Jessica Armelia: Building Life from Visual Communication Design

Jessica Armelia is an alumnus of Visual Communication Design with a concentration in Graphic Design at Maranatha Christian University; she started her education in 2015 and finished in 2019. She said that the minor and elective courses she took during college greatly helped her current work related to illustration. The introduction to painting and digital painting courses while studying, turned out to be able to guide her fingers to be skilled at painting on canvas and electronic screens.

Her lectures are filled with internships, both on and off campus. She often participates in campus event committees and learns a lot about taking and editing photos, making magazine covers, and other content creation. In addition, Jessica actively participated in live-in programs to help the local community. She felt that her environment, association, and friends during college were very supportive and positive. Everyone exchanged ideas and helped each other.

Besides her internship, she has also participated in exhibition activities; one of which was an exhibition in BSD and Jakarta held by the company she was an apprentice at the time, Mutualis. There was also an exhibition held by Faculty of Art and Design, which consists of Interior Design and DKV departments. This exhibition aimed to design a hotel and it was then put to contest. Moreover, she also participated in final project exhibitions and other competitions.

After graduating, she continued her education at ITB with a major in Master of Business Administration (MBA) from 2020 to 2021. This program was chosen because she wanted to know more about the world of business administration in order to be able to sell paintings and works produced. She realized that this program would work in harmony with her knowledge of arts. Besides studying, she also worked freelance and full-time; until finally opening a business engaged in the fashion and design studio. Not to mention Jessica also won the 2022 GKI Calendar Illustration Competition at Cibunut Park, Bandung, with the painting theme “Jesus the Provider”.

Finally, she advised all juniors to always believe in themselves, because hard work will never betray results; keep trying and don’t compare yourself with others. For Maranatha, she advised to continue to provide significant academic and life lessons to prepare students to face challenges in the workfield.