BE OPEN TO CHANGE
Eliminate the comfort zone
Lim Zhiyang is a Graphic Designer based in a design agency called Refruit Pte Ltd. He has worked with international clients like Alienware, F&N and HTC. Having graduated from Singapore Polytechnic in 2015, Zhiyang decided to search for a job to follow his passion in design, instead of pursuing a degree. He is currently in the 3rd year of his career and adapting well to different changes due to his positive attitude
by Gao Weiqi
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Q: What would you be doing if you weren’t working in this industry now?
A: If I weren't working in this industry now, I’d probably be pursuing a degree in communications.
Q: What inspires you to do what you do, day in and out?
A: Seeing how people from different background and industries use design thinking to solve real world issues is what motivates me to push myself to be a better designer.
Q: What’s a typical day at work like for you?
A. Work starts at 10am for me, so I’ll usually wake up at around 8am to get ready. I don't usually have a regular duration and time slot for my lunch break, it depends on the amount of tasks I have for the day. I tend to work up till 7-8pm daily, with an occasional overtime to complete some important projects. At night, I’ll dedicate 30-45 minutes for some personal development (reading up on design-related articles or worldly issues)
Q: What are the demands of your job?
A. My job requires me to work on creative-related work as well as web development. I’m also required to do some basic management work such as liaising with clients and external freelancers
Q: What are some challenges you’ve faced to date and how did you manage to overcome them?
A. One of the challenges that I've faced is conveying the rationale of my designs and saying no to some of their requests. Clients tend to demand things a certain way and for us designers, we might have a
different angle of looking at things and sometimes it’s more effective for the client’s project. It’s always challenging to communicate our ideas as our client still makes the final call. To me, producing the best works for my client is not just to fulfil their requests, but to recommend better ideas based on them. There are many clients who are opened to such ideas and are willing to go with a different approach of doing things so that is something that comforts and encourages me when I do my job.
Q: What are some tips that you’d give to a fresh grad entering the industry?
A: We should be daring to try out different things, make mistakes along the way and learn from them. I feel that at the age of 20-30 we tend to learn more things and gain more experience. We have to be opened to change and push ourselves out of the comfort zone; if we stay stagnant, it’ll not take us anywhere far in this time and day. We should also set some personal goals. There will be many obstacles along the way but we should remind ourselves that it will always be worth it at the end when we see results; the process will always be tough but we have the ability to get through it if we have the determination.
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Q: What are some soft skills you think every media worker should possess?
A. Critical, creative thinking skills and good emotional intelligence are something I think we should possess. In the future, technology such as artificial intelligence may change the way we work, but these two skills are something that can't be replaced by AI.
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