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Where and what did you study and what year did you graduate?
Diploma of Arts (Wood Design), 1995, Boxhill TAFE.

Where did you head after graduating?
After graduating, I was a founding member of the Victorian Design Group (VDG), a furniture design co-operative started by Boxhill graduates. I then practiced from the VDG between 1995 and 2000.

When did you launch your own business?
I launched Profile Furniture in 1998 as a group partnership. The business then became an official partnership in 2000 and a limited company in 2003.

What motivated you to start your own business?
When I was studying design I came to the realisation that no one was going to beat a path to my door or offer me a clear career path once I graduated. So it was ultimately up to me to create a design position for myself by starting my own business.

How would you describe your business to someone who didn’t know you?
Profile Furniture is a design, manufacturing, retailing, offshore production and importation business.

What are the most challenging parts of being a designer running a small business?
It’s been setting up the infrastructure, learn how to manage employees and the finances in order to support the creative side of the business.

What inspires your design projects?
Most of my design projects have their roots in residential design briefs established with my clients. The most promising of these designs would then be developed into limited run products.

What are the next steps for you?
I hope to leverage the established retail, manufacturing and off shore production base to support the establishment of a design team and to reinvigorate the design/retail side of the business here and overseas. Also to successfully negotiate the change from a small business, to a medium sized business, growing from 10 to 15 employees and adding both an admin and design department.

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