Yogyakarta, March 17th, 2020— The Center for Digital Society (CfDS) under the care of Faculty of Social and Political Sciences is now conducting an online discussion with the Digital Discussion #13 theme entitled “What Makes a Good Design?” on March 17, 2020. The discussion held on the WhatsApp Group platform with 163 participants coming from various faculties and universities. This time, the Digital Discussion by CfDS invited Masgustian, S. Fil as the Senior Graphic Pameo who was then called Mas Tian and the moderator Made Agus Bayu Sudharma as the CfDS Event Staff who guided the discussion.
Firstly, the Digital Discussion #13 started at 19.00 WIB with the moderator conveying group rules and introducing the speaker who would arouse the discussion. To slightly enliven the atmosphere in the WhatsApp Group room, the interaction began with the moderator throwing a simple question and answer session on the topic to the audience after inviting the speaker to introduce himself. “Beforehand, I wanted to ask Smart People, what makes graphic design works good according to Smart People?” asked Made. From some of the audiences who responded, averagely answered colour combinations, delivery of messages, or right-on-target messages.
“A good graphic design, in my opinion, is a graphic design that is able to answer problems and the challenges on the brief given to designers effectively and on target,” said Mas Tian in response to the discussion participants’ answers. Following the simple question and answer session, the moderator invited Mas Tian to explain the material to deepen the participants’ knowledge.
In his presentation, Mas Tian explained that beyond our consciousness, design is ubiquitous and has become part of our daily lives. From we wake up until we go back to sleep, obviously we have encountered many logos, images, colour combinations, emojis, characters, layouts, photos, and others around us. “Why is that? The answer is because we are visual creatures,” Mas Tian answered his question. To reinforce his statement, Mas Tian points out a fun fact that almost 50% of the entire information enters our brain involves visual processes, 70% of all our sensory receptors are in our eyes, and visual atmosphere can be understood in less than 1/10 second. “The facts above support the statement that the visual tole is very significant,” said Mas Tian.
Later on, Mas Tian explained the importance of the brief in the design. The brief is a guide given to designers to make the right design. “Like a tourist in a new place, the brief is like Google Maps, which is a guide to get to the desired destination,” illustrate Mas Tian regarding the importance of the brief. According to him, a good design brief must at least explain three things: our design goals and objectives along with the client’s expectations, existing timeline and budget; and clear target audience.
Then, the discussion enters the core part of it, about how to make a good design? In this session, Mas Tian explains some points that become stages to find out how to make a good design. These points are Know Your Story, Do Research, Create a Mood Board, Sketch, Design Process, Test & Get Feedback, and Implement. Besides, Mas Tian also gave tips to avoid plagiarism when we took references from other artists’ works so as not to interfere with the owner’s copyright. These tips include: know and make sure the License Summary, include credits; and mood board.
After his explanation was felt to be enough, the moderator opened two question and answer sessions. Both sessions filled with questions from the audience. Mas Tian as the speaker answered all the questions coherently and clearly. Due to time limitation and the high enthusiasm of participants to ask questions, the event was formally closed and participants who wanted to ask questions were invited to contact the speaker personally. The event ended approximately at 21.15 WIB.