Self-taught Online Graphic Designer in Salaman, Magelang: Between

Art Work, Decent Work and Vulnerable Work

Petrus Gogor Bangsa

The Graduate School of Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Keywords: Self-taught Graphic Designers, Decent Work, Vulnerable Work.

Abstract: Digital economy has opened up opportunities for anyone who mastered this technology to join in digital

capitalism. The subject of this study was the self-taught online graphic designer community in Salaman,

Magelang, Central Java. By take part in the contest at the 99designs crowdsourcing platform, they have

experienced expansion of opportunities that provide financial empowerment. Initially they were workers in

the informal sector that had difficulty entering established economic sectors. But empowerment they get from

this online platform overshadowed by the issue of labour relations such as working hours, work status, wages,

rights and work protection. But they did not question this because mainly their financial condition was much

better. The government even welcomed this situation as a local achievement in the international world. This

research was conducted during the period of 2020 in Kaliabu village, Central Java as the basis for the self-

taught online graphic designer community with the largest members in Indonesia. Data collected by

observation, interviews with relevant interviewees, focus group discussions, and literature study. Indeed, the

digital industry promises to change the level of the economy for the better, but there is a threat of vulnerability

to digital workers, especially regarding relationships and work status.

1 INTRODUCTION

This paper tries to show how people in Kaliabu

village – a rural areas – in Salaman District,

Magelang capable of exposing themselves to the

international level if they understand technology.

This paper also aims to answer the threat of

vulnerabilities behind opportunities in the digital

industry.

Anyone who is good at digital technology can get

involved in the digital industry as a decent job.

However, behind the flexibility of the digital industry,

there is vulnerability due to blurred boundaries of

status and work relations. The subject of this research

is an online graphic designer community in Kaliabu

village, with Abdul Bar as the pioneer. Furthermore,

we can also call them digital workers or digital

labour.

Becoming a graphic designer is something that

Kaliabu villagers never dreamed of. Even this

profession was very strange to them at first.

Everything changed when the Internet entered the

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4543-9522

village and made them know the logo design contest

from the 99designs site which then changed their

profession to become graphic designers.

Kaliabu Village is located in Salaman District,

Magelang Regency, Central Java. The village is

located about 24 km from Magelang, 60 km from

Yogyakarta and only 17 km from Borobudur temple.

This village located in the highlands, making it

difficult for agriculture to advance in this area. The

condition of the village which is far behind in

development, and the reluctance to become a farmer,

has made Kaliabu village abandoned by its younger

generation. They consider being a farmer as a job that

is less prestigious and does not provide adequate

compensation (Susilowati, 2016: 36). They prefer to

leave their villages to become factory workers,

employees, or other informal workers in the

surrounding cities. As a result, the village of Kaliabu

lost a lot of productive workforce because of its

decreasing attractiveness.

The Internet entered Kaliabu village in 2005 as

part of the government's Village Information System

(SID/Sistem Informasi Desa) program, which

300

Bangsa, P.

Self-taught Online Graphic Designer in Salaman, Magelang: Between Art Work, Decent Work and Vulnerable Work.

DOI: 10.5220/0010751200003112

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Emerging Issues in Humanity Studies and Social Sciences (ICE-HUMS 2021), pages 300-305

ISBN: 978-989-758-604-0

includes village development and rural area

development. This program is intended to increase

the attractiveness of the village to their younger

generations who prefer to work outside the Salaman

sub-district. The government believes that improving

information and communication technology

infrastructure will reduce the digital divide and

improve the economy of rural communities

(Bachrein, 2010: 134; Wahyono, 2011: 31; Praditya,

2014: 135).

