RSP Worst Job Final (deconstructive)

Ryan Pitt
Job: Construction Work
Design Type: Deconstructive
Program: Photoshop



My worst job ever was working construction as a laborer for Local 22 in Massachusetts. The pay was great but the hours and physical demands were unbearable and were ultimately driving me into the ground. I just wasn't cut out for it (I never expected to make a career out of it, but it was very taxing).

I ended up going with a deconstructive approach because it was the absolute hardest for me, and I got it into my head that I needed to power through it if I was going to ever call myself a designer. I had several integrative and geometric designs that came fairly easily, but creating something deconstructive (that people could understand) for this particular topic was very difficult for me. Ultimately, I distilled the worst part of the job to be the hours and my lack of sleep. I had to get up at 3:45am every morning in order to get to work on time, and if I got to sleep any later than 10:00pm I was absolutely screwed in terms of adequate rest. Because the job was entirely physical, a lack of proper rest ensured that the entire day would be a nightmare. Being that I suffer from insomnia and other sleeping disorders, it was frequently the case that I wouldn't get to sleep until after midnight.

For my deconstructive design, I explored this problem. I used imagery evocative of construction work (hard hat, gravel, caution tape) and worked them into a piece centered around broken glass over a clock face to signify my finally having enough of it. I adjusted the clock numbers to match the lines of glass breakage as well as I could in order to integrate the two elements into a single idea. The "caution tape" adds color and evokes images of  accidents and damage, but also repair.

The gravel served as both texture and color to balance the composition while also holding meaning to anyone that has worked construction. Anyone that has been on a work site knows that you are very rarely walking on solid, even ground, so I feel that this imagery rings true. The hard hat is probably the most evocative symbol of construction work that exists, so I utilized it to add much needed color to the piece while integrating it visually with the other imagery.

Overall I am reasonably pleased with how the project turned out, but I spent so much time scrapping and reworking everything that I was becoming incredibly discouraged towards the end. And honestly, it looked terrible until the last minute when I tweaked a few things (added caution tape). I feel that I could make it better with more work but really I would probably go insane if I had to work on this particular design again.