Creative
Studio HDJ founder was the Chief Creative Officer at INVOKE for eight years from 2016 until 2025. This is his tribute post to his team at Creative.
So this is not exactly “design work” but a tribute to my Creative team. In some ways, it’s also considered work because I was partly responsible for creating and managing the team to become what it was. Anyway, like a team member once said, “No skills just vibes”, so this content is all about ⎯ vibes.
p/s: It’s a very long post.
Let’s start from the beginning.
This will probably be a super-long post, so here goes nothing. Let’s start from the beginning, circa September 2013. I was in the middle of my lost-count-number musical theatre project, but it was the Supermokh Sebuah Muzikal. The heavy work was almost done and the show was starting soon in Istana Budaya. I was already thinking of what’s next because the project will end in a couple of weeks’ time. Then I came across a Tweet that was looking for a designer. The tweet came from a back-then, opposition Member of Parliament (he is now a Minister in the current Madani Government). Anyway, I showed the tweet to my wife and she persuaded me to send an application.
Long story short, I sent one and was hired. Their office was in Lake Fields, Sungai Besi. You might be wondering, what’s this story had to do with the Creative team anyway? Well, it all begins here. Without this 2013 set, 2016 onwards would not have happened. For the first three years, I worked as a creative designer doing all sorts of creative work from static visual to audio-visual. Any campaign that was in his portfolio that needed creative, it would have had my hand in it. Then in 2016, a new project emerged, the biggest there ever was. What started as an individual task doing everything as a lone ranger, evolves to working in teams and quite a sizeable organization.
I guess, it was quite a steep jump ⎯ from the entertainment world into something more serious and heavy. But I was already at my ceiling. There was nothing more that I felt back then that I could offer in that world. But of course, working in politics comes with its own challenges. And one thing that I cherish more despite the challenges is the creative freedom that comes with it. Well, politics was not desirable to creative at least when I started in 2013. I know this because even in 2016, finding the first two team members was not easy.
Launched in 2016
My truth is, I don’t think I was ever considered to be a part of the organization early on. I was probably supposed to play a role in the background. But, it also just happened there was already a designer/creative to be there at the right time and place, so I volunteered to be a part of the early faces of the organization before it pivoted to someone more prominent later on. And everything else just falls into place. I was quite in a dilemma when my first task was to find at least two to three more creative for starters.
By 2017, we were 8-people strong
On average, for every single batch of hiring, we would be adding another one or two person. By the time the GE14 was held in May 2018, there were eight of us. Our work was everything creative related ⎯ from static visual, audio visual, live streaming, branding, photography, set design, livery design and office layout. Then in mid-2017, we started our Bina Semula Negara tour. Our Creative team was the main crew during the whole tour period covering from setting up the truck, sound system, photography, videography, etc. The tour lasted for about a year covering hundreds of locations throughout the country.
Our usual schedule for a year leading towards the GE14 was:
Monday to Friday → office hours + overtime, design, live streaming, video.
Friday Nite → Packing for the tour, traveling the country in a van.
Saturday to Sunday → tour on average 5-6 six locations.
The INV8 TV Channel
One of Creative biggest successes during this 2016-2018 period was probably the live shows that we produced from scratch, from the ground up. In total there were probably about 10 different live shows contents, all presented live with probably 1 or 2 pre-recorded because it was our first try. The idea of live shows, basically our own TV channel is because of the restriction towards the opposition to appear live on national TV, hence we decided, let’s just produce and make our own channel. Doing live on social media was relatively new during that time. Facebook Live was just introduced and the way most people did live streaming back then was directly from the Facebook phone apps, meaning, using the standard video and audio devices readily available with the phone, also meaning that there was no way for us to control the visual and audio quality. Our very “first” Facebook Live was a press conference by the founder using his iPhone. Imagine the video and audio quality directly from the phone but stationed 5 meters behind a 10-20 media crowd.
We were basically on our own and pretty much in the dark.
After doing some research, we found the cheapest and fastest way to upgrade by using a video capture device and an old model (decades old probably) video camera. This video capture device system was generally used by gamers to screen capture their gaming session and it was a recorded setting. We wanted to do a direct live session capture into the camera and presented live on social media. The best way to describe this part of the experience was total hell and complete disaster. And it doesn’t just stop there. After just about a couple of sessions using the video capture device, we were presented with the biggest idea of it all: the live show TV programs, with multiple camera because the ideal setting of the shows would be a host and guests.