This change was pioneered by Abdul Bar (50

years), a former bus driver who later turned his

profession to become an online graphic designer. He

knew this logo contest from Aqib, an Internet cafe

keeper in his village. Then Abdul Bar, under the

guidance of Aqib, studied a graphic design program

and started participating in a logo contest on the

99designs site. After trying dozens of times, Abdul

Bar finally got his first win worth US $ 400 (or about

4 million rupiah). This amount of money is very large

for him compared to his income as a bus driver which

is only 250.000 rupiah in 3 working days (Abdul Bar,

interview, 5 September 2020). Abdul Bar was then

followed by many Kaliabu villagers, especially young

people, until the number reached around 250 people.

They are self-taught graphic design programs and rely

on Google Translate to communicate with their

clients from abroad. Since then, Kaliabu village has

been known as a graphic designer village and its

economic income has increased rapidly. They call

themselves the 'village designer'.

To win this logo contest, on average, everyone

needs tens or even hundreds of times to send their

work for the first time. Furthermore, to become

visible on the site, designers must maintain their best

performance. Being visible means that the designer's

name must always be at the top of the list to win the

chance of being hired by a potential client. Behind

these efforts, there are hundreds of hours of work that

don't count and the possibility of a winning piece of

work being misused by other parties. Labelled status

as a partner (Moncrieffe, 2007: 1) frees platform

operator from work relationship responsibilities, such

as: salaries, benefits, and work protection for these

designers. This problem is also faced both self-taught

and academic freelance designer, but the vulnerability

tends to be greater for self-taught designers.

However, the threat of this vulnerability is not a

serious problem for these designers. They consider

their new job to be giving much better results than

their old profession. Even the government considers

this work as a local achievement in the international

arena.

2 METHODS

This research was conducted during the period of

2020 in Kaliabu village, Salaman District, Magelang

Regency, Central Java as the basis for the self-taught

online graphic designer community with the largest

members in Indonesia. Most of the graphic designers

in Kaliabu village join the 99designs.com site. They

are known as productive and highly dedicated

designers because of their high level of participation,

among others, by always sending dozens of

alternative works in each contest. Even the 99designs

operator itself holds gatherings almost every year as

a means of appreciation and capacity building for

these designers.

Technically, data is collected by observation,

interviews with relevant interviewees, focus group

discussions, and literature study. Primary data

obtained from the research location, collected from

interviews, including in-depth interviews, direct

observation and online. Meanwhile, secondary data is

collected from various documents, from books, other

previous relevant research results, journals, printed

and electronic articles, as well as other documents,

both printed and audio-visual.

This study uses decent work criteria based on ILO

(International Labor Organization) standards and

Fuchs’ political economy approach. Respondents

were interviewed about their work experience as

online graphic designers, motivation, experiences of

success and failure, experience dealing with digital

platform managers, clients, fellow graphic designers,

and the government.

Interviews were conducted with online graphic

designers represented by Abdul Bar as a pioneer.

Then another interview as a comparison is with a

professional graphic designer and representatives of

the Indonesian professional designer association.

Focus group discussions were also held with other

online graphic designer communities to get second

opinions and new information.

3 GRAPHIC DESIGN: AN

ARTISTIC WORK

Graphic design is a general term for activities that

combine typography, illustration, photography and

print for the purposes of persuasion, information and

instruction (Livingston & Livingston, 1994: 90). This

definition shows that the field of graphic design is

very close to technology and its development is

greatly influenced by technology. Graphic design is

Self-taught Online Graphic Designer in Salaman, Magelang: Between Art Work, Decent Work and Vulnerable Work

301

also often seen as a means of communication,

including its relationship with industrial development

which plays an important role in marketing factory

products (Meggs & Purvis, 2012: 144).

In the technological development of graphic

design, especially when phototype began to be

commonly used in the 1960s, several special skills

emerged, such as: graphic designer (who made page

layouts); typesetter (who operates the typesetting

equipment); production artist / paste-up artist (tasked

with arranging all graphic design elements onto a

page); a camera operator (who creates a photo

negative from a pasted-up); stripper (tasked with

compiling these negative photos together); plate

maker (who is in charge of preparing the printing

plate); and print operators (who operate printing

machines).

