Tucked away beside a bustling highway overpass in a former industrial area of west Jakarta, a buzz of activity inside a humble warehouse is redefining the way people perceive quality craftsmanship in Indonesia.
Established in 2014, Indoestri is a makerspace offering a broad array of classes – from traditional crafts like metalworking, woodworking and leather-making to modern-day skills like branding and social media marketing. After noticing local brands were heading in the wrong direction, lacking originality and the quality needed to compete on a global scale, founder Leonard Theosabrata decided to help nurture the creative minds behind these brands and help ensure their sustainability well in to the future. As Theosabrata explains: ‘we need to be more grass-roots: we need to be more in-depth by mentoring these brands from the beginning.’
