KUCHING: Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation (STIDC) has organised a virtual design talk to promote and strengthen interest of the state’s young designers (SayD’SignersSarawak) in design and creativity especially in furniture on Thursday (Dec 10).
With a theme “SayD’Signers, A Jump Start”, the half-day talk was attended by 26 SayD’SignersSarawak of Batch 1 (2018 intake), Batch 2 (2019 intake), Batch 3 (2020 intake) and Batch 4 (2021 new intake) as well as 21 Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) students.
The talk aimed to inspire and motivate the young designers to sustain their interest and move forward in developing their career as a designer either through employment by companies, build own business or freelancing by leveraging their design skill.
“This is one of the many series of similar talk that STIDC will continue to organise in future as STIDC aspire to achieve a target of 100 trained furniture designers by 2030.
“This is necessary to support STIDC vision in transforming the timber industry to a high value added industry by 2030,” said STIDC acting general manager Dayang Nena Abang Bruce, who has facilitated the session.
Three designers were invited to speak and share their experiences and knowledge especially on their success stories of becoming a designer and advised on how SayD’SignersSarawak should pursue their career path as a successful designer.
Prof Dr Imam Santosa, former Dean of FSRD, ITB spoke on civilisation of design and how the dynamic of design able to influence changing trend giving inspiration to SayD’SignersSarawak to becoming a trendsetter in the changing environment.
Walter Tan, managing director of Element Republic Sdn Bhd, Kuala Lumpur spoke on the future of furniture giving advices on what SayD’SignersSarawak should do prior to starting their own business and the ability to assess the benefits of becoming a freelancing designer.
The last speaker, Rina Marina Suminar, chairwoman of Indonesian Society of Interior Designers, Jakarta, Indonesia spoke on her vast experiences in building career through successful engagement and collaboration with the local communities and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in producing new designs and new products.
STIDC has developed and implemented the SayD’SignersSarawak training programme for fresh graduates with collaboration with Unimas and Fakultas Seni Rupa and Desain (FSRD) — Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB), Bandung, Indonesia since 2018, together with the participation of the local timber industry players.
SayD’SignersSarawak is a two-year training programme enhancing in skill and knowledge on design for fresh graduates with the objective to make readily available and marketable furniture designers in the timber industry as well as a platform to develop a career path for SayD’SignersSarawak to become a professional furniture designer.