However, during the last quarter century in the

20th century and the first decade in the 21st century,

computer technology (and electronics) experienced a

very rapid progress. This progress has influenced

many aspects of human life, including in the field of

graphic design. Then in the days leading up to the

1990s, gradually almost all of these tasks could be

taken over by only one person with the help of

computer graphics.

This development also occurred in Indonesia,

before the entry of digital technology in the 1990s all

design work was done with the help of hand skills.

From making illustrations, combining photos,

lettering, layout to production preparation, everything

is done manually. This situation requires special

expertise and high skills from the perpetrators, for

that it requires formal education or deep experience

to be able to get all of these skills. At that time

formally, education in the field of graphic design or

similar already existed in Indonesia, such as in

Yogyakarta and Bandung (Kardinata, 2015: 111-

115). Likewise, for graphic design skills in Indonesia

which have a long history so as to create people who

are experts in this field by themselves (Setiyono,

2004).

Graphic design experienced rapid development

when computer graphics became known in Indonesia

in the second half of the 1980s. The presence of

desktop publishing along with graphic software

makes it easy for a new generation of graphic

designers in Indonesia. By 2000, more and more

graphic design work became increasingly dependent

on computers. The influence of computer graphics

technology not only affects design techniques, design

style, accuracy and speed but also allows anyone who

does not have a graphic design education background

to become a graphic designer. Although to be a good

graphic designer it takes more than just mastering

technology, but also having broad insight, good

artistic taste, mastering communication strategies,

media strategies, creative strategies, finding the right

visual communication solutions and so on.

The development of computer technology was

followed by the development of information

technology by the presence of the Internet. The rapid

development of the Internet has opened up

opportunities for anyone to learn graphic design by

themselves.

4 DESIRABLE DECENT WORK

IN THE ONLINE WORLD

Decent work, job creation, social protection, rights at

work and social dialogue are integral elements of the

new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

(sdgs.un.org). The ILO / International Labor

Organization defines decent work as productive

work; ensuring equal opportunity and treatment for

all women and men; provide a fair income, security at

work and social protection for the family; provide

prospects for personal development; and giving

workers the freedom to express their concerns,

organize and participate in decisions that affect their

work lives (Berg, 2018: 1).

The villagers of Kaliabu have been faced with an

inadequate working situation because their village is

not economically advanced. In addition, their average

education level is only up to junior high school level,

which means that they only have the opportunity to

work in the informal sector. They have difficulty

accessing established economic sectors.

Some of their young men are forced to work

outside the village, including doing so as commuters.

Some even work abroad as Indonesian Workers

(TKI/Tenaga Kerja Indonesia). Meanwhile, some

who still live in Kaliabu village, occasionally commit

petty crimes, such as mugging people passing through

their village roads.

Those who work outside the village or abroad are

faced with situations of loneliness because they have

to be separated from their families, and lose valuable

time with their families, risk threats to their own

safety and health in order to earn a living for their

families. Likewise, those who commute from the

village to their workplaces in the city face safety and

health risks on the way, lose travel time, and have low

incomes.

The emergence of a digital platform by offering

crowdsourcing in Kaliabu village opened new

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horizons of their job opportunities. The emergence of

digital platforms is predicted to drive the economic

process and technological innovation. Everyone can

benefit greatly from this transformation because it

empowers them to build businesses, trade, and

exchange information online while avoiding the

intermediary of companies or authorities (Dijck,

2018: 1). The crowdsourcing system is another form

of sharing economy, platform revolution, gig

economy, disruptive innovation which is the

nickname for the most recent transformation of the

Internet. Sharing economy connects people with the

aim of distributing, sharing and reusing goods and

services (Ravenelle, 2019: 26).

