In 1999, Santi Ariestyowanti and Dyatmiko Bawono were a young couple, freshly graduated from the design department of Indonesian Arts Institute in Yogyakarta. At the time, the most common path followed by Yogya design graduates was to move to Jakarta and find work in renowned graphics houses or advertising agencies. But Ariestyowanti and Bawono, who would later marry, insisted on staying in Yogyakarta, where they started their own independent design firm. It was a tough choice that often made them feel like they were undertaking guerilla fighting in the harsh competition within the design scene, and thus chose the name Indieguerillas – a portmanteau formed from the words independent, Indonesia, and guerillas.