Things Creative Industry Practitioners Must Do in an Increasingly Competitive Era

Indonesia’s creative industry continues growing in spite of the country’s declining economy. Quoting Suaramerdeka.com, the Indonesian Young Entrepreneurs Association (Hipmi) Central Executive Body (BPP) predicted that creative industry will keep growing in 2016 with an 8% contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), climbing up from 7.5% this year and 7.1% percent in 2014.

The growth allows considerable opportunities to take part and compete in creative sectors. What, thereupon, should the industry beginners and start-ups prepare for their involvement and focus on creative industry? To respond to this question, BINUS INTERNATIONAL (BI) hosted the Tech Media Talk seminar on creative industry, Wednesday (15/12) in Mall FX Campus’ sixth-floor auditorium. The seminar invited 3 creative industry practitioners as speakers, they are Franki Indrasmono, Naif Band drummer; Ryan Jackson, Percolate Galactic Creative Agency’s Chief of Creative, and Cipta Croft-Cussworth, GoodGuysNeverWin Toy founder.

For a background information, Franki Indrasmono, affectionately known as Pepeng, has been actively involved graphic design world (particularly, creating comic characters) since 2008, apart from his musical activities started long before. In 2008, Pepeng launched his Bonbinben comic book for children. In 2010, he wrote another one, “The Adventures of Naif and the Time Machine”. In 2014, Pepeng launched his latest comic book featuring his handmade superhero character called “Street Satan”. Most recently, November 2015 to be precise, he also released the latest comic book in collaboration with ten Indonesian illustrators called “Altogether towards the East Comic Book”.

Meanwhile, Cipta Croft-Cussworth is EMCO Toys Head of Design and GoodGuyNeverWin Toy Co. (GGNW) founder, Indonesian action figures Indonesian. He also served as Trans Studio Bandung and Makassar Creative Director. On the other hand, Ryan Jackson founded a creative agency called Percolate Galactic in 2012 and also has long experience in writership.

During the discussion, the three of them shared experiences and suggestions for ways of surviving and making success in creative industry. For Pepeng, there is not a single formula of success in the industry. “The first and foremost is to not be afraid of exploring your talent. Afterwards, dream of what you can do with your talent. The next most important thing to do is planning on how to achieve the dream,” explained Pepeng.

Whilst Ryan Jackson has seen very rapid changes and technological advances in recent years. “All I can tell is that you must prepare yourselves for any speedy changes across the digital age by way of thinking about something great to achieve,” said Ryan Jackson who comes from an Alternative Journalism Studies educational background at The Evergreen State College.

In accord with Jackson, Cipta Croft-Cussworth sees no one special formula for success in creative industry that turns increasingly competitive. However, he conveyed a number of success-determining factors. Firstly, it is contact which means wide social network. “If you do not have network, you will work alone and if you are alone, then you can do nothing,” said British-Padang mix Cipta. Secondly, it is both moral and financial support. “Try not to use your own money. If you want to be successful, do not use your own money. Find investors. This is a good thing because if your business fails, you will lose all of it if you use your money. When you have investors, then you can have back-up plan,” he said. Thirdly, it is always having positive outlook. “Most people easily break down when facing failures. That is when you need to keep a positive attitude because failure is a phase you must go through before reaching success,” concluded Cipta.