What more can a design studio offer

As the field is getting increasingly competitive, studios might find themselves pitching in the same pool of clients. Take, for example, Nike, which has signed with different design studios in Jakarta to handle its event collaterals and project.

“We do have a client that signed with our friend’s agency before,” said Mutualist Creatives Co-founder Andre Aditya Manggala. “I think it’s because the list of famous or big brands remains the same and appreciation towards design is considerably low in Indonesia.”

The biggest dilemma for design studio is usually high operational cost – hiring creative team in particular. Then there is the timeline of the project itself that can take months. Yet the determining factor from client’s side, according to Andre, is the cost of project. “There’s this bar in Senopati with amazing murals and branding that cost less than Rp50 million - the whole thing from menu design, logo, murals on the walls.”

Andre believes that it’s not just big companies that require good design. Every business needs a design specialist. According to Andre, sometimes it’s either the small business owners don’t know where to start looking or they cannot afford design service.

Mutualist Creatives Managing Director Nafi Ghaniy Prasetio sees this as a business opportunity for the studio. This year, the studio launched free consultation service for small businesses. The largest demand comes from the F&B industry - start-up coffee shops to be exact.

Considering the outlook, Mutualist taps into other business lines like merchandise, event and ticketing. Last year, the studio dipped its toes into the merchandise through pop-up market. “The merchandise is selling very well,” said Andre. That is how Pasar Mutu (Market with Quality) was born.

From merchandise, the studio finds way to develop products like figurines for exhibition purpose. “We hope we could display them in museums,” said Andre. Figurines are not new to them since the illustration style of Mutualist involves a lot of characters.

The idea doesn’t end there. There’s mural project that the studio wants to turn into CSR programme. “We are thinking of developing series of mural spread around town to raise awareness for certain cause.” The idea comes naturally since mural is Andre’s expertise.

There’s also ticketing system, Mutu Events – brought by Nafi. “At this moment, we are handling the sales of concert tickets but we want to create event organising business.” The aim, according to Andre and Nafi, is to create a big scale conference where people can gather and talk about different topics.

To kickstart the idea, Mutualist has already launched Bicara Mutu (Talk about Quality), a sharing session event among people in creative industry to discuss about on going issue. Although the event is currently set at small scale, it is a good way to build community and increase the studio’s exposure.

“In my opinion, we should diversify and pivot, just in case. Truthfully, there are a lot of opportunities everywhere and we wanted to see if we could spread out,” said Nafi.