raflievansyah.studio

Hi, let me introduce myself. I am Rafli, a furniture designer from Indonesia. This is the very first blog I’ve ever made. To be honest, I’m a bit nervous, but I am trying to push myself to write down my journey toward becoming a “real” furniture designer. Yes, you read that right—a furniture designer!

Currently, I work remotely as an in-house designer and product development lead for an Australian furniture company. At this point, you might be confused. If I am already a furniture designer and making a living out of it, why the hesitation? I’d like to give you a bit of my background so you can understand the context.

It all started in 2017. After I graduated from college, I tried running a small business making custom sofas. My major was in mechanical and biosystem engineering, which had absolutely nothing to do with furniture. And guess what? It ended in a straight bankruptcy within just one year, with zero customers. Lack of knowledge, I would say. I knew nothing about furniture, didn’t really know how to sell it, and didn’t understand the supply chain in this industry.

After that chaotic situation, I ended up applying for a job in the furniture industry, hoping it would benefit me in the future if I ever decided to restart my business. Long story short, I worked in a furniture factory as a draftsman for almost three years. After that, I did some freelance work as a 3D artist, and now, I’ve become a designer and product development leader. The thing is, even at this point, I sometimes feel like I don’t completely know what I am doing. The way I acquired my knowledge and skills is quite unique—most of it comes directly from hands-on experience, while the rest comes from courses and YouTube.

Through these writings, I hope to share my story and use this platform as a journal for my learning milestones and the personal projects I am working on. I believe this is a better way to document my mistakes during the process rather than letting those lessons pass by unnoticed. Another goal of mine is to start creating content. Yes, content!

I am pretty sure some of you might ask, “Why are you writing an old-school blog in 2026?” Well, blogging nowadays definitely isn’t as popular as short-form video formats like Shorts, Reels, and TikTok. However, long-form text helps me immensely with my writing, especially since English is not my native language. I also like reading through Threads, but blogging gives me more space to truly express my ideas and feelings on a topic. But honestly? I just want to admit that I’m not very good at making video content! 🤣

As I mentioned, these writings will chronicle my journey and my personal projects. But it sounds a bit boring if I only talk about myself or what I am doing. So, I want to make sure you, as a reader, get some benefits out of reading this blog. Specifically, I want to document my perspective on furniture design, especially within the Indonesian environment, to give you some insight into how furniture design is growing in this country. Another area I want to explore is design criticism; I don’t have the formal academic theory down yet, but it will at least be based on my real-world experience. So go easy on me, guys, and don’t expect any mind-boggling insights just yet!

I guess that’s all for my very first blog post. Please stay tuned for the next one. Thank you!

Kind regards,

Rafli