that. It was a large hall, drapped in black cloth with low lighting. On one side of it, there was a large projected video screen, while in other corners, there were computers and photographs from both the multimedia and photography courses. By the computers, I noticed that my leaflets were presented nicely, inviting someone to take a look at them.
I got the stuff from my computer and then took a minute or two to have a look around the exhibition at all of the work people had submitted for it, namely the photography. Some of it was really nice.
After that, I headed back upstairs and then for the next three hours I pretty much sat there doing nothing, as I had mistakenly brought the wrong work up from the exhibition so I didn't have what I needed. I was quite bored on the computer, so instead, I got my layout pad out and done some rough drawing in it of my font that I had to create and that passed the time.
4pm and off I went home.
Wednesday was an uneventful day. I spent it here in the company of Colin and Robbie, the two workers who are redecorating the house. In addition to them, there was also a woman who was a cleaner. I found that both strange and even a little offensive, that Gary had asked her to come and clean up. However, in retrospect, perhaps she was needed.
You see, our dishwasher broke quite a while ago and even though we have a new one, that's not quite working either so we've been washing dishes ourselves. I really don't mind doing this. It only takes a minute to wash a plate. I do my dishes straight after I've eaten and that way, I don't have to go and wash a pile of them at some point. However, Laura has a really bad habit of leaving all of her plates for a day or two and they pile up. She leaves the kitchen quite a mess after she's been in there.
I felt kind of embarassed while the cleaner was here. I mean, why should she have to clean our mess? Ok so it's her job, but still. It's not something that you should have to do. I asked if there was anything I could help her with, but she said it was ok.
All three of them left around 2pm.
Wednesday proved to be quite interesting. I had sat down at the kitchen table to work on my roughs for my font when I got a phonecall from Denmark.
"Hello Neil, it's Gary"
"Hi"
"I've got a job for you", he said. When Gary says that though, it doesn't usually result in anything. He explained to me what he had in mind.
Not that anyone who reads this is going to go and steal his idea, but since it is quite a good idea, I can't mention any specifics, only that Gary wants me to design a chewing gum wrapper. He was very excited about it on the phone. He said if the product takes off, I'd have a 25% share of the company.
If it does take off, that's a hell of a lot of money.
He asked if I could have some computer designed mockups within ten days. I said no, because I'd have to show him paperbased roughs first. He sounded disappointed, but I wasn't willing to bypass roughs on such an important project. They're an integral part of any project. He said ok to the roughs in the end and asked if I could have them ready within ten days, as he wanted to take them back with him to Denmark. I said ok.
The conversation went on for about 20 minutes in total, talking about various parts of the project with my mum chiming in in the background. Yes, she's still there with him and has been since last Tuesday.
After the conversation, I went back to the kitchen and finished off the page of roughs I was doing for my font and then began working on some ideas for the chewing gum wrapper. It was quite exciting to be working on a live brief.
While designing, my eyes began to itch really badly. One thing that I had begun to notice at the beginning of the week was the fact that I had begun experiencing hayfever and this was one of its strongest effects on me. My eyes were so very very itchy and felt as if they were 'scratched' every time I blinked. It was horrible. It was so bad infact, that since none of the shops were open, I resorted to calling my Nana to see if she had anything for hayfever. Sadly, she didn't and it was another hour or so before my eyes returned to a comfortable state.
Because of my eyes, I stopped the packaging design after about an hour.
Towards the end of the night, I began thinking more about it and a few questions presented themselves. The main one was the fact that Gary thinks that the 25% of the company is a way of payment for the roughs. It's not. I want paying for the roughs properly, as a designer, as is my job. He's already had free work from me with the business cards I designed for him.
I knew he was expecting me to design them for free because he didn't even mention anything about paying for them when he was talking to me on the phone about them.
I really didn't know how much to charge for my services however and was glad that the next day, I had Brian and Daniel to answer my questions.
I asked Brian first. He sat down with me and he gave me some advice after I had explained the project to him. He said that �25/hour was the price I should be considering charging him. I thought that was too much, but Brian said that charging for your work is always a hard thing to do, especially when you know that you can do it easily, but that clients are paying for your skills. Skills they don't have themselves and I should charge what I'm worth.
