Secret Recipe of My Life?

I do love design. Now, I am handed a start-up to be called “Dang” from 2015. But wait, why I choose a career path as a designer? Why “design” should take most of my lifetime?

The story started when I was still a child. As usual kids, I could not do anything except, crying. Mostly we can’t do anything that we want to do, we just do it because we want to do it. This story gonna tell you about why I am doing design? why kind of recipe that I used to this day.

When I was still a child or you may call it Syahdan, Jr. In my tradition. We started to tell them to choose three things to choose from. We call it “Turun Tanah”. It is a tradition that when every kid must choose three things that have been determined according to the existing tradition. The choice “will determine” the future (the talent that the kid will have).

The option is Mirror, Gold, or Pencils.

So, this Syahdan, Jr started to find what is best to search, and choose pencils. Based on tradition, Pencils mean the kids soon will always love to write or to draw in the future.

So, here I am now. A Graphic Designer.

And then people gonna asking me,
“what you do as a graphic designer?”
“What makes you better than any other graphic designer in this universe or maybe in a small city where you live (Makassar)?”

Most of the people that I meet who want to be a great designer. Saying like
“I want to become an artsy person”
“I want to become more popular by my art that I showing”
“I want to have my own money”
“I have nothing to do”

And i answer it, I do it, because I am happy for doing design.

I have learned that all that we pursue is greater happiness like I do believe everybody wants to be happy, right? and then I seek what I wanted.

Money? I need it, but that is not my top priority.

Popularity? No, I don’t need it.

I keep searching for it, until before I go to sleep in the bedroom, and then like a star who falling, somehow that taught come to me, like a get blessing from God. I thought something better than all those things, that thing is “Value”. The value that I can give to other people, even it just a few people.

The logic goes like this. If I can help one SMEs (Small Medium Enterprise) that have at least 3 staff. Then actually I help 4 people (with the owner) with their life, their economic life literally. And helping other people having a positive effect on me too. I having more attention to the people around me, to help them.

So, what I do is. I do design most of it for SMEs. I am dreaming that I can help them, people, who having SMEs in Makassar. And developing their business into a great business in the future, and I am really happy about that.

Until now, I am working for 9 SMEs in Makassar, Sulawesi Selatan.

“Until right now, through design I can help others.”