Hello Ferdi, thank you for joining us on Talking With The Pros, can you please gives us an introduction about yourself and how you got started in the design industry?
I was born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia. My interest in design started in high-school when my dad bought me a PC and my brother installed a few design software on it, he also gave me a lot of graphic design magazines. When I went to college, I chose marketing communication and advertising as my major, from there I worked at various design houses and advertising agencies for 7-8 years and now I'm a freelancer.
I really enjoy viewing your work, you have a clean and heavily photo-manipulated style that makes your work really stand out. Can you give us a brief overview how you started mastering this style?
Well, like with many of us that work within the design industry, I use a lot of photo manipulation as parts of the design process, but my skill is improve significantly after I decided to go full freelance and just focusing at photo manipulation only.
You always use great images for your work, where do you usually get your images and resources from?
If it's for personal work only, there are a lot of great resources, back then when I just get started, I use free stock photo sites as my resource and gave the the proper credits for the images, but for the past few years I usually bought the images from stock photo sites.
How long does an average piece take you to complete?
For an average piece, usually it would take me between 5-7 hours to complete. (ex: "break your boundaries" work)
Can you give us a brief overview of your design process?
When I got an idea, I will start to do a research on the matter, immerse myself with all the available info and reference about it, picturing it in my mind how the visual would and should be like in order to deliver the message strongly, do a quick sketch or make a note if I have to, analyze it again for a bit, looking for any weaknesses on the visual that can harm the message that I want to deliver. If everything's looks good in my head then I will start designing it for real.
What do you think is the most challenging part of your job?
The most challenging part is looking for a fresh idea, it's like there is nothing new under the sun anymore. For example, a few years back, I was thinking about making a splitting city right in the middle (like the Red Sea) as the visual representative of the message , but when I checked that idea online, well, someone else already done it, had to scratch that idea out and find a new visual idea to represent the message.
How often do you get approached for design work and what type of jobs do you generally get asked for? (web, print, advertisement?)
Usually the works coming in heavily at the first four months and the last two months of the year. The rest of the months probably just 1-2 jobs per month.
Generally they've asked me to help them to create a key visual (digital and prints)
What would you say is your favourite piece you have done to date?
My most favorite piece is "Time", I spent a lot of time working on that one and really enjoying it (both old and new versions)
How do you deal with design blocks? What advice would you give for designers to get past them?
Whenever I have design blocks, usually I just stop thinking about it for a moment and do other fun activities, like playing video games (in my case, I'll play RPG games like Skyrim or Dragon Age) and hanging out with friends, watching movies and stuff. Then I'll visit the designers online community, checking out their latest work, say hi and commenting on their work.
Basically, just let it go for a moment, recharge and then prepare your mind to tackle that obstacle.
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to interview you, do you have any final words for our readers?
Thank you for the interview Karim, really appreciate it. As for the readers, I just want to say that every obstacle is a challenge that will take you to next level, even if you can't overcome it at the first try, you'll definitely gain experience by trying to go through it and the next time you try, you'll get better at it and will finally tackle it, and then it's time to find a new and harder challenge.