I asked Danny in the afternoon and he said pretty much the same thing. The advice was helpful, but, I have decided that my rates should be a little lower than �25/hour and I've set them at around �16-�18/hour and when I start getting more jobs, then I'll consider raising my rates.
It was only a half day yesterday (Friday) and it went over fairly quick. The only reason I even came in was to burn stuff to disk for Danny and to give him a birthday card.
While walking down to the station after college, I decided that I would take the oppurtunity to finally do some clothes shopping - something which I have needed to do for a long time and although I've tried many times before, this time I was determined to succeed.
I didn't really know where to look. I didn't even know what I was looking for really. However, after going in one shop, I managed to find some jeans that I was very happy with and a tshirt. I must have spent nearly 90 minutes in the shop and I went into the changing rooms three times! I also tried on some new trainers, but sadly I couldn't find any that I liked.
I went in other shops too to find myself a nice jacket, but no matter where I went, I couldn't find what I wanted. I was looking for a suit-style jacket, but with something extra. Some sort of design on a pocket perhaps. Just something that made it more casual. I couldn't find one and after three hours walking around town, my feet were killing me.
Just before I left town however, I decided to check when Batman Begins and Sin City were on at FACT, which was right by where I was at the time. Sadly the next showing was at about 5pm and it was only 3pm. I certainly wasn't spending another two hours in town.
I went to leave, but then decided to take some pictures of the FACT building, as it looks great. As I was taking them, I caught a glimpse of this 45-50 year old woman who was obviously a bit of a drug user coming towards me. I prayed that she'd just carry on walking past me. She didn't.
"'scuse me you got any spare change?", she said to me.
"No", I said, hoping she'd go away. I resumed taking a picture, before she spoke to me again.
"No...", she said, sarcastically and angrily at me, "You're the big man aren't you".
I didn't answer her, but again, went to take another picture of the building.
"You like hurting people?"
"..what?"
"Do you like hurting people?", she said again, now trying to make me feel guilty. Starting to get pretty uncomfortable standing there with this woman, I just wanted her to go away from me. Not because she was homeless, but because she was very intimidating in how she was talking to me.
"What's up with you", I said to her. I don't know why I said that, but it just came out.
"What's up with me? I'm walking the streets and.." she continued saying something or other, I wasn't really listening. While I did want to take more pictures of the building, I decided to leave.
"Yeah that's right. Walking away because you know I'm right", she said. I kept walking.
"HEY!" I heard her shout very angrily, before mumbling something. I kept walking and didn't look back, before going home.
I felt shit just walking away from her but she was just really intimidating. I haven't described it very well. I do give to the Big Issue sellers now and then, perhaps not as often as I should, but no one can afford to give every time, especially not a student who's already struggling to afford to go to college. Plus, she wasn't a Big Issue Seller, but just some random woman who looked and sounded as if she would only use my change to buy herself more cigarettes, booze and drugs.
My mum called me last night. She said she was finally home from Denmark, but that she'd be staying in Gary's until Sunday. She's been gone nearly two weeks now. She's very much starting to act like Gary these days, it's worrying. She's even started to use the same phrases as him. Plus she loves saying "there's a lot going on right now" to make it all sound more important.
Although I was in bed this morning, I heard her, Gary, Colin and Rob talking in the house. I was too tired to get up and go and talk to Gary about the project so I just went back to sleep. I heard my mum go out with him too. A while later, I woke up again for a few moments, hearing someone painting one of my bedroom walls. I couldn't be bothered opening my eyes to have a look so I just let them do what they had to do and I slept through it.
Tonight, I've managed to finish off the floppy disk box I had to do for Tony and now the only thing I need to do is get my report done for Brian, which is currently at 1,500 words. It needs to be at least 2,500 and a maximum of 3,000. It's going to be difficult. I had trouble getting to 1,500 and the first 1,500 is supposed to be the easiest, since most of it is copy and pasted from other sources.
Tonight, I decided to shave off my beard and moustache, replacing it with just some stubble. It was done on impulse, but I'm glad I did it. It doesn't make me look as young as I thought it might and that's a good thing.
Next week is my last week of college for this year. It's gone over so quick. I'm really proud of myself for actually sticking with it and not quitting like I have so many times in the past.
Whew, long entry.
