Looking Back at the Excitement of ADGI Design Week 2024
ADGI Design Week 2024 officially concluded on its fifth day this past Sunday (15/12) at Urban Forest, Cipete. Organized by the Association of Indonesian Graphic Designers (ADGI), the five days were chockfull with amazing creative talent, incredible graphic design insights, and more. With multiple exhibitions, chapter talks, and the first ever ADGI Conference, there was something for all design enthusiasts to enjoy.
The week kicked off on Wednesday (11/12), with the official opening of the four different exhibitions hosted; the DGI Museum, The COMPASS® X ADGI exhibition, the “Peeling” D&AD Exhibition, and the highly anticipated GRAFIS’24 exhibition. The DGI Museum exhibition was a long-time coming. A physical manifestation of the efforts of the Head of DGI and exhibition curator, Ismiaji Tjahyono, to document and preserve the developments of Indonesian graphic design.
The COMPASS® X ADGI exhibition showcased the results of the shoe brand’s collaboration with 25 graphic designers and design studios. This collection was created to celebrate COMPASS®’s 25th anniversary as well as immortalizing the GRAFIS’80 exhibition poster. On the second floor of the venue was the D&AD Peeling Exhibition; introducing the organization as well as showcasing winning works from the 2024 D&AD Awards including Yellow Canteen by Innocean Indonesia, and more. Lastly, across the ADGI Conference area is the GRAFIS’24 exhibition. With 66 participants, the exhibition is a brilliant snapshot into the cream of the crop of Indonesian graphic design talent today. The exhibition also featured a wall of fame, showcasing choice design projects that have impacted industries beyond graphic design to showcase the multifaceted role of the discipline.

On the second and third day of the festivities, ADGI Design Week also held ADGI Chapter Talks; inviting members of ADGI from beyond the capital city to share their insights and struggles with the larger community. Seven different talks were held discussing various topics from keeping print alive, Jakarta-centrism, the Asia Packaging Design Awards, inclusivity of the industry, to the presence and evolution of AI in the industry, the last of which was moderated by Grafis Masa Kini. The talks were a more intimate setting to tackle not only the technicalities of design, but an opportunity to further design discourse and delve deeper into the various triumphs and challenges faced by Indonesian designers across the nation. Many interesting insights and viewpoints were shared not only on design but on how best to and what it means to grow as a quickly developing industry.
To close out ADGI Design Week, the last two days of the event were filled with panel discussions and keynote speakers at the ADGI Conference. The weekend was full of keynote presentations, with the first on Saturday (14/12) being a presentation by Salman Subakat of Paragon Group. The same day also saw keynote presentations from Duy Nguyen and Lan Mai of M—N Associates, Felix Tjahyadi, and Sylvester Tan of Foreign Policy. The following day kicked off with a presentation on the D&AD 2024 Trend Report by Kotoko Koya, and featured keynote presentations from Sueh Li Tan of Hrftype Foundry and Andi Rahmat of NUSAÉ. ADGI Conference also held several project showcases including Seto Adi Witonoyo’s presentation on the visual identity of GRAFIS’24 and Gema Semesta of gemasemesta.co and Andro Kaliandi of FFFAAARRR on their work for INTUR 2022 and INTUR 2024.

The conference also featured panel discussions, the first being “Bridging Borders: Bringing Indonesia to the Global Stage”, presented by Grafis Masa Kini. This panel, made up of Kotoko Koya, Regional Manager of D&AD for Japan and Singapore, Andi Rahmat, Principal Designer of NUSAÉ and member of the 2024 D&AD Awards Typography jury panel, and Chow Kok Keong and Fajar NF of Innocean Indonesia, the creative minds behind the award winning “Yellow Canteen” campaign and awardees of the D&AD Yellow Pencil, the first ever project in Indonesia to be awarded at such a level at this accolade, discussed D&AD, the intricacies of communicating your project to an international audience, and the value of taking part in international design awards. Later that same day was the “Designing Futures: The Role of Graphic Design in Indonesia’s Creative Economy”, with ADGI Chairman, Ritchie Ned Hansel, Deputy Minister of the Creative Economy of Indonesia, Irene Umar, moderated by Diaz Hensuk of FORMAT and part of the ADGI advisory board, discussing the growing part that graphic design is playing in pushing the nation’s economy.
The following day held “The Southeast Asia Design Power” panel with Sylvester Tan, Sueh Li Tan, Duy Nguyen, Lan Mai, and Ira Carella of Thinking*Room, moderated by Hanina Sharafina of NStudio, discussing the ups and downs of the Southeast Asian design landscape and where the region’s design industry is headed in the future. The last panel discussion of the week, which also closed out the conference, was the “Chapters Assemble” panel with representatives of several ADGI Chapters including Theo Gennardy of ADGI Bandung, Rahmat Zulfikar of ADGI Makassar, Ritter Willy Putra of ADGI Jakarta, Marvin Ade of ADGI Surabaya, and Rahardian Galag of ADGI Yogyakarta, moderated by Secretary General of ADGI, Muhammad Imaddudin. This panel discussed the character, growth, and advancements of each ADGI chapter and their corresponding local design industry.
It’s no exaggeration to say that ADGI Design Week 2024 was a roaring success. The event showcased to many the already brilliant graphic design landscape of the nation as well as the potential of the industry. It was a solid demonstration of the growing prominence of graphic design not only in Indonesia, but also in Southeast Asia and we look forward to more events like this in the future.
Photos: Moses M M Sihombing and ADGI Design Week