About Ce Xiang

What is passion?

I enjoy a good story. Ones that whisk you away to another world. Ones that make you think. It could be a poem, a book, a piece of music, or even just a photo. I read a lot as a child, and I still read. Anything from storybooks to encyclopedias. My curiosity about the world persists to this day; I still try to keep tabs on all sorts of topics.

At one point, I became fascinated with great people, people devoted to a single field of study, people with passion and purpose. Soon I was looking for a passion and purpose to stand out from the crowd. I wanted the applause but hated the attention. Such exploration was never going to work out, and as a kid, I figured, to my dismay, that I had none of the qualities for being Great. Soon I forgot about it, lost in the heat haze of Malaysia’s tropical weather and new curiosities.

A New Perspective

After high school, I was suddenly thrust with the task of figuring out what to do with my life. As a young kid, I reckoned that 18 years of living was quite a lot, and I wouldn’t make it. Perhaps I would trip down some stairs or off the school building, get hit by one of Penang’s notoriously bad drivers, or any manner of death a kid with an overactive imagination would conceive. Surely I wouldn’t be so lucky, I thought. But there I was, alive and well. Quite a shocker. I planned for nothing and had to figure out what to do.

Not wanting to waste time and money, yet not wanting to become another accountant like my brothers before, I anguished about my career options. Till my friend invited me to come visit The One Academy Penang and see what they could offer. Initially, I did not consider myself an artist. I saw the world in words and music, so I dismissed the notion. Nonetheless, I agreed to go anyway. There, I was introduced to the world of art and design. Having been interested in drawing but never picking it up, I saw studying design as a chance to do just that and learn how to see the world from a different perspective. The perspective of a visual artist. So with no knowledge and skill in design and the visual arts, I enrolled at The One Academy Penang. After all, if it all went wrong, I could always study something I was good at or join the family business.

My experience at the institution reinforced my belief that I would fail in this field and I should go back and try my hand at wordsmithing instead. Or, God forbid, become an accountant like my father and brothers before me. But my experience at The One Academy eliminated the mindset of what is impossible. I understand now that learning any skill is easy to achieve with time, discipline, patience and conscious practice.

It would be years before I could be a designer, or so I thought. I sent my resume out to companies anyway, hoping that I could learn on the job. KODE Digital accepted my application, and here I am, beginning the first of many steps on the path to becoming a respectable designer.

Bright Horizons

My efforts at pushing my capabilities have led me to become a designer at KODE Digital. From here on out, I look forward to seeing where I shall go from here, what I will experience and create, and ultimately what kind of person I’ll become. Life is looking bright.