Crowdsourcing system is the process of getting

services, ideas, or content by collecting contributions

from a group of people, especially from online

communities for various kinds of activities. The act

of taking work that has been carried out by previously

appointed parties (employees, freelancers or separate

/ outsourcing companies) and outsourcing it to groups

of people who are generally unknown through the

form of open calls, which is usually done via the

Internet (Fuchs, 2014: 246).

This term is a combination of "crowd" and

"outsourcing" (getting something from outside /

external parties) (Ghazali and Nadinastiti, 2015: 88;

120; Berg et.al, 2018: 3). The term crowdsourcing

was coined by Jeff Howe (2006) in his article in the

online version of Wired magazine. Crowdsourcing

then grew and became known along with the advent

of Internet technology. Howe (2009: 1) says the

crowdsourcing system the beginning of human

networking. Although crowdsourcing is related to the

Internet, crowdsourcing is not all about technology.

(Howe, 2009: 11). The combination of the words

"crowd" and "outsourcing" refers to the economic

motivation for using cheaper, more demanding

labour.

Digital technology offers many opportunities to

join the digital economy. The offer to work freelance

on digital platforms has also attracted the interest of

many young people who are having difficulty

entering established economic sectors. Factors such

as work flexibility (time, location, type of work,

rewards, etc.) are also factors in the attractiveness of

freelance work (Sinicki, 2019: 3 - 7).

Communities or individuals can organize

themselves through online networks, so that they are

less dependent on existing legal institutions or

companies. Digital platforms efficiently cut the path

of an established organization, complicated

regulations, and unnecessary costs (Dijck, 2018: 2).

A crowdsourcing system in a digital platform is

considered capable of forming a kind of perfect

meritocracy, which can eliminate all pedigrees, races,

genders, ages, and qualifications, so that what

remains is the quality of the work itself. (Howe, 2009:

13).

Since getting to know the Internet and mastering

computer graphic technology, many Kaliabu villagers

have the opportunity to work as graphic designers for

the logo contest at 99designs platform. They become

economically prosperous by earning thousands of

dollars per month without having to leave their

villages. This is considered as a solution to the

welfare problems they have been experiencing. Some

of them made this activity as a side job, but not a few

left their previous profession to switch as online

graphic designers. According to their admission, in

2013 they had received up to 45 billion in a year.

99designs is a global creative platform that

connects graphic designers and clients online.

Founded by Matt Mickiewicz and Mark Harbottle as

a development of Sitepoint - a website that serves as

a forum for web developers and designers. The

company, which was founded in 2008 in Melbourne,

Australia and also has offices in the United States.

This company wants to appear in a casual and

humane manner which is manifested in the

appearance of its website content, for example by

including their office cat and dog in the staff list,

calling the design process a fun journey, putting the

human factor in the creative process, even calling

humans the heart from this platform. In 2016 the

platform has approximately 1 million registered

designers and is divided into more than 90 expertise.

The requirements to become a graphic designer for

the crowdsourcing platform at 99designs are very

flexible, regardless of the background of anyone who

is interested in joining (age, gender, even academic

background).

5 VULNERABILITY IN THE

MIDDLE OF AN ADVANTAGE

The online platform-based economic model creates a

new status and work relationship that involve three

parties – the owner or operator of the platform,

workers and clients. This relation oposes the concept

of decent work which is basically based on

conventional economic models. The most common

work relationship is freelance work, as is the case

with the self-taught online graphic designer

community in Kaliabu village. This has led to the

emergence of various problems and phenomena that

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are close to the contradiction between the opportunity

for digital workers to live more properly and the loss

of various guarantees for a decent life itself (Juliawan

et.al., 2019: xii).

Indeed, all parties benefit from this system.

However, from a critical political economy

perspective, we see who will benefit the most and

who will be the most exploited in this system. The

party who will benefit the most is the owner of the

digital platform. Then comes the client, who has

many opportunities to choose resources. While the

position of the designer despite the advantages here,

still exploited.

Fuchs (2014, 95 - 96) identifies three elements

associated with the exploitation of these digital

workers: coercion, alienation and appropriation.

