Grafis Nusantara is a TDC72 finalist. Born in a South Borneo thrift shop. Now on the world's most prestigious typography stage. Here is the story.

In 2014, a graphic designer from South Borneo named Rakhmat Jaka started going to thrift shops. He was not looking for clothes. He was looking for stickers. Specifically, the candy-coloured, densely typographic labels and stickers produced across Indonesia from the 1970s through the 1990s, pasted onto products and packaging across the archipelago, then quietly set aside as the era that produced them moved on.

What Jaka saw in those stickers was visual culture. What most people saw was something not worth keeping.

He founded Grafis Nusantara, built a digital archive, published three books, exhibited at the New York Art Book Fair in 2025, was invited by the Type Directors Club to present on Indonesian graphic culture, and is now a TDC72 finalist, one of 161 entries selected from across 40 countries for the world's most prestigious annual typography competition.

That arc, from thrift shop in Borneo to TDC72 finalist, does not happen by accident. It happens because someone decided that what everyone else had stopped looking at was worth looking at very closely.

If you have been following Indonesia's creative economy on the global stage in 2026, from the Animation Report to Pable in Tokyo to Papermoon at the Global Arts Prize shortlist, Grafis Nusantara at TDC72 is the story that has been building the longest. Since 2014. One thrift shop at a time.

The collection that started in thrift shops. Candy colours. Dense typography. Indonesian vernacular graphics from the 1970s to the 1990s.

What Grafis Nusantara Is and What It Has Been Building

Grafis Nusantara is an Indonesian sticker and label archive aiming to demystify Indonesian visual culture. The platform challenges traditional institutionalized archiving practices through social curation and collaborative efforts.

The project began as Rakhmat Jaka's personal collection and became something more specific: a systematic argument that Indonesian vernacular graphics are worth preserving, studying, and presenting to the world. "We think that despite the abundance of Indonesian vernacular graphics in our surroundings, they are often overlooked and underestimated because of the assumptions of them being low-brow and kitschy. Grafis Nusantara caters as a space to give Indonesian vernacular a chance to be appreciated," Jaka said.

Rakhmat Jaka and team. The man who decided Indonesian stickers were worth keeping. TDC72 agreed.

The team now includes Researcher Claudia Novreica and Web Designer Hendri Siman. Together they have built a digital archive, published three volumes of the Grafis Nusantara Book, and presented at the New York Art Book Fair 2025, one of the most significant international platforms for independent art publishing.

The Type Directors Club invited Grafis Nusantara to present at a special TDC Zoom event on Indonesian Graphic Pop Culture before the TDC72 finalist announcement, a signal that the global typography community was already paying attention. The collection references many different cultures simultaneously. "Indonesia is a melting pot of many cultures," Jaka said, and that cross-cultural synthesis, produced by Indonesian graphic artists working across Chinese, Arabic, Dutch, and local visual traditions simultaneously, is exactly what makes the archive irreplaceable.

What TDC72 Is and Why Being a Finalist Changes Everything

The Type Directors Club is the world's leading typography organization. TDC72 is its 72nd annual competition, recognizing creative excellence across three disciplines: Communication Design, Lettering, and Type Design. This year, 161 finalists were selected from entries across more than 40 countries and writing systems, announced on April 28, 2026, the first time in the organization's nearly 80-year history that finalists have been revealed before the award ceremony.

All finalists will receive newly created physical awards, Gold, Silver, or Bronze Type-High Awards, or Merits, to be announced on July 16, 2026 at a special TDC72 ceremony and exhibition at The Lighthouse in Brooklyn.

The decision to announce finalists before the ceremony represents a clear evolution in how typographic design is positioned within the broader global creative economy. At a time when design is increasingly functioning as a strategic business tool rather than solely an aesthetic discipline, TDC72 has strengthened its role as a relevant international benchmark.

For Grafis Nusantara, being among 161 finalists selected from entries across more than 40 countries places Indonesian vernacular graphic culture on the same international stage as the world's most celebrated typography studios. The work being recognized is not contemporary design practice in the conventional sense. It is an archive. A preservation project. A systematic effort to document what would otherwise disappear.

The TDC72 finalist status is the global typography community saying, formally and for the first time in the competition's history, that what Grafis Nusantara has been doing since 2014 in thrift shops in South Borneo is worth recognizing at the highest level.

Whatever award Grafis Nusantara receives on July 16, 2026 at The Lighthouse in Brooklyn, the finalist announcement is already the most significant international recognition Indonesian vernacular graphic design has received in decades. A collection that started in a thrift shop. Now competing on the world's most prestigious typography stage. The distance between those two sentences is the entire story.

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Pable Takes Indonesia's Circular Fashion to Tokyo in 2026 — rsvpclique.com

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The Award Ceremony Is July 16. The Recognition Is Already Here.
Grafis Nusantara is a TDC72 finalist. The award, Gold, Silver, or Bronze Type-High Award, or Merit, will be announced at The Lighthouse in Brooklyn on July 16, 2026. Follow the result at @grafisnusantara on Instagram and visit grafisnusantara.com for the full archive and book publications.

Sources of Photos
Grafis Nusantara Official Instagram — @grafisnusantara

Type Directors Club TDC72 — tdc.org