Summary of ADGI Design Week 2025: Celebrating a More Critical and Open Indonesian Graphic Design Landscape
From November 19 to 23, 2025, Taman Ismail Marzuki transformed into a gathering point for designers, students, creative practitioners, and visual enthusiasts from across Indonesia. Through ADGI Design Week 2025, the Indonesian Graphic Designers Association (ADGI) presented a series of programs that showcased the best achievements of the national graphic design scene while expanding conversations about the future of the discipline in an ever-shifting landscape.
The five-day festival featured major exhibitions, educational programs, competitions, mentoring sessions, and large-scale forums, making it one of the most comprehensive design events in Indonesia this year. Unlike the previous edition, ADGI Design Week 2025 embraced a more open approach, emphasizing participation from designers and practitioners from increasingly diverse backgrounds and highlighting issues through a more critical lens.
GRAFIS’25: The Expanding Possibilities of Indonesian Graphic Design
As the main event, the GRAFIS’25 Exhibition served as a barometer for the current state of Indonesian graphic design. Curated works from studios and independent designers filled the exhibition halls of TIM, presenting a visual spectrum that ranged from branding and editorial design to typographic experimentation and visual research that pushed the boundaries of the medium. More than a visual showcase, this year’s exhibition explored a broader understanding of design itself, opening new possibilities for what Indonesian graphic design can be.
ADGI also presented special recognition to five practitioners who demonstrated consistency and strong contributions to the field. The recipients of the Curators’ Choice GRAFIS’25 awards were Sciencewerk, Mario Pegas, Studio Woork, gemasemestaco, and Sidney Islam. These names, spanning both studios and individual designers, highlighted bold design approaches and illustrated how Indonesian graphic design continues to evolve across mediums. Their explorations challenged the monotony often found in both form and context, pushing the discipline toward fresh, unexpected directions.
Brand X Type: Where Typography Meets Identity
In the other room, the Brand x Type Exhibition brought together designers and type foundries focusing on typographic exploration as the foundation of visual identity for brands and corporations. The exhibition allowed visitors to see how original typefaces can elevate a brand’s character through form, rhythm, and the cultural values embedded within letter design. Brand X Type became one of the most visited segments of the festival, underscoring how typography has become a defining language of perception in recent years.
A Hanny Kardinata Retrospective by Museum DGI
Another major highlight was the retrospective exhibition “Just Call Me Han.”, tracing the long career of Hanny Kardinata, a pivotal figure in the development of Indonesia’s graphic design profession. For 33 years, Hanny worked as both designer and activist, known for his efforts to make design knowledge widely accessible.
As a co-founder of the Ikatan Perancang Grafis Indonesia (IPGI), which later evolved into ADGI, he championed recognition of graphic design as a legitimate profession in the eyes of the public and the government. His concern for the loss of Indonesia’s design history drove him to preserve archives, artifacts, and documents that would eventually form the foundation of the Desain Grafis Indonesia (DGI) initiative.
Today, that vision continues through the development of Museum DGI, a research center and discursive platform for the history of Indonesian graphic design, one of the most significant contributions to the national design ecosystem.
Inside the exhibition room, the experience felt intimate and close, shaped by carefully presented archival materials. Each year, Museum DGI provides a reflective and educational space amid the festival’s hectic atmosphere, and this year’s edition felt particularly alive with accessible archival content that sparked further discussions.
Design Talks: 90 Speakers, 30 Sessions, 4 Intensive Days
One of the strongest pulses of ADGI Design Week came from the Design Talks, which this year featured more than 90 speakers across 30 discussions. Over four days, diverse perspectives emerged, from technical topics to broader societal issues that intersect with design today. In many ways, this year’s ADGI Design Week felt notably critical; with more structured modules, these discussions could potentially unpack even deeper layers of the issues raised.
Beyond being a platform for knowledge exchange, the sessions became a space for negotiating ideas on how Indonesian designers can build a stronger, more relevant, and more impactful industry. Topics on politics, gender, and archiving invited designers to reconsider their roles–moving beyond screens and aesthetics into a deeper socio-political-cultural awareness and a stronger culture of critique.
Design Talent 2025: A Stage for the Next Generation
From hundreds of applicants across ADGI EDU member universities, 24 young designers were selected for the ADGI Design Talents 2025 program. As a bridge between students and leading design studios in Indonesia, the program offered mentoring, presentations, and networking opportunities that highlighted the strength of ideas and the readiness of the next generation.
Within the wider ecosystem, Design Talent 2025 highlighted the essential role of education and knowledge transfer as the backbone for the sustainability of the design industry.
The Design Buffet: Packaging Design Under Pressure
One of the most anticipated programs this year was The Design Buffet, an initiative by Studio Yord. At ADGI Design Week 2025, eight teams of creative duos were tasked with producing the best packaging design in only 18 hours. The intimate working space and mentoring format deepened the process, while the time pressure pushed participants toward inventive and efficient solutions.
The winners of this year’s challenge were the sibling duo from Tempo Troupe, Ratri and Satrio, with their project “Monolithic Colony,” which impressed the jury with its strong concept, sharp visual narrative, and solid execution.
The 2025 edition of ADGI Design Week demonstrated a clear throughline: Indonesian graphic design is entering a pivotal phase, where historical reflection, contemporary exploration, and future innovation converge within a single ecosystem. Across its programs, the festival expanded the definition of graphic design as a continuously evolving and influential field.
