The Media and I: Graphic Design for Health Promotion and Social Campaign

My father bought a computer when I was in junior high school. As he had been working in educational media production, he also often brought home tutorials on how to use graphic design software such as Photoshop. I was very interested in looking at these tutorials. I taught myself how to produce and manipulate graphs.

Then I tried it, and worked. For example, I could interchange the photo of my favorite soccer player’s head with my head. I showed it to my classmates and they were very impressed.

When I went to study in senior high, I thought my passion for graphic design was growing. One of my seniors showed me another interesting graphic design software. I learnt how to use it by watching him as he drafted publicationd such as posters, banners, etc.

Because of my little skill, I was appointed deputy of the journalism division of one of the student organizations. I also voluntarily designed my classmates’ profiles. Our class supervisor and my friends were very happy when I showed them the result.

Then I continued to university. I still kept my hobby in graphic design. I learnt how to make meaningful graphs, rather than just for publications or layouts. I tried to participate in graphic design competitions on issues of corruption and the environment. Unfortunately, I didn’t win any.

But I didn’t stop. What I did was to just scale my ambition down, from national competitions to lower level ones. I helped my friends in drafting their academic posters for science competitions or social projects such as health promotion. I was satisfied enough and happy with my contribution because some of them had good results in their competitions.

In 2011, when I hadn’t expected it, my poster named “A Drop of Water and Blood Spillage” was accepted at the Asia-Pacific Youth Forum on climate change. Not only for display, but also to present as a poster talking about the potential lack of clean water around the world, especially in Asia-Pacific regions. The poster was made based on the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published in 2007, saying that climate change is expected to cause a water crisis affecting 1.9 billion of the world’s people, particularly in developing countries. The worst impact is going to be in the Asian and African regions. Approximately 130 million people in Asia will suffer water scarcity by 2050. Many participants of the forum showed their appreciation for my poster.

It led me to another opportunity. After I presented the poster, one of environmental and mountainous organizations from Nepal published my poster in their newsletter. I was also invited by the same organization to attend the Asia-Pacific Youth Forum on Climate Actions and Mountain Issues in the following months. All of the forums I joined were paid for by the committees, so I didn’t have to spend my own money.

My other artworks have also been used by an international organization under the United Nations (UN) based in Indonesia. My proudest day was World AIDS Day 2011 when my artworks were circulated to almost all UN agencies in Indonesia.

Well, that’s my story about the media and me. I look forward to being an expert in health promotion media and social campaigns that can simplify messages for the people in a creative way. I think it is a profession that isn’t very widely recognised in my country, not only in terms of professional work, but also in contributing more in society.