Fuchs says coercion is that users are ideologically

“forced” to use the platform in order to stay connected

in communicating, sharing and creating and

maintaining business relationships. That way

designers are forced to continue using this platform

because without it they will lose the ease of finding

clients. Meanwhile, the element of alienation is that

the ones who get the most benefit are the platform

owners and clients, not designers. Designers are put

in a tough competition; they are competing to be

visible to become the recommended graphic designer

on the platform. The platform manager has the power

to change the algorithm from time to time so that it

can determine which designers can 'appear' or

'disappear' from the top view on the platform.

Data from the many designers registered on the

platform have the opportunity to be sold or

transferred by the platform owner to other parties for

commercial purposes. Likewise, designs that have

been submitted also have the opportunity to be abused

by the platform manager. So that if this happens,

appropriation of these designers has taken place. The

incoming design works are then selected by the client

and pay for the selected design. Meanwhile, designers

whose work is not selected receive no compensation

at all for the time, resources and effort they have

spent. In this case, the most beneficiaries are clients

who get unlimited sources of ideas at low cost and

crowdsourcing service providers as their agents.

Meanwhile, from the designer side, the speculation

elements are very clear. Designers who have worked

are not guaranteed to be rewarded for all their efforts

(Pasaribu, 2019: 84).

The world association of professional designers

(AIGA) and Ico-D (International Council of Design)

classify crowdsourcing work as speculative work.

This means that work is carried out without certainty

that they will get compensation or with the hope that

one day they will receive compensation from their

clients. As international designer professional

organizations, AIGA and Ico-D, do not allow

speculative work to be held for professional designers

because it will degrade the designer profession. In

fact, the two institutions have provided rules so that

designers do not engage in speculative work.

However, along with advances in Internet

technology, business practices that place designers as

objects of speculative work continue to occur. It is

even more widespread, especially in countries such as

Indonesia, where the designer and industry are still

impotent (Pasaribu, 2019: 85).

The graphic designer association in Indonesia

(AIDIA/ Association of Indonesian Visual

Communication Design Professionals; and ADGI /

Indonesian Graphic Designer Association) which is a

partner of the government through the Creative

Economy Agency provides recommendations on the

issue of speculative work based on derivative

recommendations from international associations.

However, the recommendations contained in the book

Basic of Design Services Procurement and

Management in Indonesia emphasize more on

rejection of the practice of free pitching.

The government realizes that a crowdsourcing

system without regulations that protect designers will

put the designer's profession at risk. However, as far

as it is known, there has been no action from the

government to ratify this matter.

6 CONCLUSIONS

Supporters of the sharing economy argue that they

will believe that this new economic movement will be

able to reverse economic inequality, stop ecological

destruction, fight materialistic tendencies, improve

workers' rights, empower the poor, and increase

entrepreneurship. The sharing economy promises a

very beautiful and employer-free future, where

workers can control their income and working hours,

and become a "cure" for the misery of modern society

(Ravenelle, 2019: 5).

The sharing economy is considered a highly

efficient reengineered consumption model in which a

community of digitally savvy users, acting as both

producers and consumers (prosumers) interact to

share, exchange, barter, exchange, or rent goods and

services online (Pauwels, 2015: 66). The sharing

economy can also be linked to the concept of digital

habits, which are based on community participation,

collective ownership of resources, and sharing

(Ibid.67).

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But behind the rhetoric of empowerment,

discourse on a new world of digital entrepreneurship

and new creative technologies, the concept of the

sharing economy obscures power struggles, labour

issues, and reinterpretation of individual identities as

workers and consumers (Ibid.67). From a labour

perspective, claims to empower individuals and free

them from exploitation and isolation are called

exaggeration (Ibid. 75). Indeed, the sharing economy

offers "flexibility", but it must be compensated for by

a great deal of worker struggle, for example if

workers leave the work platform for too long, they

may be "removed" or "disabled from the community".

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