Natural beauty, inspirational nature

Chapter 56
After joining the new company, I became even busier. From a designer who only needed to stay in the office and draw pictures silently, I now had to formulate short-term, short-term, medium-term, and long-term work goals, and I needed to attend various leadership meetings from time to time. High-ranking officials who need to travel constantly and are busy all day long with multi-party communications and negotiations.

Because there is a female manager in the marketing department whose surname is also Cheng, everyone calls me "Mr. Fei" for the sake of distinction.

On the first day of employment, I was told to go to Wuxi with a new employee "Yuan Shengnan" who went a week earlier than me. The old employee led us to go out together to familiarize ourselves with the tea market and do market research.

This market research lasted for a week. Yuan Shengnan, who went with me, is specialized in event planning, and I am specialized in brand design. It seems that the positions of the two are different. She focuses on event copywriting, while I focus on In advertising design, in fact, there is no separation of duties.

Brand design and event planning are inextricably linked. In some small companies, the two positions are even performed by the same employee at the same time.The boss wants us to cooperate sincerely, maybe because he thinks that we each have our own strengths, and we can better learn from each other's strengths together.

We were taken to major cities around Changzhou to do market research. The girl was about the same age as me, but she had a masculine appearance, poor skin, and pimple marks all over her face, which made people dare not look directly at her. She had short hair. , even speaking in a rough voice, just like a middle-aged female version of a tomboy.

It stands to reason that most new employees would be polite and greet their seniors with a smile, but she always had a serious and cold face no matter who she saw, or she didn't speak, and if she did speak, she must be instructing others to do things for her.

She did the same with me, and what surprised me the most was that she said she was doing marketing and event planning, but she couldn't write a plan by herself.

However, she is very talkative, and often puts forward a lot of ideas and suggestions in front of the boss and the boss's daughter, saying that this is not good and that is not good, but most of her ideas are wild and unconstrained, derailed from reality.

When the plan really needs to be implemented, she can't give a feasible copy at all.I think she is a bit of a "talker" in the workplace, that is, the kind who is good at doing things and bragging, but can't do practical things. If you ask her to do some practical things, she will just throw the whole blame on you. The "hands-off shopkeeper".

But after all, we are all newcomers. When she was around me at the beginning and instructed me to do this and that, I always maintained basic courtesy to her, communicated with her well, and told her patiently: You can share your ideas and suggestions with some The work plan, [-] and [-] are written down with a pen.

In less than half a month since I went to the new company, I completed the preparation of the new brand transformation and reconstruction plan. The boss read the detailed planning plan I made and was very satisfied. He appreciated: Xiaocheng, the plan is really well illustrated , both rich and vivid.

Microsoft CEO Nadran said: Designing products for 74 billion users starts with designing products for one user.

The so-called one leaf knows the autumn, see the big from the small, start from the self, stand on the standpoint of the consumer, grasp the demand point, and you will find a broad market.The reason why the boss has high hopes for me is also because he recognizes the idea of ​​"seeing the big from the small, and knowing the autumn from a leaf".

He believes that the main audience of milk tea is girls, so female designers are more suitable for such project planning than male designers.

The company used to provide raw materials for a well-known milk tea brand. The boss of their family was a designer and a girl. She was also a layman in the tea industry at first, but with the little girl’s special taste and preference for beautiful things, she The new brand of milk tea, which he personally guided the design and creation of, was once all the rage last year and achieved a monthly sales of [-] cups in the industry.

Even a popular love TV series in the mainland did not charge any advertising fees, just because the director thought their milk tea packaging cups were very warm and beautiful, so he bought them as props.Made a publicity for their company for free.

So he believed in my aesthetic vision and innovative ability, and thought that I was fully qualified for the job.I am also full of confidence and ambition in my future.

At the request of the boss, I also made a special business trip to Shanghai to conduct on-the-spot inspections and on-site discussions with two advertising companies that will cooperate with our company.

Because our company has not yet established its own design team, we still need to rely on an outside professional designer team to draw a specific brand image and design a set of detailed VI visual identity based on my brand transformation plan and its creative design concept System solutions.

One of the companies I visited had also cooperated with MG. The designers of Shanghai Metropolitan City are the design elites who are at the forefront of the international design stage. The brand planning plan put forward a lot of constructive opinions and suggestions, and this trip to Shanghai has benefited a lot.

What surprised me even more was that by chance, I also met "Mr. Wan", the boss of the top domestic advertising company I met on the Liepin platform.

His company is in BJ. I originally thought that we only met each other on the Internet. It is basically difficult for us to have any intersection in reality. However, because I have added Mr. Wan’s WeChat before, I learned about it through his circle of friends. He happened to be on a business trip in Shanghai in those two days, so he sent an invitation to him, expressing his willingness to cooperate in the visit.Unexpectedly, Mr. Wan agreed to my request very readily.

Also born in the 80s, he edited and published a blog post on the designer's workplace philosophy on Liepin, which I admire very much.

