The Prize Money from the Easel Competition Vanished into OOO

This is an article in the series about my part-time job at Tully's.
You can find the previous article here.

Are you familiar with the word 'easel'?

The signboards used to advertise store products are called easels.
For example, it looks like this.

During my four years working part-time at Tully's, I have drawn about 30 different easels.

Whenever I find a store with an easel out while I'm out and about, I can't help but look at it.

• I wonder what kind of person drew this

• I wonder if they used chalk or Posca markers to draw it

• I'll use this layout as a reference

I don't draw easels anymore, so there's no need to think about the third point, but out of habit from back then, I still find myself thinking about it, haha.

When I first started my part-time job, I never imagined I would start drawing easels.

However, a few months after I started, the manager who hired me said this to me.

“The small 'Today's Coffee' sign you always draw is beautiful. There's also something called an easel, would you like to try it?”

“The reward for work is more work” is a common saying, and this might have been the first time in my life I received such a reward.

Apparently, Tully's had started a breakfast menu, and they wanted me to draw it to help increase sales.

From there, I started drawing the easel during my breaks and spare time until it was finished.
At this store, it was standard to draw with Posca markers.
This is my first easel.

The sandwich looks like it's emitting a foul odor.

Looking at it now, there are so many things to critique, but it was my best effort at the time.
Back then, I wasn't used to the job enough to be conscious of sales, so I don't know if sales actually increased.
However, I did have a vague feeling that the number of orders for the breakfast menu was increasing.

From this point on, I began studying easels at various stores, not just Tully's, and became immersed in creating them.

Below are my 2nd to 4th works.

2nd work
This is an easel I took over and finished after a colleague had started it.
The hand-off didn't go well, so the size ratio is a bit off, haha.

3rd work
The release date stands out more than the product name, haha.

4th work
I made an easel for the newly released beans.
Since I drew the bird on the package exactly as it was,
it ended up being a mysterious easel.

And for the 5th work, the atmosphere changes a bit.
Here it is.

Finally, the product name became larger.
Also, since people read from left to right, the explanations and such enter the mind smoothly.
It was an easel that was well-received by my colleagues as well.

And, a few days later,I was called by the store manager.

Oh no, did I do something wrong?

“Yes, here you go. Congratulations.”

10,000 yen in prize money

To my surprise, the 5theasel won the competition.
The Tully's I worked at was a franchise, and they held a contest among 15 stores under the same franchise, and it won with almost unanimous votes.

Along with happiness, another emotion welled up.

If there was a competition, you should have told me sooner.

Since I was doing it to contribute to the store, I don't think my motivation would have changed, but if it was going to be a work submitted to a competition, I wish they had told me beforehand, haha.

Now, as for how I spent the 10,000 yen you're curious about,
I boughtwork clothesfor my part-time job at Uniqlo.

I was contributing quite a bit to my shifts, so my work clothes were tattered, but I didn't have money because of club expenses and such, so I couldn't buy any.

However, I have mixed feelings.

In the first place, the reason my work clothes were tattered was because I was contributing to my shifts, and I was drawing easels during that time too.
In other words, if I hadn't contributed to my shifts enough to draw easels, my work clothes wouldn't have been tattered in the first place, so I feel like I lost out, haha.

In times like these, I have no choice but to think positively.
I'm glad my drawing skills improved.

Regarding the 6th work and beyond, I would like to write about them another time.