Behind The Scenes // What We Did In May and June 2016

May and June were filled with many back to back activities for us in and out of the studio. As a design studio with a retail line, we often find ourselves trying to balance project datelines and materialising our new products for retail. A typical work day for us includes internal and external meetings, designing, account servicing, product photoshoots, packing, cooking, updating our website, blogging, updating our social media accounts and going to the post office. Phew! 

If you have read our previous BTS blog posts in March and October, you will probably be a teeny bit familiar with what we are usually up to in the studio. Here is a brief look at what we did in the months of May and June! 

Packing and Readying New Stock and Products

We spent a lot of time in May and June cutting, cutting and cutting more stickers. It is not new news but hey, we really do spend a lot of time cutting stickers and whining about our Scissors Hand symptoms. When we are not cutting stickers, we pack stuff... it could be new products that we are packing or the office. Jia and I like a clean and neat working environment so we are always cleaning and packing something in the studio. 

(Top) Do you pack your coloured pencils the same way as us? :) We are incredibly finicky about certain things and packing our colouring mediums in a rainbow gradient is one of those things.

​(L) Packing the activity postcards into the Travel Activity Kit's zipper pouch. Packing these kits took a very long time but we are so happy with how the ready kits look :)

(R) Styling the Travel Activity Kit for a photoshoot. Yes, we have our own honey&gazelle Design Studio tote bag!

(Top) Cutting stickers all day, every day, every single day. It's a lifestyle.

Photoshoots

Though I say that we like a clean working environment, our photoshoots are typically the opposite of neat. It is almost like a war zone - everything is everywhere! Somehow, we are able to navigate amidst the chaos and still be productive during a photoshoot. 
​

Pop-Up Events

(Top) Jia and I found a kitty outside the Red Dot Design Museum in June and spent a considerable amount of time chatting with her while our friends looked after our booth at MAAD. What a cutie!

​(L) The worst thing that can happen to us. It was an extremely hot day at the DBS Marina Regatta so we went to the nearest 7-11 in hopes to grab a cold drink. But, it was closed! What a nightmare. I remembered sulking for the longest time.

(R) Taking a picture of a customer's purchase to remind us what she bought. 

Yearly Review and Retreat

Jia and I take our retreats very seriously. There is often a lot of planning, discussing and brainstorming, so we would usually choose somewhere quiet for maximum concentration and isolation. Our retreats tend to be mentally exhausting and it does not feel like a break at all! 

(Top) We tend to snack a lot during our retreats because planning and reviewing is tough business! Gotta snack to reward the brain. Excuse the mess on the desk, this is truly a behind-the-scenes photo! 

(Bottom) And by snacking, we mean durian and naengmyeon too. Looking at these photos is making me hungry.

Studio Life

(Top) Getting busy and messy with our hands. We love our event styling projects! 

(L) Lugging yet another brand new printer back to the studio. Woohoo! 

(R) Repotting herbs in our mini garden. We have been obsessed with creating our own salads recently. We cook pretty much every day unless we have a lunch appointment. 

(Top) And the silly things that Jia and I do in the studio when we are extremely tired. Here, we challenged each other to write a strange sentence with our non-dominant hand with eyes closed. Not too bad actually! 

-

Working in a design studio has been a crazy journey so far but I am loving every bit of it. I actually look forward to going to work! 

How's your day at work or school like? Share them with us!

​X Min