Mr. Wan attaches great importance to the polite language habits of young people. He believes that when applying for a job, the candidate's simple greeting "Hello" with respectful words just reflects a person's most basic quality and mental outlook. In the workplace, Treating people politely and knowing how to respect others is also the basic professional quality to get along with colleagues and customers.

He believes that young people nowadays are more casual in communication and often ignore the opening sentence of "Hello". He believes that China is a country with ancient civilization and a country of etiquette. As a Chinese, we must not forget the most basic "etiquette". "number.

If a person can treat his future boss casually and sloppily when applying for a job, then it is really hard for you to imagine how he will treat his peers and customers after joining the job.

Although it is only a trivial matter, it embodies the mature and wise philosophy of life and employment philosophy of a self-made entrepreneur.Talent Talents are "people" first, and then "talents".People who don't know how to be a human being are easy to do bad things no matter how powerful they are.

I also appreciate and respect this kind of employment management concept very much. The so-called heroes have the same views, because of the same ideas and similar tastes, two strangers who have never met have become bosom friends through the Internet.

Whether the world is big or small, the Internet is like an invisible net that can always draw people with similar souls and personalities into a single front.

Mr. Wan was a little surprised when he learned that I had joined a new unit, started to work as the director of project planning, and started brand reform. He immediately congratulated me and expressed his full support for my work. Welcome to SH City discusses the specific brand design transformation plan.

However, when Mr. Wan replied to my message, he intentionally or unintentionally revealed a piece of news to me, that is, he did not go to Shanghai this time by himself, but accompanied his girlfriend.

This girlfriend is not a new girlfriend recently, but an old guy who broke up with him before and suddenly returned.Because he used to be a matchmaker for him in the circle of friends, intentionally or unintentionally, at home, implying that he is still a single person, and he has a girlfriend soon, so I can probably guess one or two.

He said that there was a dinner in the evening, and he made a special trip to accompany his girlfriend to visit a well-known training lecturer team in Shanghai, and also to discuss cooperation projects.He said if I don't mind, we'll come over and have dinner with them.Because they had to fly back to BJ on the morning plane the next day, they didn't have time to meet me.

Why would I mind? I'm afraid he won't have time to see me. As long as he has time to see me, I have time to wait no matter how late. I have this kind of hard work and tenacity in my career.

It's safer for me if the other party has a girlfriend.I was afraid that he would come out to see me alone without accompanying him.Because if I go out to meet a big man alone at night, I don't feel safe.If there are people of the same sex, the safety factor is higher.

So after I got the news at [-]:[-] pm that day, I took the high-speed train from Changzhou to Shanghai, and it was already [-]:[-] pm when I got there.

According to the address Mr. Wan gave me, I booked a hotel in advance on the high-speed rail.I got off the high-speed rail with my backpack on my back, went directly to the hotel, checked in, and then went to the hotel that Mr. Wan mentioned. I used the Gaode map to navigate, and sure enough, I searched and found that it was 300 meters away from the hotel. meters away there is a commercial building.

When Mr. Wan heard that I had arrived, he asked me to wait for him at the entrance of the mall, and he came down to pick me up himself.From a distance, I saw a tall boy with a bright forehead walking towards me. His image was the same as the one seen in the photo. The only difference was that Mr. Wan in the photo was wearing a black suit with a solemn expression on his face. , the professional aura is overwhelming, and Mr. Wan in front of him, dressed in casual clothes, with a friendly smile on his face, is at least five years younger than the photo.

I was a little moved. After all, the general bosses are very powerful, and they don’t know how to pick them up in person, but Mr. Wan doesn’t put on the airs of the boss at all. Seeing him, I feel like seeing an old classmate or friend whom I haven’t seen for many years.

I followed him into a hotel box, opened the door and walked in. Inside, a large table of people was toasting each other.A girl with big wavy hair, wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt and a skirt covering her hips, is standing on the seat to toast with everyone. I think she should be Mr. Wan's girlfriend.

When the people at the table saw Mr. Wan bringing another girl, they made a fuss and said, "Mr. Wan, where did this beauty come from? This beauty has a good temperament. She wears glasses and looks gentle. What's her name, Mr. Wan?" Quickly introduce yourself to everyone."

Mr. Wan laughed loudly and said: "I brought you a talented woman, she is also an advertising graphic designer. Come on, Yifei, let me introduce myself to you.

I have seen many girls like this, and I am neither shy nor flustered. I introduced myself very generously: "Hi everyone, my name is Chen Yifei. Fei is the Fei from Fangcao Feifei. I am a friend of Mr. Wan. I am currently engaged in brand planning and design work. I am new here, please take care of me."

After I finished my introduction, someone immediately called me "Ms. Chen" familiarly, and brought me some food: "Mr. Chen, you came late, we have almost eaten all the dishes, please eat more."

