Following the Journey of Inggrid Wenas with Ideologie in the World of Design
The beautiful arches and curves reflect Indonesia’s nature in the logo for the Republic’s 79th Independence Anniversary is the creation of one Inggrid Wenas, a graphic designer from Surabaya and the founder of Ideologie Design & Branding Studio. Inggrid’s name is now under the spotlight as a result of her creating an anniversary logo that is refreshing, more supple, and different from the designed anniversary logos that have come before. Narrowing the distance between Jakarta and Surabaya, Grafis Masa Kini sat down for a chat with Inggrid online to better understand the journey she and her team at Ideologie underwent in the world of Indonesian graphic design.
Inggrid Wenas attended an undergraduate visual communication design program at Petra Christian University, Surabaya. According to her, at the time, graphic design enthusiasts were few and far inbetween. “[Graphic design] was still something unfamiliar. At Petra itself, the Visual Communication Design undergraduate had only been established in the early 2000s,” Inggrid recalled. When she first attended the Visual Communication Design program, Inggrid admitted that she had no idea of the world she was about to pursue, she didn’t even fully understand what her career prospects would be when she graduated. “However, people said that this was a new major that will keep developing, so I was interested,” she added. Inggrid is the type to eagerly learn new things. As she dug deeper into graphic design, the more she found herself enjoying the discipline and practice. “As I got deeper into it, I thought, ‘Oh this is actually fun? This is actually exciting?’ I became motivated until I graduated and I ended up being chosen to take part in the graduation exhibition,” she recalled further. The work Inggrid exhibited was in the form of illustration. In actuality, to Ingrid, she didn’t feel that she particularly excelled in illustration. Her high craving to learn and boldness to try new things pushed Inggrid to successfully complete her final university assignment with satisfactory results. “However, I’m the type of person who likes a challenge; what I can’t do, I’ll try. Looking back, I felt like I wasn’t any good at illustration but I ended up doing it for my final assignment and it was proven to be successful when I got exhibited,” said Inggrid.
Following her graduation and armed with design proficiency, Inggrid took on many freelance gigs as a graphic designer. Initially, Inggrid had planned to haul herself to the capital city, but she didn’t follow through and Inggrid decided to stay in Surabaya, where she was born and raised. As time passed, more and more clients came her way and she found a piling workload which she had to complete on her own. “So when I was working on my own, I only got to sleep at two in the morning, four in the morning. I just couldn’t go on like that,” Inggrid reminisced. She mustered up the courage to finally recruit a small number of designers and ended up forming her own design studio.
Ingrid's house is the birthplace of Ideologie. Armed with a computer in her home, Inggrid recruited designers one by one to work together in order to meet the client's needs. Initially, Inggrid used her personal name. In the first days after recruiting other designers, Ingrid began to feel more comfortable and enjoy implementing the teamwork system. "I saw the results, that working together bore more refined results, with more brain power and energy, and the results are not forced from just one person’s efforts," said Ingrid. Finally, after various considerations, Ingrid decided on "Ideologie" as the name of the design studio. In an official statement released via the @adgi.centralInstagram account regarding the launch of the Republic of Indonesia's 79th Independence Anniversary logo, Inggrid Wenas briefly introduced Ideologie which has been contributing to the graphic design industry since 2008: "A little story about us at Ideologie, where this journey all started from the dream to work and give our best for the progress of the world of graphic design in Indonesia, not just following trends but having a message in every work produced. Our vision is that designers in Indonesia, the nation's talented children, can be increasingly appreciated and looked up to in this country."
