Budiman Ong on shaping Indonesia’s design identity through craft and collaboration

This led to the founding of Jia COLLECTIVE in 2020, alongside partners Rudi and Yang. The retail space that showcases local designers spun the threads of Jia CURATED an annual design event where tradition and innovation dance together, and where diverse voices find their stage, transforming a typical trade show into an immersive experience where practitioners and professionals can genuinely connect, fostering both commercial and cultural exchange.

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Following the conclusion of Jia CURATED 2025 that took place from August 14 to 18, featuring over 70 displays, almost 150 Indonesian and international brands against the stunning backdrop of the Bali Festival Park in Sanur, Tatler Homes sat down with Ong to discuss his evolution as a designer, the intersection of tradition and innovation, and his vision for Indonesia’s place on the global design stage.

Since you founded Ong Cen Kuang almost 20 years ago, was there a project or moment that fundamentally changed how you view design or your role as a designer?

Our first collection, Alur, helped me identify the important aspects of a designer: what inspires and excites us, what we’re curious about, and what differentiates us from others.

A collection of lampshades made from zippers, and crafted one at a time by hand in our lighting atelier in Bali, Alur is an “out of the box” choice cemented my fascination with materials and their intrinsic character, sparking my decade-long obsession with pursuing material choices that influence and shape our pieces.

It also made me realise that I had to follow my gut instinct from the beginning rather than chase trends. It’s something that I have kept true to all these years, as I grew and matured as a designer, while the industry matured with me, embracing what we do at Ong Cen Kuang.

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What is your creative process like in preserving cultural heritage and pushing for innovation in your work?

I am Indonesian with a Chinese background, and my heritage, habits, personality, and surroundings influence my work through a slow, intuitive, step-by-step investigation. My creative process doesn’t start on paper but by touching the material—I want to feel it and understand its qualities when I create, drawing inspiration from within while my surroundings and heritage serve as my closest allies.

Innovation comes from allowing the material’s intrinsic character to guide me, working hand in hand with my drive to create something unique and unprecedented. I believe heritage and innovation must be balanced for a new product to work and remain relevant. Fortunately, we’ve received incredible support from the professional design community.

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How do you navigate the risk of losing ‘soul’ in your creative process, especially for creations that have been described as “poetic and tactile,” amidst this technological landscape that can seem rather devoid of both qualities?

A design identity is built slowly from one collection to the next over a long period. It’s more than just visual aesthetics—it’s about storytelling, building relationships with clients who genuinely appreciate a designer’s unique perspective and approach, your distinctive vocabulary, strengths, preferences, and idiosyncrasies.

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However, design also requires a journey of discovery and refinement. What I understand today may not encompass the entirety of my knowledge tomorrow, so it’s very much about evolving with time as well. With a strong identity as foundation and relationships with our clients rooted in trust and understanding, our responsibility as designers—as we navigate the risk of losing ‘soul’ in our creative process—is to stay true to ourselves and remain curious.

Modern technology over the last 20 years has been a double-edged sword in creative fields. While advancements like 3D printing may assist in the creative process, we’ve also seen pushback regarding AI-generative designs.

How do you see the relationship between digital design tools and traditional handcraft evolving in your work?

At the end of the day, digital design is a tool, merely to help and assist us, and it cannot replace intrinsic human creativity. They may assist us with functionality, but craftsmanship gives our products soul.

While our pieces are made one by one and mostly handcrafted, we do use digital design tools like laser cutting where precision is needed or for structural components within our products—for example, the joints of our light fittings. Sometimes, we use 3D printing to study shapes and create small prototypes.

In my opinion, digital advancement and even AI must be acknowledged and accepted. It will happen and become part of our future, and we must understand how it can be used and integrated thoughtfully to further our growth within our design journey. 

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What are some of the most memorable collaborations or moments from past Jia CURATED editions that have stayed with you?

The most memorable moment for me was when, speaking to one of the exhibitors on the last day of the 2024 edition, he described Jia CURATED as a “safe creative space with a sense of camaraderie where all exhibitors are equal, relaxed, and can truly enjoy the event.”

I believe this happened organically due to the way we work collectively with the pavilions. There’s a phrase that every Indonesian, young or old, is familiar with: gotong royong, which literally means communal effort—working together toward the same goal. This is the founding value on which we build collaboration and experimentation within our event.

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What qualities or philosophies do you look for, and how do they align with your personal design philosophies when selecting or curating brands and designers to be featured at Jia CURATED?

At Jia, we look for designers with strong identities who produce original, handcrafted pieces—those who are connected to their roots. These are the sensibilities we seek.

I now realise that Jia happened because of my work at Ong Cen Kuang. Jia was born from our passion for craft, design, and culture—it’s about creating a sense of ‘home’ (jia is the Chinese phonetic for ‘home’) through creativity, collaboration, and collective growth. Ong Cen Kuang marks my initial design path, while Jia has added a parallel dimension where I walk alongside others to share, collaborate, and learn.

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What would you say are the most exciting opportunities and challenges facing Indonesian designers today?

In general, Asia is still in its developing stage. While many projects are happening here and the opportunities are abundant within our vicinity, the continent is still perceived as the world’s value manufacturing centre.

One of our biggest challenges is changing this perspective and pointing the spotlight on Indonesia’s creativity. While Indonesia is well-known for manufacturing and handcrafting, we want it to be recognised as a country with many creative talents.

Our goal is to support the growth of the local design sector, providing visibility and opportunities for cultural and business exchange, allowing Indonesia to become a real contender in the global design arena.

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