We did our research again. Quick fun fact, during this period, there were only three of us and one of us came from a culinary background but with a passion and interest in photography. Multicamera production (MCP) was something that was pretty much an alien invasion of our lives. The most experience that we had in MCP was from my own during my internship in my university days where I did my internship at a local studio that did several video production projects. But they were a proper production house with crews and equipment worth millions against a 3-person tiniest production house? So what we did was this, I threw in an idea with minimal amateur understanding of what an MCP was ⎯ multiple cameras (let's say three) connected with a cable in each supplied into an equipment/machine that I think is called a switcher. So maybe, there’s a version somewhere out there that is not a professional level but householded and can be managed by one person?
Those were the two keywords that made things slightly easier for us - MCP and Switcher. If I had not had any experience involved in a production years earlier, our research into Google would have been, “how to do a three-camera shoot at the same time for at least in a one-hour session involving three people discussing political heavy stuff with each other, and don’t need any heavy post-production editing because we need to broadcast it live.” Because if we don’t do it live, it’s pre-recorded, and needs editing, there will be another struggle. Our machine to cover a one-hour video editing with three different footage sources and render would simply mean a death sentence for us. Oh, I’ve yet to even slightest mentioned the even bigger component of a video - the audio.
We found the cheapest model in probably one of the high-end (read: expensive) systems: the Blackmagic. Ideally, everything would be Blackmagic but it’s not doable because their camera line back then was “might as well just bribe the voters”. So we took a super big gamble. Only the Switcher was Blackmagic, the videocam was Sony, the mics were Sennheiser, the audio mixer was something, the monitor was a used slightly broken 40-inch Samsung TV, and many other things that at this point of my writing, I’ve ceased to remember everything. But there’s another piece of equipment that was called the “heart” of the live streaming back then - something called Teradek Vidiu (it’s a brand & model name, can’t find a general term for it). Basically what it does is that, after all the video & audio system above, this piece is what makes live-streaming possible. It sent a signal to the platform in the form of IP-address-ish saying, hey here’s the complete video content that we want to broadcast. At this point, if you want to skip everything, please do. The point of my writing all of this is to show the complexity of the work we did back then. Some of the points above might be incomplete or completely wrong, but at some point years ago, these were our reality.
Things have been a lot easier today as I was made aware.
Terus Terang was our first produced live show program hosted by Tuan Syed Ibrahim (now MP for Ledang), our version of HARDtalk. The brief was to do a simple what was today usually called a Podcast, but we bring it to another level with proper intro montage, end-credit, visual inserts, and whatnot. The first episode featuring the founder was a disaster because of the very bad audio quality.
The collage was a final assignment given to our intern.
Our offsite live streaming, a forum with live audience.
A Master in DIY.
Because budget was limited, we work with a DIY mindset, customising and doing lots of stuff on our own.
Putting the truck on stage.
Whatever that I’ve written here doesn’t even a slightest bit gave the justice towards the work that the team have done during that period of crazy-hell ride. But needless to say, I’m also not saying that the work we do were the hardest one. It is not, I’m just clarifying that. But to a certain extent, we were probably one of the smaller groups involved in whatever this was that was less talked about. Again, I’m not asking for people to talk about us, it is never about that.
Well, let’s just call it what is ⎯ I am a hopeless sentimentalist.
I have folder of never before seen, behind the scenes photos and videos that I may or may not share them here. Probably will, so comeback sometime later to see more. Whatever you are seeing now is probably a fraction of what I have in my digital storage.
Anyway, back to the first paragraph; there were a lot of things that we did as a team back then. I decided to highlight the INV8 TV Channel above was because that was the project that has the most technical aspect among all of our projects and by far the most successfull ones. Because it kept going day after day, week after weeks until the GE14 and even went live for several months after. And because if there are niche people (of the industry) out there reading about it, they probably can relate. About our other projects, it was not that successful. A lot of them were try-and-error DIY projects. And the magnitude of them was relatively small and mostly, in the end, it didn’t last long. It died because people find it hard.
