The City Beckons

The collage on our homepage is by Hamzah Al Asadulloh. Titled the City Beckons, it was commissioned specially for the new Inter website to capture the range of ideas and locations we operates in. Vicky Richardson asked Hamzah about his ideas:

what did you have in mind with the collage?

I wanted to paint an enticing city that draws the viewer in. The city can be both alluring and menacing, but it is always beckoning. It is uniquely local and at the same time colossally international. Fields of concrete line its perimeters, while snakes of metal crowd its skies. Lovers sneak under its shadows and mothers climb its pavements. Houses perched on high preach on their pedestals to its subjects. Steps leading to nowhere take its people to each other.

What are you doing now, and where are you?

I am currently based in Bandung, Indonesia where I work as a freelance interior designer and artist.

What do you like about the medium of collage, and when did you first make one?

I first seriously started making collages as an alternative to drawing. In my first year at the RCA it helped me with my design process. From there it took a life of its own.

What are your aspirations as a designer?

Above all, I want to create meaningful design—design that directly benefits people. In an industry that rewards so much panache, it’s easy to get lost in pure beauty and ignore how design might actually change lives.