It all started when I was at elementary school, I really like drawing and painting on Art class.
I always excited when it comes to Art class, contrary with Math or any classes that involve counting or chemistry. My Art subject score are the highest but my Math are jumping at the lowest number on my Rapport. On senior high school, I was constantly drawing manga (Japanese comic) because I really like to read manga nonstop, I even really want to become manga artist and published my own manga at the time, that’s how I am crazy with manga. My notebooks are full with my manga drawing on blank pages.
Before I graduated senior high school, I was searching on how to become manga artist. I even applied to enter Economy major since I still have no clue on how to become manga artist.
One day, my classmates who also like drawing manga with me (we both really want to become manga artist and searching manga school in Japan) came to me and said, “Hey, I know where we can still draw manga in universities, it’s Visual Communication Design major!” and suddenly life has hope for me again.
On 1999, I applied and I was accepted! With the basic thought, I just want to draw manga, nothing else.
Yes… I got to continue drawing manga on the 1st and 2nd semesters, but it’s an extra curriculum subject class, there is classes every Saturday morning where we met seniors and classmates and we all draw manga together or exchange manga drawing inspirations among other members. As the time goes by, my interest of drawing manga is getting lower and at the other hand, I like more on learning Visual Communication Design.
It's because 80% of our homework is painting, from 1st until 4th semester study concentrated on the basic of art and painting, the homework really took a lot of energy and I was too tired to draw manga, also I drawn more into painting more than drawing manga since then.
For the first 2 years, my whole life is about painting. I learnt painting in various media such as: pencil, colored pencil, watercolor, poster color and charcoal. The purpose is to grow our senses of arts as a basic before learn how to design.
I have memorable one course subject class “Drawing”, where in 1 semester the task is to draw same theme in various painting media. The theme is to draw Old Batavia in watercolor – poster color – pencil – charcoal media, it was tiring but fun because I had to research the old pictures of Batavia, what kind of clothes and transportation in that era. I was so satisfied with all my paintings on this subject.
I learnt deeper of concept thinking on Visual Communication Design subject class in the mid to final year semester, I realized that design is not just about drawing manga, it is broader than that (The Aha Moment in my life). I learnt psychology and marketing, I learnt brand and positioning, I learnt basic animation, I learnt basic photography, I learnt basic calligraphy. That is the uniqueness I found in Visual Communication Design, we have to learnt a lot of knowledges that support the design implementation. One thing I keep remember, everything has a concept. You have to have a background, what is the motivation, what is the concept of every design you create. This is why I fell in love with graphic design.
I started the journey being full time graphic designer after graduated on 2003. I see Visual Communication Design is the world full of exploration of creativity and art, and it is always been my passion and career choice. Become manga artist may not be my final destination, in fact… it’s a start of my life calling.