Events: FGD Expo & Popcon Asia 2015

Calling all graphic designers and pop culture enthusiasts! Last weekend my friend (Valerie and Jessica) and I went to Jakarta Convention Center to attend FGD Expo 2015 and Popcon 2015. It took approximately 1 and a half hour from Tangerang to Senayan (there's a massive traffic jam across the highway, but luckily my friend Val knew the alternative way to get there).

We went to FGD Expo first. We filled a form in order to enter the building and in return we got a nametag with a barcode on it so we can come back inside every time we came out without paying again. Pretty neat, huh? So, after we managed to do the above things, we finally got into the expo and basically, it was a really good expo. There are lots of printing booths and they mostly sell printer, papers, and other gizmos. I did learn about them in uni, but it was a nice moment to learn them much more in an event like that. A gold indigo printer? Amazing. An old pressing machine? So much more amazing.

We visited some interesting booths. First, we headed to ADGI booth and saw a lot of wonderful showcases such as books, posters, and packagings. They sold some pretty interesting merchandises too. For this booth, I laid my eyes upon a funny book titled: Desain Grafis, Deadline, Doa by . It's a prayer compilation that mostly about graphic designer's problem when it's time to face the clients. I just... Really want to shove that book hardly to some annoying clients so they can understand us... A bit more. Hehehe.

The next booth we went to is DGI, and this time they opened their first graphic design museum in Indonesia. They displayed some precious artworks made by some graphic design pioneers in Indonesia. And... We decided to take a picture in front of one of many displays and uploaded it in instagram, as a part of an instagram competition (we didn't win tho).

Introducing the crews: Valerie Wirjaatmadja - Claudia Novreica - Jessica Melita in front of the late Pak Yongky Safanayong.

Next, we headed to the Japan Foundation booth, where they displayed some works from ASPAC, a packaging competition which were held last year (I participated with my friend Reta, but didn't make it to the final, hehehe). Here are some snaps that Val took:

Introducing one of the Indonesia's top 10 chocolate packaging design by a fellow, Evan.

This one's by one of our crew today, Jessica! And her partner Gaby!

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After spending some times at FGD Expo, we decided to go ahead to Popcon 2015, which was located next two doors from FGD Expo. The entrance was epic, like a portal that lead us to the outer space and then we feel that we arrived to the planet that displayed A-Z related to the pop culture. The event itself was smaller than FGD Expo, but we still felt the hype and excitement came from every corner of the room. Here are some snaps that we took at the event:

An amazing booth by Fabula, an illustration agency. It displayed works from renowned Indonesian illustrators such as Diela Maharanie, Renata Owen, Resatio, Emte, and many more!

There are LOTS of Studio Ghibli fanarts dedicated to this amazing animation studio in Popcon 2015. This was one of them and it was sold as a sketchbook.

Look at this preciouses! I always loved genuine leather goods, especially handmade one. This is a booth from a leather brand from Yogyakarta (Yogya is leather heaven!) that sold sketchbooks, wallets, and bracelets. 

Finally had the chance to meet two of my favorite illustrators, Renata Owen and Elfandiary! I managed to purchase their artworks also. See my haul section below!

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Alright, it's time to show up my haul for Popcon 2015! A little bit "kalap" because of purchasing too much stuffs, but it's okay anyway. They are nice and I loved it so much!

Some artbooks that I purchased: A Studio Ghibli fanart by Loco Creative, Elfandiary's artbook, and artbook by David Adhinarya Lojaya and Stephen Putra. 

                     

A closer look to Studio Ghibli's Art Tribute by Loco Creative, featuring my favorite two.

A closer look to Elfandiary's artbook. I love on how he interpreted some famous animes and gave it his own touch. Beautiful.

A closer look for Stephen Putra and David Lojaya's artbook.

Bought this Renata Owen's sketchbook. I really love on how she use Indonesia's culture and art in most of her artworks.

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Well, that was a quite long post, huh? I hope you enjoy reading this just like I enjoy writing it. Until next time, and maybe next events? Hehehe. See ya!

Sixth Semester

Hello! It's finally August, and we know what it means: Another two weeks semester break! After spending most of my times in front of my laptop, tweaking on the three musketeers (that infamous Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and inDesign), I finally had the time to shut my eyes for a bit and loosen up the tense I had for the past months.

So, for this time, I would like to share a bit about semester 6 recap and some projects that I've made. Basically, this semester is a little bit easier than the previous semester, thanks to the group works in every each of the subject. I got some of the best people to work with, so they really help me through the semester. Another interesting thing for this semester is I can finally pick subjects for electives. I decided to pick painting lesson this semester because it is an interesting subject and it's been a long time since I made my last painting. Time to awake those need-to-paint sense inside of me!

