Stephanie Winarto

What do you wish you’d known now when you started your design course?

Knowing where to allocate my time and being economical with my effort. That means identifying which crucial points of a project I should invest in and which I can afford to sacrifice. Working hard doesn’t guarantee good results — working smart might at least give you a few more hours of sleep! There’s a culture of endurance in art school, of camping out in studios and drinking too much caffeine. Looking back, was it really necessary? Maybe I didn’t need to spend all that time making a typeface for a project that would have garnered the same effect with an existing typeface. Maybe I should have spent more time on typesetting, instead of reinventing the mechanics of book-binding. I wish I knew how to think big-picture, take a break, sleep, call my mom.

What originally lead you in to design, and how has that changed - what do you want to do/are doing now?

I used to make really elaborate Powerpoint presentations for middle school class projects. Now, I make really elaborate presentation decks but in InDesign!

Jokingly aside, I do think in many ways I’m still doing what I did when I was 13, and I still have the same love and passion for design. But I do have a broader scope of what design might be and how it may manifest. I used to think design was a two-dimensional thing, limited to a rectangular aspect ratio. Now I know many things require design thinking—be it a book, a billboard, an arrangement of things in space. The term ‘graphic design’ wasn’t even coined until the 1920s, so it’s exciting to think about what design may encompass in the future, and what I would be making then.

Any hot tips for getting ahead at uni?

Making friends with people not in the arts. I think only surrounding yourself with people that think like you, creates a sheltered environment where you’re not pushed to think about how the rest of the world might access and relate to your work—I tend to send work to my mom, if she gets it, then my teachers will. You might also learn a thing or two from what they’re doing/studying that you find interesting—looking outwardly from art & design is always refreshing.

What do you love about the design scene in your city and what companies are on your dream list to work or collaborate with?

I like New York because design is celebrated unlike any city I’ve lived in. But I’m also fascinated by New York as a city itself. Perhaps having grown up in a hyper-dense city like Hong Kong, I’ve always been drawn to the complex nature of cities, its inhabitants and its imperfect systems. I would love to work with people and organizations working in the civic engagement/public sector, whether it’s about public space, transport systems, communities, etc. I don’t have a background in architecture or urban planning, so I think of design as a way to dip my feet in these more technical subjects I’m interested in.