Do we need yet another design studio at the end of the world?

Yes, we do. The following is our argument for this preposterous notion.

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POV: it’s 2020. You are a fresh graduate from the studies of arts and design, and nothing gestalts your principles more than having your graduation ceremony over Zoom. A masked lecturer gives you their congratulations and you are now deemed a free man. You walk out of your bedroom with your academic credentials and the whole world is your COVID-19-ridden, economically inflated oyster.

 

You think to yourself: This is it, baby.

 

This is it! After three years of blood, sweat, and Photoshop shortcuts, you are finally released from the shackles of Art School and thrown face-first into the fiery pits of Indeeds, LinkedIn, and numerous other sites on which you begin to sell your soul. POV: you are now in the dark, heartless realms of Job Hunting. The sign at the entrance reads Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here! (Note: The font is in Comic Sans).

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You take a deep breath. You step in. Armed with nothing but a Behance account and a dream, you bravely traverse the so-called Real World as the rejections start to flood your Gmail inbox.

 

You try to be strong, you do. But after the seventh We need a minimum of five years experience for this low-entry job, you can feel yourself starting to crack. Maybe you really should’ve learned Blender, and also UI/UX, and is it really too late to try and get into coding?

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You type yet another Sisyphean email of Hi! My name is Lorem Ipsum, a creative from Bandung, Indonesia, and you can’t shake the feeling that nobody wants you. 

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Creatives have always been here, quietly designing the visuals of one’s living space — from the UI of your favorite social media to traffic signs — yet still, it has never been the most respected profession in the field. And now, it feels as if there simply isn’t space.

 

Get real, buddy, the world seems to say, The era of creatives is over. The current conception permeating our industry at the moment is that anybody can do what you do with a free Canva account. Anybody, it’s been argued, can Google “free logo generator” and charge the most generic logo you have ever seen for $10. Anyone can be Caravaggio or Rembrandt with the help of their dear friend Midjourney. Hell, this entire body of text is nothing compared to the Nobel Laureate genius that is ChatGPT.

 

The human touch, some have proposed, is no longer needed when a click of a button will simply do. It’s cheaper, quicker. Easier. Everyone wants things to be easy nowadays — to expend effort in design is thought of as a waste. If you’re a designer, you can sense that every sign points to one thing: there is no longer space for you.

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Yet still, here you are.

 

Here you stand — empty-handed yet filled with the insatiable, ravenous need to create. We get it. It’s the artist’s ailment! Happens to the best of us. It’s our boon, our indelible curse. We need to keep chasing that high of making good shit, because the simple truth is that there is nothing quite like making good shit.

 

There is nothing quite as satisfying as looking at a job well done on your Illustrator canvas and clicking on file >> export >> export to png. Nothing quite like finding the right font, dragging your cursor over that perfect curve, easy-easing those keyframes. Nothing quite like having made something and taking pride in it — and seeing it out there, becoming a part of this world that you exist in. There is, really, nothing quite like the ineffable act of creating.

 

What do you do, then, riddled with the desire to create even when the rejections keep piling in? What do you do when all spots seem to have been taken, and nobody seems to want you?

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Well, you start a studio. If there is no space, we sure as hell are going to make one. ‘Cause, why not?

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So, hi. We’re Krit, a team of creatives from Bandung, Indonesia.

 

Started in 2021, Krit is the brainchild of then-fresh graduates Vincent Tanvis and Gandhi Gultom. Like all designs, Krit began as an idea; and as designers, we made that idea real. And Krit is here to make good shit.

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Look — in a world that’s ever changing, ever merciless and ever so lovely, we won’t just sit pretty and wring our hands. Not when there are so many things to be made and stories yet to be told; not when we are so desperately needed.

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We might be the underdogs, but despite the pejoratives, the meager paychecks and rounds of layoffs, creatives are at the forefront of modern industries. In a society that demands instantaneous results, design is the key to functionality; more than that, design is a way to see the world as it could be. This industry is constantly evolving, but at the core of it, designers are the human element necessary for us to achieve that growth as a collective. 

Design is not easy, or instantaneous. Creative work is hard work. It’s blood, sweat, tears, and — let’s be honest — oodles of softwares that cost an arm and a leg. And we love it. We crave the work. We long for the effort expended for that perfect visual and the story it’s telling. Creative work is, above all, craftsmanship. It’s this craftsmanship that we refuse to be lost amidst the hustle and bustle of a fast-paced, demanding world. It’s this craftsmanship that Krit is all about, and we are more than ready to prove it to you.

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At the end of the world, we do need yet another design studio — and so do you.

 

So, hi again. We are Krit, and we are now open for business. But most importantly, we are here to make good shit. 

 

Let’s get to work.

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