Free Starr Fated Page B

very
interesting and useful, and by lucky chance, the brief the team
were currently working on fitted in perfectly with my final
coursework assignment for uni:
    ‘ You are
working for a mid-sized design agency and have been tasked with a
brand refresh for a well-known company to use across multiple
channels. The Brief requires a full presentation including
conceptual work, a range of options, along with your recommended
route.’
    Of course the
high and mighty Mr. Starr wouldn’t dream of entrusting an outside
agency with any of his precious work. He had his own in-house team
to work to his very exacting and precise instructions. Toby had
called him a control freak, and as I listened to the team trying to
come up with some interesting options for their boss to choose from
for his new logo and image, I realized that was exactly what he
was. He’d left them with virtually no options. Despite the name of
the company, he didn't want any kind of a reference or image
connected with a star – apparently he considered that too obvious,
that it was tasteless, tacky and lazy. Nothing colourful, he
decreed. The font must be plain, bold and clear, nothing too fancy
or artistic.
    He was
squeezing the creative life out of his team, leaving them stuck up
a blind alley, yet he was still expecting them to come up with
something new and exciting. The man was impossible - not that I’d
actually met him, of course – I was far too lowly for him to bother
himself about, and that suited me just fine because I had no desire
whatsoever to cross paths with him. I just kept my head down and
did everything that was asked of me as efficiently as possible, so
that there would be no possible grounds for them to refuse to give
me the reference I needed.
    I didn't envy
the guys in the team one bit. They were all so in awe of the Big
Boss, scared of losing their jobs if they went against his
commands. Apparently the last member of the team who’d tried to
suggest a new approach had been ‘let go’, because the Big Boss had
been so unimpressed. So now no one dared to contradict him, or
suggest anything even slightly radical.
    For my course
work, I had no such restrictions. I had carte blanche to come up
with whatever designs I wanted, and I took great delight in coming
up with the complete opposite of what the great ogre Liam Starr was
insisting he wanted. Each night when I got home, I worked on my own
version of their project, and I found it really interesting. I
decided it was the kind of work I’d like to get into when I
finished uni. I really threw myself into my project, so that I’d
have some great examples in my portfolio. Of course, if I was lucky
enough to land a place on the exchange program, then hopefully that
might lead to a job – that was always the expectation anyway.
    Because mine
was an unpaid internship, and I still needed to eat and pay all my
bills, I had to continue with my part time waitressing job as well
as work at Starr Capital Ventures during the day, and also work on
my uni assignment, so I was busier than ever, much to Jamie’s
disappointment. But that was just the way it had to be, for the
next month or so anyhow. He might be miffed about my current lack
of availability, but he had to concede that it was his own doing
because he’d instigated my placement at his brother’s company.
    The Creative
Team comprised of two staff under Simon. Of course they were both
male, although they acted more like old women as they got
themselves in a terrible state about pitching to the Big Boss.
    “He’s not
going to go for any of these options. He’s asked for radical
change, but I’m not sure these new designs fit the bill or look
different enough from the existing ones,” Tom worried. He was a
serious young man in his mid-thirties, and I’d gathered from
conversations I’d overheard that his wife was expecting a baby any
day now. And he was right. They might have all the latest equipment
and software at their fingertips,