There were quite a few projects that we did involved a spatial piece. It was not called a spatial piece back then because “spatial” was only popularized in 2023. But it was a spatial project indeed. The one other biggest project (it was a cumulative of smaller ones) was designing spatial for events and spatial piece that people can used during events. Some of them you might have seen in the photos above. The idea back then was that we needed to do something that was not a stock factory-ready item. For example, instead of buying a pop-up booth from a supplier and printed our own design and stick on them, we designed a pop-up booth made out of pipes. Well, the concept of the design was rather cool, it was made of steel pipes but the problem is that steel pipes are not widely used, hence very limited. Even if there were people that supplied them, it would cost us a bomb. So we make do with PVC pipes. The problem with PVC is that it’s not sturdy.
So there was a time when we designed a concept, made a prototype, and produced them in large quantities in our factory (read: studio) on our own. We even made an IKEA-like manual and packed them in a canvas bag. It was pretty cool back then. But just like I mentioned earlier, the problems with PVCs that are not sturdy and we didn’t design the piece with the consumer in mind, so in the end, it was very difficult for people to follow the manual and over time, after only a couple of use, it starts to fall apart.
But one thing for sure, we do learn a lot.
Then, there was the Tour…
Before there was the truck, there was a pre-tour where we went to Kedah-Perlis-Negeri Sembilan (in that order) on a weekend, during Ramadan, a couple of weeks before Raya. At the end of that pre-tour, we regretted it because it was crazy. Although it was not done outdoors, most were indoor at our regional offices, but the energy it took⎯ reimagining the memories itself, it was crazy. Well probably also it was because our imaan was very weak, indeed.
But an experience worth cherishing.
We would set up the truck anywhere and everywhere we could or whatever place that the local activist would find for us ⎯ by the shop lots, parking lots, next to bushes, in the middle of nowhere, by a gerai makan, near a pasar pagi, you name it, we might have opened the truck there. Rain or shine, the show must go on. Usually, the weekend would see us go three to four stops per day on average, five to seven total for the weekend. The first location was usually the easiest because it was early morning, people were still with their daily tasks, and usually, we would arrive early. The difficulties run concurrently with the list of stops, second, third and fourth or last. Two key components were how far the next location was and did the previous stops ran on schedule. Because if it’s far, and the schedule was overrun, we were dead.
I remember once, we were late to our last location (somewhere in Johor). It was at night, the schedule was for us to start at around 8 PM but we arrived 15 minutes before 9 PM. It was at a shop lot parking and people were already packed, there were hundreds waiting. We parked the truck, and open up shop (setting up lights, sounds & everything) Sonic-fast. Plus, the area was pretty dark for whatever reason, so it makes work slightly difficult.
Post-2018
After May 2018, the founder decided for the organization to go commercial and function as a startup. Things that we did as a social enterprise organization in the general election opens up some new doors. Whatever we did and set up as the foundation was relatively a game changer and something that was never done before. The company just needed to figure out a way to make some changes and be ready to commercialized everything. Creative ultimately becomes a department just like any other creative department in any other business - in most cases. But, since our DNA from the beginning was to cover and do everything that can be creative related, we continue onto the same path.
Out of the original eight team members, six remained for more than a year. Our super-intern joined us again as a full-time in 2023. As of March 2024, only four (+1) of the OGs remains. At one point we grew to a bloated number of sixteen team members. Cumulatively, in total we have had twenty-two different personnel who come from various backgrounds ⎯ we’ve had architects, a lawyer & chef, lecturer, adventurers, photographers, a kid swimming class trainer, and an individual who had conquered the ABC (Annapurna Base Camp), traveled alone to Nepal building schools ⎯ animators, illustrators, mural artist, individual who’ve worked with Gwen Stefani’s production team and many more personal achievements. But ultimately, one core aspiration that united and connected us is that we are Creative at heart.
Ending this curated and “no skills but vibes” post, it’s been nothing else but an honor and somewhat a privilege to served these crazy, hungry bast⎯ creative individuals as their Team Leader. For whatever may come, may we all stay true to our crazy and creative jiwa (soul) at heart.