Beginning from a dream, Ideologie has now grown into one of the most reputable graphic design studios in Surabaya, although the size of the team never grew beyond five people. With a small team, Inggrid can monitor each job in detail herself. She is also involved in formulating ideas and artistic direction for every project they work on. To this day, Ideologie has worked on various visual identities, packaging designs, promotional materials for clients domiciled in Surabaya, Jakarta, Bali and Lombok. One of Ideologie's projects that is in the spotlight is the branding work for Sushi Toku, a Japanese food restaurant in Surabaya. Inspired by Japanese ink paintings and the Wabi-Sabi philosophy, Ideologie designed a logo that resembles a typical Japanese seal used as a substitute for a signature. Textured Japanese brush strokes also posed as the artistic inspiration behind the graphics for Sushi Toku's visual needs. Not only that, Inggrid and the team also presented iconic Japanese forms such as Gyotaku or fish print paintings for the supergraphics. Another branding project worked on by Ideologie was the logo for Pineatale, a brand of baby products. The logo design was inspired by a mother holding and caring for a baby. The touch of the leaf shape in the logo represents the natural ingredients used by the brand. In designing the overall branding for this product, Inggrid and the team used a soft color identity to represent a sense of caring.
Inggrid Wenas and Ideologie's experience in the world of design for many years led them to design the logo for the 79th Independence Anniversary of the Republic of Indonesia this year. As Inggrid recalls, she was initially contacted by the Surabaya Chapter of the Indonesian Graphic Designers Association (ADGI). "We were contacted by ADGI Surabaya. They asked, 'Do you want to submit a portfolio for the Republic of Indonesia's Independence Day?' At that time I immediately thought about sending a portfolio of logo compilations. We didn't have enough time however, so we immediately gave them the existing portfolio," said Ingrid. Two weeks after the contact, Inggrid received the happy news that she and the Ideologie team had been selected to work on the logo for the 79th Independence Anniversary of the Republic of Indonesia. "Following that, we immediately started working continuously, without stopping," added Inggrid. With the assistance of ADGI’s central chapter, Inggrid explored the ideas and messages that she wanted to convey through this logo which is important for the Republic of Indonesia. "This is a collaboration between all parties, until the final result can be approved. There is one month before the presentation to the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy. "So, every week there is a checkpoint, [we discuss] what's missing and we will be given input by a team of ADGI administrators," explained Ingrid. The weekly process was not easy for Inggrid and Ideologie, there were many graphic elements that had to be adjusted according to critiques and suggestions from various parties. "I was a little down because the logo had been approved but the graphic elements still didn't match," recalled Inggrid. After going through a deep thought process, Inggrid finally found the right graphic element design to accompany the 79th Independence Anniversary of the Republic of Indonesia logo. "I immediately went to the ADGI team, I contacted them outside of the checkpoints and finally got approval from all parties," she added. Designing a visual identity for this year's Republic of Indonesia's Independence Day was quite a big challenge for Ingrid and the Ideologie team, including when compiling visual guidelines that could be understood by various levels of society. “One of the biggest challenges is creating the design guidelines that must be applied to various platforms nationally. The formulation must be clear so that it matches what we want," explained Inggrid. In the process, Inggrid felt lucky because she participated in various competent mentoring sessions. For Inggrid, in completing this national scale project, critique and suggestions from various parties are very important to see the results not only from one perspective.
After going through a winding road in the design process, the logo for the 79th Independence Anniversary of the Republic of Indonesia was finally launched and became national news. Elaborating the final result, Inggrid was inspired by the big theme of this year's Indonesian Independence Day, namely "Nusantara Baru Indonesia Maju" (English: New Nusantara [Archipelago], Indonesia Progresses) in formulating the logo. “We explored the word ‘nusantara’ [archipelago]—an archipelagic country with diverse nature. So, the shape is flexible and organic. "The shape is like the stroke of a pen, alluding to carving out a new history for Indonesia, preparing a new capital city," explained Inggrid. The accompanying graphic elements are in harmony—adapting Indonesia's natural wealth, forming an organic pattern that moves forward in accordance with the dreams of the Indonesian people. With this logo, Inggrid and Ideologie also prove the results of the ups and downs of their journey in the world of design. Of course, this is not the end, but the beginning of Inggrid Wenas' future journey with Ideologie.
