This product designer from an Indonesian village created an award-winning wooden radio and a bamboo bike

As a product designer, Singgih Kartono is most commonly associated with three things: the award-winning Magno wooden radio; the Spedagi bamboo bike which has been used by celebrities to heads of states; and the Pasar Papringan market which draws over 3,000 people regularly.

But for Kartono himself, there’s a novelty idea behind all of his notable creations – design as a social movement.

The 57-year-old Indonesian now lives in Kandangan, his birthplace, a sub-district just outside Temanggung’s town centre, some 450km from Jakarta. Visiting him in his beloved hometown feels like visiting an old friend. We meet on a late Thursday morning in his office and home, where Spedagi bamboo bikes are being produced.

Back in the late 1980s, Kartono was the first student from Kandangan to be accepted to Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), one of Indonesia’s top universities. After graduating from product design in 1992 and working in Bandung for the next decade, he returned to Temanggung in 2004 and started his own company, Piranti Works.

He started working with local makers to produce wooden radio and stationery. “The first wooden product that I marketed was a pocket-sized magnifying glass. That’s where the name Magno comes from,” said Kartono while we went through a top shelf with Magno’s design prototypes — from radios, letter openers and wooden toy sets.

Magno’s products feature clean, classic design that have been recognised on a global level for its sustainable qualities. Kartono wanted the products to be versatile enough to last through trends. All products were designed with sustainability in mind — only plantation wood was used, and in limited quantity. “We also made sure to make up for what we produced by replanting the local forest with young seedlings,” he said.

Kartono categorises Magno as “New Craft”, a line of products created with traditional craftsmanship but with a contemporary company’s know-how. “It’s not something new, but I feel that New Craft could be the answer to the brain drain that Temanggung, and other villages around the world, are facing.”

Before the radio was launched, Kartono faced a major hurdle to figure out its electrical system. He tried to find vendors selling ready-to-use radio electronic kits, but could not find them from any of the electronic companies he contacted.

In the end, he found a shortcut. While tinkering with the inner circuits of various radios on the market, Kartono discovered that Panasonic —a major consumer electronics producer in Indonesia — had the most compatible mechanical parts for Magno. He purchased a Panasonic radio from a local electronics shop, took it home, disassembled it, and integrated its components into his Magno radio. As Kartono expected, the mashup worked perfectly.

As fate would have it, Panasonic Indonesia’s owner, Rachmat Gobel, later took interest in the Magno radio, and worked out ways for the company to supply customised electrical parts. The rest is history, as Magno became a well-loved product in Europe, the US and Japan. During its peak years, Kartono and 40 local makers produced about 300 radios each month, mostly sold overseas.

Even during Magno’s popularity, Kartono was conscious about producing just enough — but not too much. “As a product designer, I need to do something about overconsumption. I have to build something that looks good, functions well, and lasts a long time from the resources that are available around Temanggung.”

Magno was positioned as a premium object, priced at IDR 2 million (S$194) and above in the local market, and around €260 (S$364) overseas. It bore a relatively modest price tag considering the radio has received several international accolades. In 2008, the Magno wooden radio won the Japan Good Design Award for its innovative and experimental design. A year later, it won best product in the Brit Insurance Design Awards. The jury was impressed to see the “clear respect for the material it uses and its sensibility to details”.

While he did not exactly plan it, Kartono moved on to his next venture – creating a bamboo bike. The interest to design a bike was sparked by a new routine he picked up back in 2012. After starting to cycle every morning to keep his health in check, he discovered that this new habit allowed him to see more of his surroundings, including the abundant bamboo trees around Kandangan.

He began his research on bike designs, and at the beginning of 2013, he developed his own design alongside local makers who work with him in the workshop. After almost two years, he started production for what would be known as the Spedagi Bamboo Bike. The name Spedagi (a blend of “sepeda”, which means bike, and “pagi”, which means morning) sums up Kartono’s hope for his creation to be more than just a product, but rather a social movement that involves communities.

“It is a good challenge to create a good product in terms of aesthetic and functionality using simple technology,” said Abi Rafdy Ramadhan, a young product designer who works as a designer for Spedagi.

The simplicity of Spedagi bikes allows for local makers to be part of the production team, while giving Kartono the headspace to develop.

Spedagi’s broader movement. Through Spedagi, Kartono hopes to raise awareness on bamboo and the village makers behind it.

Kartono believes that villages are organic communities that exist throughout Indonesia, offering valuable life lessons to those who engage with them. He hopes that Spedagi’s growth could slowly shift perceptions of villages — from being seen as lacking in education and craftsmanship to being recognised as sustainable living spaces from which the human population can benefit from.

“Village revitalisation” has been Singgih’s keywords that guides everything that he does. This principle manifests in Pasar Papringan, a twice-monthly market held below a lush bamboo forest. It sells a large selection of local culinary, crafts, and farm products. First held in 2016, the market has put Temanggung on the map, making it a tourist destination that attracts over 3,000 visitors each edition.

The market is a village-wide effort, coordinated by a small yet agile working team that sources local produce, designs the landscape, and runs the regular event. “When we first reached out to the locals to participate in Pasar Papringan, we faced a lot of hesitation,” said Yudhi Setiawan, who has been working alongside Kartono in organising Pasar Papringan. “I went door-to-door to meet with local women who were knowledgeable about traditional food. Many of them were reluctant because they were not sure people were going to come all the way to Temanggung to visit a traditional market.”

The first market was promoted through Facebook, and word-of-mouth quickly spread. Temanggung is now on the travel wish list for many urbanites across Indonesia. This is a departure from what Temanggung has long been known for — tobacco and coffee. In an interesting way, Pasar Papringan has attracted a new demographic to visit Temanggung.

Besides its unique landscape that makes you feel as though you are stepping into another realm, Pasar Papringan also goes by its own rules. Both vendors and visitors are not allowed to use plastic, and the only valid currency is “pring” (which means bamboo), that visitors can exchange before entering the market. It is not an everyday occurrence to see urbanites waking up early on a Sunday to travel to a village, park in between villagers’ houses, and walk a mile or two to the market. But Pasar Papringan has a certain charm that keeps them coming.

“Oftentimes, when we think of villages, we associate them with things that are behind in terms of civilisation. We seem to have forgotten about the village’s way of living — the respectful way to treat one another, the deep appreciation towards processes, the gratitude towards the natural things we are blessed with, the good air and ample space we live in. There is wisdom in the village, and I believe its values are the future of humanity,” Kartono concluded.

Additional reporting by Nina Hidayat