Haaaayyyy....bo

when it comes to work, the occasions when i am prompted to go "haayyyy" out of sheer satisfaction (instead of exasperation) are pretty rare. lately i've had a few of them, and they're all because of one of my teammates, our senior designer haibo.

quiet, unassuming and always smiling, haibo is one of those guys whose docile looks disguise what a freaking head case he is. for a recent project we did for mtv (a 30-second contest spot for a big slutfest dugsh-dugsh fest beach party at sentosa), we asked him to come up with a couple of style references -- animations or graphics we could show the client to give them an idea of how we wanted to execute the spot.

aba ang hitad, nagpakita ng full animated 3D scale model of singapore.


sabi ko, patay. baka pagsisihan niya ito kapag nalaman niya kung kelan ang deadline. e kinagat ng kliyente. napasubo siya bigla.

but no. within a matter of days, he produced this.


which, by the end of the week, became this.


kabog! needless to say, client loved it. (unfortunately, love is not always a two-way street. but that's another story.)

then on monday afternoon i briefed him on the requirements for a promo package based on this same spot. for the uninitiated, a promo package is a set of animated graphics with all sorts of bits and pieces that carry "branding" -- those strips on the lower half of your tv screen, logos, full page graphics where a lot of text goes (like program schedules), and more, all designed to pull a show or channel together, look-wise.

so anyway. monday ang briefing. the next day, hiningan ko siya ng work-in-progress -- screen shots to show how the whole thing is coming along. ang sagot: isang matipid na "ok. maybe finish today." (he's from beijing, so he doesn't speak much english.) within hours, he sent me not just screen shots of the work in progress, but the whole damn set of graphics. finished, animated and absolutely fantastic. nabaliw ako. and that was my first "haaay" of bliss for the week... as in "haaay. ang galing talaga ni haibo."

today, client got back to me (or as they like to say here, "reverted") with a whole bunch of changes they wanted done. i told haibo about them and retreated to my corner to play scramble (yes, it's a slow day at the office). in the middle of my third 3-minute game, he was done. alam mo yung "isang pikit lang"? yun yon. napa-"haaaay" na naman ako.

i swear this is why i'm in this job. and this is part of what i wanted for my career, come to life. i live for the flashes of brilliance and talent i see on a near-daily basis. i live for the chance to be amazed and inspired by the creations that i see and by the people who create them. and i live for my turn to create something that amuses, provokes and inspires, too.

haaay.