For the elective, I made 5 paintings from many art movements; realism, abstract expressionism, cubism, and dadaism. By the end of the semester, the final will be an exhibition, showcasing some of the curated works of students. I had the chance to be the part of committee and be the one who design the publication and then finding the name of the exhibition. So, for this exhibition, I named it MERAKI, which is a beautiful Greek word that means "to do something with soul, creativity, or love and to put something of yourself into what you're doing". It perfectly matches with paintings, because, yes, paintings are made with soul, creativity, or love and you put yourself into it. Thanks to a fabulous blog named otherwordly for providing me some beautiful words to use (and Valen for introducing me to this kind of world!).

The exhibition was held during the finals week, which is last week, from 3rd until 7th August. A total of thirty works are displayed for the exhibition. I contributed 3 of my works for the exhibition, which were a dadaism, cubism, and absract expressionism works.

For my dadaism entry, I made a painting about racism in Indonesia, especially based on my own experience. Basically, it's about how I feel about racism, which is somehow... captivating, as pictured literally in the painting. For cubism, I've made a visual of my number one inspiration in everything: my study spot and books. The theme is about how I describe myself. Books always my number one thing to describe me, eh? Lastly, is an abstract expressionism painting I made while listening a song. For this one, I listened to a Moonrise Kingdom soundtrack titled: Simple Symphony, Op. 4 - 2. Playful Pizzicato.

Introducing the crews: Valerie Wirjaatmadja - Adi Djohan - Claudia Novreica - Evan Wijaya - our two models Marcella Febrianne and Ferdie Sundjoyo - and last but not least the photographer Kevin Geraldo.

Studio is always been my major subject for every semester. For this semester, it's a long term project about making advertisings and visual strategies for Waterbom, a well-known waterpark in Jakarta. We made everything from the scratch, and then it goes to research, brainstorming, making the concept, and finally the execution. There are of course, sleepless nights during the process, but we really enjoy making this. 

Our Waterbom project will be available to check out soon on my Behance and Kreavi account.

Introducing the crews: Valencia Ng - Valerie Wirjaatmadja - Claudia Novreica 

And... This one's a project for publication design final, which is making a whole magazine. I'm saying whole means there are a lot of things to make, literally. We made a graphic standard manual, the magazine itself, and a digital publication version of the magazine. This is one of the most overwhelming projects that we've got this semester, but finally, we finally finished them.

Our MILES magazine project will be soon available at my Behance and Kreavi account.

Introducing the crews: Valerie Wirjaatmadja - Claudia Novreica - Evan Wijaya

This one's a project for design management. We are given an opportunity to do the marketing strategy for any Indonesian brand that are in need for it. So, we choose Lion Air, an Indonesian flight company for it. This project is somehow interesting, because we're given the opportunity to do just the same as a professional graphic designers do, such as setting the price that the client should pay and do our pitching in front of the client.

The project will be soon available at my Behance and Kreavi account.

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Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy reading as much as I writing it. Have a nice day. See you soon.

Brain Teasers

The fact that Eddie Redmayne (as seen in films such as Les Miserables and The Theory of Everything), will have the honor to star as Newt Scamander in the new Harry Potter spin-off movie, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. I've been his fangirl since his amazing performance as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, because you know; Tall, brooding, long-faced, British accented men never cease to make me... Sigh... Fall in love. 

The fact that Sylvia Plath's quotes always resonate my visions and ideologies in life:

“I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in my life. And I am horribly limited.” 

And, oh, introducing The Bell Jar, her novel that I bought when I was 16 years old: full of life confusions and currently suffering from self-identity crisis.

The fact that searching for a random Tibetan girl in the middle of philosophy class and then draw them on your notebook is always the best way to keeps me awake. By the way, there's this one beautiful movie that tingled my mind these past days. Take a look. Simply beautiful. This movie is my number one for the most beautiful movie ever.

The fact that drawing your favorite blogger brings you inspirations. Meet Evita Nuh, a blogger I know for years and yes, she's inspiring. It's somehow interesting to watch her since she was around 10 and now she's teenager. 

The fact that working on this painting is such a pain in the ass (not literally) and back (literally). Yes, I join painting class for elective this semester and it's such a fun time for me to explore several art movements and styles. And oh, this one's dadaism.

The fact that books will always be my loyal friend, whenever and wherever I am.