Jakarta is not known as a tourism destination that can give you a list of must-have souvenirs. A design competition in Jakarta is trying to change all that by inviting creative minds in the capital to create high quality and marketable souvenirs.

Mariska Adriana said she and her partner Handoko were proud that their three-flavored kembang goyang (a Betawi traditional cookie), packaged inside a Chinese-style hectogram jar, had successfully won a trophy for the favorite design category in this year’s Jakarta Souvenir Design Award competition.

“I have named my design ‘Petak Sembilan’ [a Chinatown in Glodok, West Jakarta] where Betawi and Chinese culture assimilate so well, as Chinese culture plays a big role in developing Jakarta’s culture,” she said when asked by the event’s MC about her choice of design.

Best design of the competition was achieved by Eridanie Zulfiana who designed a colorful set of stacking tray depicting a Betawi’s joyful celebration, which she has named “Joget Jakarta” (dancing Jakarta).

Eridanie and Mariska brought home Rp 15 million (US$1582.29) and Rp 5 million respectively, for their success in bringing their designs to the winners list.

Other categories, which offered Rp 10 million for each winner, were professional category, general category and student category.

Professional category was won by Wahyu Bagus, who designed wooden iPhone cases with various carvings illustrating Jakarta, while general category award was given to Karamina Talita who created colorful postcards portraying Jakarta’s traditional food.

Rinandita Anggraini, a student from Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), won student category for her design of a series of notebook with old Jakarta building sketched on it.

Unlike in the previous two years when only the best design products got produced massively, the event committee head Tresnowati said the five winners’ works would all be mass-porduced and marketed.

The Jakarta Souvenir Design Award 2012 is an annual competition held by the Jakarta’s Council for Handicrafts (Dekranasda) in cooperation with Senayan City, Hello! Indonesia magazine and Esquire magazine. Around 150 works competed for the award this year and 20 of them made it to the final round.

Tresnowati said that the event was aimed to entice creative youths producing merchandises representing Jakarta in order to promote and introduce the city’s culture at one point and for the youths to explore and love their culture more on the other.

“I have lived in Jakarta for all my life but there are still many parts of Jakarta I have yet to know. When I want to find souvenirs depicting Jakarta, I don’t know where to buy,” she said, “That is why we have to explore more of this city’s potential.”

Although the competition now already in its third year, previous winners’ products — Muhammad Fauzi’s T-shirts in 2010 and Luky Primadani’s paintings in 2011 — are nowhere to be found.

Tresnowati said that up to now, the merchandises were only sold at the Dekranesda’s office on Jl. Abdul Muis, Central Jakarta, away from the sight of potential buyers due to the lack of funding.

The award inauguration event was also marked with a signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Agung Podomoro Land Foundation, which agreed to finance Dekranesda to open a souvenir shop in Senayan City.

 However, jury panel head and notable interior designer Roland Adam said not much could be done until investors willing to mass produce the winning items stepped in.

“Although quality of products has been increasing every year, with this year’s competition managing to remarkably bring out ready-to-sell merchandises, we desperately need to find investors to mass-produce the items and more places to sell them,” Roland said.

Jakarta Dekranesda head Sri Hartati, the wife of Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo, said that she really wished the council could expand the souvenir’s market. “I have this dream to make Jakarta as a souvenir city. I wish, in a short time, I can see the winning souvenirs being sold everywhere in the city’s tourism destination,” Sri said. (aml)

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