At the moment of the rush hour in the morning, Gu Yan came to the company. The staff in the studio greeted her nervously. Gu Yan responded to them with a smile respectively.
Back in the office, she prepared the meeting materials briefly and called the staff together to have a short meeting. In the meeting, she said that the design work had been finished and the handover work with other departments was also important. She didn’t hope that their work was an anticlimax.
After the meeting, Gu Yan looked at her watch and found that two hours had passed. Then she sighed that time went fast when she was working.
A vague idea appeared in her mind yesterday. It was about their future partners when the studio stepped in the right direction. She wanted to take some high-quality design orders. She would rather pay more attention to the quality of the design than the quantity of that.
It was just an obscure notion and she didn’t tell it to anyone. But she thought it was necessary to tell Jiang Jingcheng. After all, Jiang Jingcheng had the right to decide the things in the studio. Moreover, she had better take others’ advice about these things, because she had a little experience and she couldn’t do a good job just depending on enthusiasm.
“I’m about to tell you that our design was sent to many companies by Zhongtu and we got many appreciations. So, some of them called me for cooperation this morning.” Jiang Jingcheng was enraptured and he had no intention to hide his joy, “Thanks to this good cooperation with Zhongtu. We get a free advertisement. It is more useful than we advertise.”
Jiang Jingcheng didn’t give Gu Yan a chance to speak and he continued, “Do we take these design orders or not? If we are involved so many designs at once, we will be terribly busy! Now we really make a name. We have no need to worry we have no cases!”
At this moment, Jiang Jingcheng detected the wrong with Gu Yan. After he said so much, Gu Yan was in silence and had no smile on her face. What was wrong with her? He thought.
Seeing that Jiang Jingcheng was so happy, Gu Yan couldn’t bear to throw a wet blanket on him. She blamed herself. If she told him her plan for the studio in advance, there would not be such an awkward situation.
After thinking over that, she cleared her throat and said, “As for the further projects of the studio, I prefer to put quality before quantity.”
Looking at Jiang Jingcheng’s eyebrows knitted, Gu Yan thought that Jiang Jingcheng really could not accept it.
“Why? Give me a reason.” It made Jiang Jingcheng terribly angry. Everybody knew that fools didn’t make money. Gu Yan was truly a fool! She didn’t undertake the deal in front of her. In this way, how could the studio run? Why not close the studio as soon as possible?
“For those cases which have nothing new, everyone can do and even do them well. It won’t be meaningful if we undertake those designs!” Gu Yan had resolved to persuade Jiang Jingcheng.
“But challenging projects are totally different. Not everyone can take them. If we do a good job, we will become famous together. If we didn’t do them well, we will also be remembered by others. They will scold us that we don’t have excellent skills but take an excellent work.” Gu Yan said.
“What’s more, I am quite confident that I can do every case we take well. Let alone you, right? Furthermore, it is good for the further development of the studio. And it will be our pride if the cases we take are all big cases!” Gu Yan flattered Jiang Jingcheng with her eyes flickering and tried her best to persuade him to support her.
“I think you are just timid! In my opinion, it is really right that we should take all cases no matter they are big or small, good or bad. Who will refuse? If the sky collapses, there will be a taller one to hold it up. What are you afraid of?” Jiang Jingcheng thought Gu Yan was afraid that if she took these cases at once and she couldn’t do them well, the fame of the studio would be destroyed.
But Gu Yan didn’t think too much. The studio was her dream, and what she did was all for the better growth of it. But now she was a little worried, because Jiang Jingcheng didn’t support her and couldn’t understand her decision.
“Listen to me. The studio is the result of my painstaking effort. I hope it can be better than anyone else. I don’t want to take so many cases, because I am afraid that the studio will become too formulaic and philistine. How good the present work atmosphere in the studio is! If we take too many cases, what will it be like?” Gu Yan convinced Jiang Jingcheng and also expressed her worries.
Indeed, if they accepted casual projects, the studio would not keep its original aspiration. It would be better to set a clear orientation at the beginning, so that they would not be embarrassed to reject the projects that they didn’t want to take. Although Jiang Jingcheng’s ideas were different from Gu Yan’s, he agreed her decision in his heart.
Besides, he would give unconditional support to all her decisions, wouldn’t he?
“You are right. We will do according to what you said. We will be ‘too high to be popular’. And we cannot take demotic projects, lest they lower our status.” Even though Jiang Jingcheng agreed with her ideas and resolved to support her, he still didn’t give up to beat her in words.
Hearing Jiang Jingcheng make quips about her, Gu Yan was not angry. As long as he supported her, everything would be fine. Although what he said was nonsense, a sentence he said was right. If the sky collapsed, there would be a taller one to hold it up. And this one would definitely be Jiang Jingcheng! She had no need to worry.
The more Gu Yan thought about it, the happier she was. Jiang Jingcheng had no idea what her mind was, so he just sniggered. Even though he knew she was definitely calculating him, he was not angry. Then the two of them got busy with their own business respectively.
Gu Yan went back her office, opened the computer and received an email. It was an invitation of an interior design competition. She paid no attention to it at first. But she read it over carefully when she founded it was inscribed by some well-known companies and organizations in the design circle.
“The winner of the competition will get the opportunity to study in Auslet Company for a month.” Looking at these words, Gu Yan was completely moved. Auslet was a heaven that all designers dreamt of.
Gu Yan made up her mind to seize the good opportunity. Even if she couldn’t get the award, she could know more people in the industry and learn from them. Such a good opportunity wouldn’t be met by everyone.
Gu Yan couldn’t help thinking that she was very lucky.
After calming down, Gu Yan read over the entry requirements. It kept a high standard that contestants must have a well-known master work in design industry.