We talked to Fajar Indra, a creative lead and one of RRGraph’s co-founders. He will tell us about a visual product and how he can do business with it.
But, before we go further, here’s a little disclaimer: Fajar had won tons of contests in 99designs and had created best-selling and trending items on Envato Market. He has a fantastic track record, which is inevitable. So, read this interview thoroughly and get one or two important lessons from him. Come on.
Hi, Fajar! How do you jump into visual and design?
Since I was a kid, I’ve loved drawing, like doodling and playing with crayonsâall those kids’ stuff. Besides, I also got acquainted with computers because my dad was into programming. I saw him get busy with his laptop every day. That was the first time I became interested in digital stuff and heard of the so-called design. I also had a little brother who had the same interest as mine, so… I’d say that my circumstance molded me to be who I am now.
As I got older and went into high school, I intended to learn more about design. But the problem was I didn’t know how to get started. I reckon the first tool I worked on was Adobe Photoshop. At that time, the plan was closely intertwined with making a poster. That’s how I began, and I began to create a sign.
Do you think that design = product?
Based on my apprehension, what it means by design is problem-solving and is one of the essential steps when building a product. The designer itself is not always a problem solver but someone who works at the heart of the business to improve things. Those things we can call products maybe a book, a shoe, a smartphone, a newspaper layout, and anything.
Mukidi is one of Fajar’s presentation templates created in 2016
My first attempt to build a visual product was when I tried creating a presentation template. It was because I saw a slight opportunity I could take. There was a gap in the market because many creators were just focused on flyers and banner design. Nobody talked about how superior an innovation in the presentation was. It was 2015, and people underestimated PowerPoint, so I felt like I came at the right time, and hopefully, people could accept the product that I built though it was not aesthetically pleasing back then.
Would you describe your feeling when people bought your product for the first time?
I couldn’t describe it in words. But I was so excited for sure. It was pure excitement because I had no knowledge, essential, whatsoever when crafting it. Frankly, my idea was “I am going to make it as good as possible,” and I had to say that the other RRGraph founders and I were the types of executor persons. We all had a background as a technician in which we merely had a mindset to produce, produce, and produce.
Today, the condition is significantly different when we dig deeper into research to launch a single product. We have to see it holistically, like get to know the current trends, usability aspects, and the needs of various marketplaces that could be very different from each other.
Anyway, tell your biggest challenge when building a product. Are there any obstacles? How do you overcome them to help you grow?
The process itself might be the biggest challenge, not to mention that today my team and I have to conduct everything much longer. However, though it’s more complicated than before, it’s also more accessible. With those complex procedures, our chance to cultivate the market would be better, and we could easily create a desirable product for the targeted audience.
There’s also an internal issue that I usually face, just like when doing a collaboration project. It’s never been easy to gather all designers’ ideas because everyone has their ego to feed. When it happens, I overcome it with the vote to collect and combine the most fantastic views.
If our product were still failed to meet our expectations, we will detect the pain points and question the ins and outs of what we’ve done. Some of our considerations are, “What makes the product unacceptable? What could we do to improve it?”
What’s your immediate plan?
Later, we will talk quality less, not quite often, just like we used to. Why though? Because quality has no boundary, we will never be satisfied with the result, no matter how great our product will be. On the other hand, usability has limitations. RRGraph has a big plan to make a product by putting its usability first. That’s when users could use our product easily.
With that being said, I put a high expectation on my team. I believe that they already can, which is essential for achieving our worthy goals. Their self-awareness remains more solid as a team, creates a more efficient strategy, and maximizes each role and stakeholder’s potential.
Personally speaking, I currently want to master 3D design and enhance my UI design skill to teach that expertise to the team and finally be implemented in RRGraph’s future product.
If you could tell, name designers who inspire you the most to pursue this career?
I gain a lot of inspiration from Gleb, UXNinja, and Cendhika. I genuinely love Gleb’s cleanliness; everything he made feels minimalist and immaculate. Besides, UXNinja can stand alone with its dark-futuristic style out of the world. And for Cendhika, a top coder designer from Indonesia, his achievement and track record genuinely amaze me, and above all else, he’s my senior in high school.
This is the last talk. Pick three words to define you!
Brave, learner, and curious. But don’t get mistaken. It’s not a sort of curiosity about other people’s trouble.
See also:
Get in touch with Fajar
Should you have a wish to know Fajar more, visit his Instagram to see his fascinating photoshoot. To say the least, make sure to check our founder talks series about workplace wellness and business sustainability.
Let’s visit RRSlide to download free PowerPoint templates. But wait, don’t go anywhere and stay here with our Blog to keep up-to-date on all the best pitch deck template collections and design advice from our PowerPoint experts!