Around two weeks ago was my last day at the office. If you don’t know, I had worked as a copywriter in a creative agency in Jakarta—and after 3 years, it was finally time for me to move on. They say, working at an agency for years is already a long enough amount of time. It’s true! As you know, I’ve worked at a non-agency office before and I can already tell you it’s so different in experience.
Working at an agency requires constant creativity and intense productivity. It pushes you to keep churning up fresh ideas from different angles and delivering it as a satisfactory—if not exceptional—creative output. If that doesn’t sound like a challenge in and of itself, I don’t know what does. One year at an agency equals probably three at any other office—and I’ve got it threefold.
Around two weeks ago was my last day at the office. If you don’t know, I had worked as a copywriter in a creative agency in Jakarta—and after 3 years, it was finally time for me to move on. They say, working at an agency for years is already a long enough amount of time. It’s true! As you know, I’ve worked at a non-agency office before and I can already tell you it’s so different in experience.
Working at an agency requires constant creativity and intense productivity. It pushes you to keep churning up fresh ideas from different angles and delivering it as a satisfactory—if not exceptional—creative output. If that doesn’t sound like a challenge in and of itself, I don’t know what does. One year at an agency equals probably three at any other office—and I’ve got it threefold.
A Tribute to My Comrades
Truthfully, I wouldn’t be myself if I wasn’t being sentimental every chance I get—and leaving an office after years of working together is surely the chance to colour me melancholic. When I left my first office, I made an array of portraits of all 24 of my interns and 10 of my co-workers—both past and current at the time. This time around I thought I’d go a little extra and make everyone a personalised sticker set based on our inside jokes and shared experiences. The ball already started rolling when two co-workers had resigned ahead of me this year and I made them both sticker sheets—everyone else at the office wanted a piece for themselves too, so here we are.
Since I already handed in my resignation 4 months prior—the policy actually called for a 2-month notice period, but my supervisors negotiated with me to stay a little while longer—I had planned for these stickers that far ahead. I thought that would help me get them done quicker and in a more leisurely fashion. Girl, you delusional! In the end, I only started to get going less than a month before my last day—running full-speed ahead on the last week, neglecting my personal wellbeing really.
The sketching, finalising and printing process turned out to be more gruelling than I anticipated that I reduced the number of designs significantly to reach the deadline. What was initially supposed to be a sticker sheet with 5 designs became a pack of 5 stickers and was reduced to 3 stickers per person. Feel free to watch the entire process here.
To take sentimentality to a whole other level, I also included a hand-written letter for each person. All of these letters, by the way, were written on the morning of the last day—I hope it wasn’t all too apparent that I rushed through them. Needless to say, my hands became noodles for the entire weekend afterwards. The stickers and the letters are presented inside a vellum see-through envelope to give a sneak peek of the designs and writings, with a semi-calligraphed writing of their names on the front. If it wasn’t apparent before, it should be clearer now—I definitely meant to put a lot of thought and care into these personalised gifts.
When the moment of truth came, everyone seemed really enthusiastic to receive their gift. I recorded each and every one of their reactions, but sadly could only include a few on my vlog. I’m so glad that I mostly got their inner persona right. I’ve also anticipated that some of them might have wanted to get the stickers that have been designed for others, so I printed extra on purpose. They had a field day scouring through each design and picking out ones that they like—some even went so far as to “sell” the designs meant for them so the others would want to take them too 🤣 It became a real fun and heartwarming moment in the end, so glad they all liked it.
Thank you so much to all my co-workers at the office!
You guys made everyday at the office feel a lot more fun!
See you around!
A Tribute to My Comrades
Truthfully, I wouldn’t be myself if I wasn’t being sentimental every chance I get—and leaving an office after years of working together is surely the chance to colour me melancholic. When I left my first office, I made an array of portraits of all 24 of my interns and 10 of my co-workers—both past and current at the time. This time around I thought I’d go a little extra and make everyone a personalised sticker set based on our inside jokes and shared experiences. The ball already started rolling when two co-workers had resigned ahead of me this year and I made them both sticker sheets—everyone else at the office wanted a piece for themselves too, so here we are.
Since I already handed in my resignation 4 months prior—the policy actually called for a 2-month notice period, but my supervisors negotiated with me to stay a little while longer—I had planned for these stickers that far ahead. I thought that would help me get them done quicker and in a more leisurely fashion. Girl, you delusional! In the end, I only started to get going less than a month before my last day—running full-speed ahead on the last week, neglecting my personal wellbeing really.
The sketching, finalising and printing process turned out to be more gruelling than I anticipated that I reduced the number of designs significantly to reach the deadline. What was initially supposed to be a sticker sheet with 5 designs became a pack of 5 stickers and was reduced to 3 stickers per person. Feel free to watch the entire process here.
To take sentimentality to a whole other level, I also included a hand-written letter for each person. All of these letters, by the way, were written on the morning of the last day—I hope it wasn’t all too apparent that I rushed through them. Needless to say, my hands became noodles for the entire weekend afterwards. The stickers and the letters are presented inside a vellum see-through envelope to give a sneak peek of the designs and writings, with a semi-calligraphed writing of their names on the front. If it wasn’t apparent before, it should be clearer now—I definitely meant to put a lot of thought and care into these personalised gifts.
When the moment of truth came, everyone seemed really enthusiastic to receive their gift. I recorded each and every one of their reactions, but sadly could only include a few on my vlog. I’m so glad that I mostly got their inner persona right. I’ve also anticipated that some of them might have wanted to get the stickers that have been designed for others, so I printed extra on purpose. They had a field day scouring through each design and picking out ones that they like—some even went so far as to “sell” the designs meant for them so the others would want to take them too 🤣 It became a real fun and heartwarming moment in the end, so glad they all liked it.
Thank you so much to all my co-workers at the office!
You guys made everyday at the office feel a lot more fun!
See you around!