I heard that almost all the people at this table are lecturers. Mr. Wan always wants to invite these lecturers to cooperate with them in the project of Internet celebrity lectures with goods. Mr. Wan’s girlfriend also runs a media company in her hometown of Changchun, Jilin. There are a lot of Internet celebrity resources, and he and his girlfriend work together to invite a team of professional lecturers from SH City to provide professional training for these Internet celebrities, so as to improve the economic benefits of online delivery.

After the dinner party, we sent off the expert team in SH City. Mr. Wan and his girlfriend sent me downstairs. Mr. Wan looked back at me and said, "It's ten o'clock in the evening. You can talk to me about your company's project. We You can find a cafe to sit for a while." After finishing speaking, he turned his head to greet his girlfriend: "Nini, come in with us and sit for a while. We will end soon."

His girlfriend has a very forthright personality, and she went downstairs to fight with Mr. Wan, and when she got downstairs, she heard Mr. Wan said that she wanted to talk to me about the project, so she smiled and said, "No, I won't go in. You guys I don’t understand about design, it’s okay, I’ll just go back to the hotel and wait for you, Feifei, then I’ll go back first, you two have a good chat.”

In this way, I had a formal meeting with the boss of one of the top domestic advertising companies, and I gave a brief introduction to our company's projects.I also took out the LOGOs of several similar industries that are currently doing well in tea brands for comparison and reference, and proposed my bold ideas for the new brand image of our own company in the future.

I said: There are two style routes that can be included in the plan. One is that I hope it can be as the name of the tea. The use of brand slogans can reflect the essence of Chinese tea ceremony culture. The visual image of the logo can be drawn with font variation. The characteristic elements of Chinese cornice architecture shape the classics.The second solution is that I hope to use the image of a classical beauty drinking tea to create a brand image of "good tea is like a beautiful woman" described in Su Dongpo's poem.

When I mentioned my ideas, Mr. Wan nodded thoughtfully, and said, "Your creative idea is great, but it takes a certain amount of time to put such a creative idea into practice, and it also tests the designer's comprehensive ability. "

I said, "Right, so we need your help. Have you done packaging for similar products in the past?"

Mr. Wan joked with me with a smile: "You can also design your own. Don't you have a background in design? It saves trouble and money."

I smiled and said: "You know, it is not easy to make a good LOGO. In the second-tier small cities, my design level may be considered excellent, but in the first-tier cities, I don't think I can compare to the post-90s generation. Those cutting-edge designers and the excellent old designers born in the 80s, my strengths are actually more inclined towards brand planning, so I will consciously develop in this direction in the future, and hand over the design work to more professional and powerful young people. Finish"

Because the cafe was closing at 11 o'clock, our chat had to be suspended, Mr. Wan said: "Well, Mr. Cheng, tomorrow we have a plane at [-] o'clock in the morning, you come out at [-] o'clock, I will treat you to a light meal , let’s have a good chat. I will ask the company’s designers to collect some past packaging design cases in the evening and send them to you tomorrow. Do you think it’s okay?”

I said: "Okay, Mr. Wan, you are too polite. Meeting you is really a noble person. Then let's continue talking tomorrow."

The next day we met at the gate of the shopping mall as agreed the night before, and Mr. Wan took me to have a meal of grilled fish.

During this meeting, we talked about work in a relaxed way throughout the whole meeting.It is to talk about some interesting things in life while interspersed with design matters.You have to believe in one sentence, design is actually everywhere in our lives.So even if it's just chatting with each other, I have already grasped the key information of the design team and production team of Wan's head office.

I learned that Mr. Wan's company started from the cooperation with government agencies. One success triggered countless successes, a virtuous circle. It started with some classic press conference advertising cases, accumulated a good reputation from customers, and made the business more and more successful. good.

At the beginning, I just received some high-speed artillery advertisements on the highway, and then gradually established partnerships with some brand merchants. Later, as they became bigger and bigger, they began to switch from purely advertising to investing in the film and television star entertainment industry, and signed Artists of well-known Korean singing and dancing troupes.

Later, after I took home the commercial design cases provided by their family and studied them carefully, I found that the strength of the designers of Wan head office is not in the field of product packaging design, but more in the direction of commercial performing arts activities and exhibition layout design.

But we have every reason to believe that design is interlinked. For designers, it doesn’t mean that I have no or little contact with this industry before, so I will definitely not be able to design excellent works.If they are given a chance, the designer might be able to perform brilliantly in packaging design.

However, the market competition is cruel, with less meat and more wolves. Three units compete to compare prices for a fragrant steamed bun. Under the premise of the same price, the unit with more past classic success stories must be better.

Moreover, the large geographical gap is also an obvious disadvantage that makes it difficult for us to cooperate. If it is from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, if you want to cooperate, it is only a short-distance train for an hour or two.However, it is still inconvenient for one south and one north to communicate on the spot in real time.

So in the end the boss chose the advertising company in Shanghai.The little boss said it was still to be determined, and she said that she would go to several advertising companies she knew for comparison and reference.The matter was temporarily shelved.

(End of this chapter)