Designers compromise creativity to meet targets

Designers compromise creativity to meet targets

By Stevie Emilia

JAKARTA (JP): In their work, designers depend mostly on
creativity. But in facing the future's competition, many of them,
like it or not, must compromise with the demand from producers
and the market, leaving cultural aspects behind.

According to art designer Rini Chairin Hayati, a speaker at
last week's Asia Pacific Design Conference '98, many designers
can no longer enjoy the freedom to express their creativity.

Designers working for manufacturers, for instance, have to bow
to certain restrictions while creating designs, such as limited
production time, limited budget, affordable product prices and
other constraints.

"Those designers have to sacrifice cultural values in their
designs to meet the target," Rini told The Jakarta Post.

"But designers working for manufacturers are different from
craft designers, who can still include cultural values in their
work," she added.

The conference, held at the Jakarta Design Center, was titled
Design and Regional Society in the 21st Century. It was organized
by the Indonesia Design Center in cooperation with the Japan
Design Foundation, and was opened by Minister of Cooperatives and
Small Enterprises Adi Sasono.

Rini, who is in charge of an art program and craft division at
Studio D23, a multidivision design studio in Bandung, West Java,
joined a project conducted by the National Fund for Export
Development in 1979 along with some designers from the Bandung
Institute of Technology.

The project, which mainly used the skills of local
craftspeople in Tasikmalaya, West Java, was intended to develop
prototypes of goods to be exported abroad. Bamboo, which is known
as a multipurpose plant, was among the material selected for
development.

"In its development, a new kind of bamboo craft was introduced
after taking into deliberation several considerations compared
with traditional products, such as health and safety factors,
suitability to urban living style, limited production time and
uniformity of quality," Rini said.

The new bamboo crafts, ranging from household utensils to
decorations, were then sold to urban people instead of just being
used by the Tasikmalaya people.

The team of designers then tried to export the products to
Japan but failed because the company which was to sell their
products there, went bankrupt seven years ago.

Fortunately, another opportunity presented itself and for the
past six months, they have started exporting to Japan again.

"The difference between our former exports to Japan is this
time, we send a very small quantity of baskets," said Rini. Now,
the team has its own agent in Japan to arrange orders for them.

But Rini and her team are not yet satisfied with the result.

Bamboo craft, she said, was just like any other craft, subject
to a life cycle.

She said that when a product is first introduced to the
market, it is relatively unknown but gradually, the market
recognizes it and sales increase.

But after some time, the market becomes saturated and the
sales slow down, she said.

And at that time, she said, a substitute craft, something new
and more appealing to consumers, should be introduced to the
market.

"Just like in the fashion world, we also have trends in
handicrafts. The occurrence of these fashion trends implies that
from time to time, we have to develop and launch new products,"
Rini said.

And designers, she said, must work harder in the future,
thinking of how to keep up the spirit to create new products
which have strong appeal to consumers. At the same time, the new
products should be of good quality and strong cultural values.

"This is not a simple problem, it is a multidisciplinary
problem that must be solved by a network of experts," Rini said.

But compromising their creativity with market demands is not
the designers' only problem. At present, designers are also posed
with another crucial problem: legal protection of their works.

"How far does the law protects the designer? After so much
difficulty creating something new, someone with better financial
support can flood the market with the same product at much
cheaper prices," Rini said.

She said that if no legal protection was given to designers'
works, it was feared that soon designers would not be interested
in creating new products.

Minister Adi Sasono recognized the designers' problem, saying
that it begins with a lack of understanding on the important role
of design.

Some small and medium companies, he said, have felt the need
for designs but cannot afford to pay designers. Instead, they
preferred to copy other countries products, which then made
multinational companies pursue them for violating copyrights, he
added.

"These problems should be handled right away. Designers should
anticipate matters by cooperating with industrialists, who do not
have traders' mentality, and lawyers, to prepare legal protection
for Indonesian designers," Adi said in his opening speech.