Aligning with the market: Exhibition at the Trade Expo Indonesia 2017

communications technology, such as the messenger application, has contributed to the success of the prototyping process. This technology has also helped them to reduce the distance and to limit the number of face-to-face meetings with the design center. They can easily communicate their progress by sending pictures of their work, and they can discuss them in real time using the application. The informality in the craft workshop is also a building block of the collaborative work between crafters and designers. This is in line with the arguments by Turner (2003), which explained that the informal and flexibility among the neighbors in the village largely facilitated the characteristics of small entrepreneurs. Through the informal realm and the flexibility of the craft workshop, unexpected ideas often came from surrounding people who were not fully involved in the project.

Despite the information on market needs and the new designs, which mostly come from designers, information on material availability, skill and techniques, and the production process is mainly the domain of the crafters. Throughout constant negotiation, both face-to-face and virtual interaction, such as e-mails or messenger, ideas to solve problems can appear any time they interact. This condition might reflect the current situation of craft and design practice, in that beside the informality of craft enterprise, the ability to adopt technological instruments to their daily work can also have a significant impact on the process of designing and the

production process.

infographic panels, and a large LCD looping the design and production process of each product, this pavilion was a premium and creative pavilion, and it was one of the primary pavilions at the Trade Expo Indonesia 2017.³² The event itself went on for 5 days, having successfully engaged approximately 4,500 buyers from 79 countries and over 1,000 exporters across the nation. The government claimed that it was the biggest trade expo of Indonesian goods and services the Ministry of Trade had organized.³³

Days before the opening of the exhibitions, numerous designers, craftspeople, and craft entrepreneurs were preparing their products, cleaning the dust from the surface of their craft works, and arranging them neatly on the display boxes that they had already cleaned. They had to make sure that the display was appealing enough for visitors, considering that potential buyers from all around the world were to visit the expo in the following days. More than 10 designers and 20 craftsmen who participated in the pavilion were DDS program members, who

collaborated over 8 months with the IDDC to develop and modernize traditional craft products from various regions. It was quite interesting to see the designers who had visited various

regions of Indonesia now in one place, showing the diversity of Indonesia at a glance. The target of this exhibition was to connect designers and craftsmen who had already created craft products with buyers from abroad. This event was a vital phase for this program to prove whether the products could meet the needs of buyers, and whether local craft products could compete in the export market.

32 Trade Expo Indonesia 2017 kicks off at new, bigger ICE. The Jakarta Post. Accessed on May 21, 2018 from http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2017/10/11/trade-expo-indonesia-2017-kicks-off-at-new-bigger-ice.html

33 Ibid, 2017

This pavilion also legitimized the design center that this program is aligning with the national development agenda. One of the officials from the design center explained:

In 2017, the president was quite happy to see the products created by the designers and craftsmen. Last year, the president asked us to expand to other regions in the next year, indicating that the program was essential for the national development agenda, and it has a green light to continue empowering the craft products by design power.

Indeed, the current national development agenda, developing from the periphery, has become one of the primary agendas of the current cabinet, and the aim of this program was to achieve this target by cultivating the craft industry in various regions. Moreover, IDDC and the Japan External Trade Organization organized another pavilion adjacent to the DDS pavilion as a space to exhibit products that had received the Good Design Awards. On the opening day, the

President of Indonesia looked at one piece of rattan furniture made by collaborative work between a well-known designer and a local craftsman, which received a Good Design Indonesia award in 2017. The president tried to sit on a rattan chair and chatted with Mr. Abie, the

designer of this chair, who also one of the participants of DDS Program in 2012. The visit by the president was indeed a precious moment for the designers and the craftsmen of the DDS

program, and it increased the self-esteem of each to feel recognized by the representative of the nation.

Going back to the story of Radit and the two craftsmen from Cilacap, in this exhibition, Radit attempted to display a combination of the two works. One craftswoman made an apron and other kitchen utensils, while the other craftswomen made interior goods, such as stools, and decorative elements made of dried water hyacinth. Even though the two craftswomen had never met and collaborated before, Radit attempted to display the two works in a harmonious way.

Having experience as a visual merchandiser in a retail company, Radit has the knowledge to display materials so that they appeal to customers.

For Mrs. Yanti and Mrs. Sumiarti, involvement in the export exhibition in Jakarta was a precious experience. As they usually produce products for the local market in their region, it was understandable for them that new designs were necessary for other markets. However, for Radit, who had been involved in this project many times, this year was not as successful for him as the previous year. This time, no buyers ordered their products, although some people stopped by and asked about them. Last year, Radit and a craftsman from Jambi successfully exported their products to the Middle East and Japan, and they continued exporting them until very recently.