Month: September 2020

Januar — The urgency in Indonesia, for me, is mainly to provide the alternative reading references. What we have in design schools right now compared to twenty years ago is still the same, it was mainly graphic design as a commodity, in a commercial aspect. I think it is important to provide some alternatives, so that it is not self-referential. We can still explore the potential of graphic design as a discipline, but it is not only for commercial work. We can also do cultural stuff and things beyond commercial. I’m not sure about urgency in other countries but maybe in Southeast Asia it is still the same.

In Asia, graphic design starts to gain some popularity compared to the west because design has originated from the west and they have been doing it like forever. So, I think particularly in Asia, we still have some rooms, some space to develop the way the discipline could be, or should go to. 

For the recent project we are working on, one is the second printed publication which is due to be available in September. And also we have been working with an exhibition in Guangzhou, the exhibition is focused on graphic design from East Asia, and my work particularly is about common reading within Southeast Asia. What creatives are reading here? We are reading a lot from the west, or we are reading from our local culture. The project investigates the way we read, the way graphic design is read, and also the influences of that. It is an ongoing project and the exhibition is the starting point. Like I said there is a lot of room graphic design can be developed, particularly in Southeast Asia, so it is important to see what we read, what we consume basically, and then what we produce out of it.

I’m not reading much lately, mostly due to crippling tasks we have to do at the studio (works for our clients) as well as editing contents for the upcoming Further Reading Print No.2, which I consider an irony (not being able to read as much, as Further Reading progresses, compared to what we did in the beginning). But some of my recent reads include: Are We Human? Notes on an Archaeology of Design Paperback by Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley, and Design as an Attitude by Alice Rawsthorn.
 
Pic. 12-13 — Are We Human? Notes on an Archaeology of Design Paperback by Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley.


Pic. 14 — Design as an Attitude by Alice Rawsthorn