A Little Note from Melissa

With a passion in typography, lettering and illustrating decorative embellishments, I believe that fluidity, weight and tension in every line stroke are instrumental in creating a memorable impression. The inspiration of most designs are taken from my travels. I am constantly fascinated by details in my surroundings such as the old ironcast ventilation grills, quirky shapes of botanical specimens, faded colors of vintage stamps or simply fine handwritten scripts on old postcards. I fuse traditional and contemporary elements from varying cultures in my work and may, for instance, mix fresh Scandinavian color palettes on architectural patterns from the Middle East.

I had wonderful childhood, which was blessed with a freedom to think and express myself. Born in 1974 and reared in Jakarta, in an ultimately inspiring environment, my family lived in a tiny quaint pavilion attached to a vintage colonial house where my grandmother lived and worked as a passionate dressmaker for the expatriate community since the 1950s. I used to watch her making pillows, quilt covers and hats in a room that filled me with wonder and imagination. My father, on the other hand had a passion for photography and stencil application which took place in a workshop neatly organized where tools were neatly organized in small color coded boxes. Those where my lessons in meticulous grids, patterns and precision. My father taught me many creative skills, the most memorable of which was the skill of making a calligraphy pen out of a simple felt tip pen. Learning this skill at the tender age of six made me feel comfortable in sketching using calligraphy strokes. My mother had always been a home decorator, a perfectionist and a determined entrepreneur. This is the woman who never gives up in life and who always motivates me. She loves to restore unused products and turn them into chic interiorsparkles. My mother Didi Hersubeno and I complement each other?s skills and have collaborated in several professional projects. We established ?Tulisan? together, and are equally dedicated to deliver excellence in design, production, and customer care.

'Tulisan' is a collection of limited edition graphic prints on urban outfits and household accessories. It is for everyone who loves fresh prints and exceptional hand made items.
'Tulisan' is my second creative business venture, the first being a multidisciplinary creative studio I founded in 1999 with my husband Dominic Symons in California called Bluelounge Design. We have built a comprehensive repertoire as a product designer and brand strategist for international clients such as Panasonic, Microsoft, Rolls Royce and Trina Turk. In 2004 we began our own product line, creating simple solutions to daily problems with a constant drive to transform even the most everyday items into objects of desire. Today we distribute our Bluelounge products to over 33 countries. The challenges we faced at Bluelounge have equipped me to start
this new brand 'Tulisan'.