Febby Tan in Jakarta is a digital artist with a flair for illustration
16 Oct
Febby Tan is a web and graphic designer from Jakarta, Indonesia. She first started designing websites at the age of 13 and after high school she started to take on and handle more professional work. Febby is currently studying towards her Bachelor degree from Binus International Jakarta, majoring Arts and Design. With her experiences so far to date she considers herself a stronger designer but she has her sights set on becoming a stronger coder.
1. How did you get started designing websites?
I was 13 when I first studied HTML, CSS, and simple javascripts (pre-jQuery times when learning JavaScript were very painful). It was kind of silly, though. Kids at that age started to admire pop stars. I did, and I visited loads of fan sites each day. So I thought: I want to make my own fan site! Then I learned how to code HTML by reading tutorial books. When I grew up I realize that the ‘fan site’ part is stupid, but that is how everything started.
2. When did you start designing websites professionally?
Well, I used to involve in my high school’s events, which I usually be in the Design department. I responsible for every promotional design needed for the event–from print to web design. Sounds like a waste of time, because there were loads of design works without payment. But that turned out to be a good way to collect portfolio. From there, wider ranges of people see my works. After I graduated high school, I started to get professional job requests with reasonable money 
3. Febby, how is the education you are receiving from Binus International Jakarta helping you to become a better web design professional?
Good question. In fact, we just started learning Dreamweaver from scratch–haven’t even mentioned about HTML yet (FYI I’m still 2nd year undergrads). So, in the term of web design itself, I haven’t felt any major change to my coding skills. But in Binus International, I learned all the basics that lead me to be a good graphic designer in general. From technical stuffs like the typography, layout, color theory; to something more principal like how to deal with deadlines, time management, responsibility, etc. My lecturers tend to give us large amount of assignments in a very short time. It’s a good practice for the future I guess.
4. Do you consider yourself a stronger coder or designer?
For now, I have to say that I’m a stronger designer. As in programming language, there are so many things I have to dig more. I mean, being able to hand-code valid XHTML and CSS is not enough to be considered as a strong coder. It will take time to develop, but I will never stop learning.
5. How did you receive guidance when you were in the high school in design department? Was there a creative director and how did that work?
There are no creative directors. The only actual person that I asked for guidance is my art teacher. Other than that, I really grateful for the existence of internet. The net has become a very important teacher for me. I researched loads of examples, see how people do world class posters, logos, what considered as “bad” and “good”. Follow the good and learn from the bad, that’s how it works.
6. Do you find that you like a structured approach towards design or are you more unstructured in your design approach?
Before I go to college, because basically I “self-taught” myself at first in graphic design, I know nothing about structured approach. I used to do poster design directly in the software, start with blank canvas and playing around with shapes, colors, fonts, and see whether certain combination creates a good-looking design. After I go to college, everything’s changed. Sketches of thumbnails are required before we start doing any college projects, and my lecturers are quite strict about that. Now it’s kind of becoming a habit to do sketches and alternatives before I move to the execution with software. Now I’m more structured, and I like it that way. It saves time.
