Self-made: Creative Lives in Southeast Asia
In this book, architects, artists, designers, photographers and filmmakers based in Southeast Asia tell their startup stories and how they navigate terrains of uncertainty to do the work that they believe in while keeping the lights on.

Interviewees
Alvin Ho and Clara Koh
Alvin Tjitrowirjo
Andra Matin
Chitra Subyakto
Eleena Jamil
Francisco Guerrero
Joseph Foo
Joyce Tai and Rex Advincula
Lin Sun Oo
Lin Tin Htun Ni
Muhammad Fadli
Ng Seksan
Pailin Wedel
Phuong
Samantha Lee
Saran Yen Panya
Sonny Liew
Sukajit Daengchai
Tnop Wangsillapakun
Vo Trong Nghia
Wendy Teo
Wisut ‘Tam’ Ponnimit
Bonus Content: Conversations Around Food

For feedback or enquires, please email steph.peh@gmail.com.

B-Side

Studio 150 (2018)

Piyakorn Chaiverapundech (PC): I studied Fine Arts (Visual Arts: Print-Making) because I was interested about graphic design. I went to the publishing company to work and I learned many things about design there. At that time, I wanted to know more, and deeper about graphic design. I applied to work with many companies here to explore what I really wanted and liked. The last one I joined was Default Bangkok. I learned many things there like typography, not like commercial but like art. After that I went abroad in Prague to study. 

Pat Laddaphan (PL): For me it's different. I studied graphic design. After graduating, I worked at one of the graphic design studios and did a lot of projects. After three years, I decided to go to the Netherlands. When we both returned from abroad, we started working together. At that time, we worked from a distance. We only started to use the name of the studio this year.

PC: We just moved here 1st January during the new year.

PL: Before, the clients knew us by our name. Pat and Piyakorn. For now, they are still confused as to who is Studio 150? [Laughs]

Why 150?

PC: It's like a silly reason. Nothing special.

PL: We just wanted to have a number. I asked him, just say one number.

PC: Actually, it was like the bus number from my home to her home. 

How did you decide to work together?

PC: We met in university. We've been working together for maybe 4 years, even when I was in Prague. We would collaborate. 

PL: One more reason is maybe because we are couple. We share a lot. Even when we were studying abroad so why not?

Finding work opportunities

PC: When we started out, we had two different kinds of projects. Commission / client like our work and they come to us and the second type is initiative project we have done. For my graduation project, I did a graphic design platform about education, what Thai graphic design needs, what graphic design should be. I wanted to promote the idea of social project here because here, we use graphic design just for commercial stuff - to sell things, to make the thing more beautiful. 

PL: When we studied abroad, we see a lot of graphic designers in Europe who can do a lot of things. So we started to question ourselves. What are we going to do when we get back to our home? If we need to get back to really commercial things, it doesn't make sense that you went all that way to study - you didn't use any knowledge. Then we started to research about what's happening here at home and what is the problem. We have a lot of graphic design programmes but where are the graphic designers?

What is the problem?

PC: It's the same around the world.

PL: One of the problem is that we don't have a long history of graphic design, we just have like 30 years. We don't have a master or something like that.

PC: I think the biggest problem is that they define graphic design just as marketing but for me, i think graphic design is a kind of art I feel. Maybe it's cos I studied visual arts and have some sense of it. Like graphic design, it's a tool or medium to express something. That's why we do some initiative project on this idea to show possibilities.

PL: For the Rambutan, after he graduated, we continued the project by doing a workshop with students. We propose some of the workshops to the university, some we collaborate with TCDC so they organise the workshop for us. It was really impressive - the students really enjoyed the workshop, it kind of opened another door that they didn't learn before that they could also do something like this. We've conducted many sessions. The workshop that we did in Bangkok Art Book Fair last year, we not only got design students but journalism students. We conducted a five-day workshop that teach students in 3rd or 4th year universities to make books from the beginning, from the content, how to collect data and translate it to design and production. We got a sponsor from printer who made good books. After the workshops, the they sold the books at the book fair. 

PC: The workshop is like 3000baht but they can sell their books. It's like they join the workshop for free and get some money... 

Why is it important for you to share your knowledge?

PC: I think since I had the opportunity to study abroad - not everyone can have it - and if i know something, i should like spread it to thai people, help society get better

PL: For us its kind of positive energy that we get from every workshop. 

PC: We get energy income from it. Not money.

PL: Maybe sometimes if you not included in the curriculum or do it as a side project, maybe its more interesting as a student as well. they can go out from their school and meet other people from other university and maybe they start working together.

How is it financially sustainable?

PC: We don't start with the money in mind. We just try to figure out a way to make sure that it doesn't use a lot of money to do the project. Maybe find sponsorships, supporters or collaboration.

PL: For the BABF, at first year, we didn't get any money but this kind of project i think we need to keep doing.

PL: After we made Whether It Is Art Or Not Catalogue (2016) and we didn't know where to sell it. We talked to our friend about it and they said, you should sell it in an art book fair, and I said we don't have any. And then she said, why don't you start it? 

PC: And we made like book launch event at Bangkok City City Gallery. Then we asked them if they wanted to collaborate , do BABF.

PL: After two weeks, they were like ok, let's do it!

What do you struggle with on a day to day?

PC: Time. Sometimes I find it hard to deny projects that are interesting. I can't say no. If the work is interesting, we can negotiate on prices. But we have to kind of share. for example, a packaging project, the owner has to do some research, find the poem to put on the packaging and we design it. And we can negotiate the price a bit. It's like collaboration. We like this way of working. For that project, the owner of the product has literacture background. We decide to use the poem on the packaging, like liquid soap. We want to tell his story, when you smell it, what kind of poem suits the recipe.

PL: And he do everything on his own, he doesn't have a lot of money so we say, ok we like to help you so maybe you could collaborate with us. 

PC: But actually it;s not that cheap, we have standards..?

PL: We don't wnat to expand to big company. We've seen some of the studios. The situation here is like when you start small, and then because you need more jobs then you get bigger and then you cannot stop. you need to keep growing then you need to make end meets to feed everyone and at one point, you may lose your soul.

PC: We want to make everything by ourselves. We don't like to ask someone else to do it for us and we act like art directors. But we do have some collaborations with freelancers. Like 50/50%. Not like we just sell the project to the client. We like collaboration.

What is meaningful to you?

PC: Useful work that communicates, make awareness somehow. 

PL: Express our statement, what we want to share with society, as graphic designers. How can we use our knowledge to make it better?

PC: For example, this poster (it's written in Thai), Northern style chilli power - because now we got like instant ready-made ones in the package. We don't know where it comes from and how it looks like. It's for Chiang Mai design week - the last two years and we gave away the posters.

What is Whether It Is Art Or Not Catalogue about?

PL: Chavalit Soemprungsuk is the national artist. He is Thai but he lives in Netherlands for 50 years. He is now like 78? He got support from the Dutch government and when he got old, he donated his work and studio to the thai governemnt.

PC: Even his heater, utensils, pillows, bed.. Everything. 

PL: He kind of prepare fo his death and at one point, he felt really old so to make a physical sculpture was difficult.

PC: It also requries many people to maintain it. 

PL: So he shift his work onto the digital platform. He used photoshop to make paintings.

PC: He wanted to do art more, but not physical.

PL: He has also travelled a lot and visited every museum in Europe. He photoshopped his work on the spaces. If his artwork fits a space.

PC: It's not about the picture but curatorship skills as well. Which gallery suits his work. He also curate the audience as well.

PL: At first when we were scrolling through his facebook feed... we didn't know they were photoshopped. We were wondering how his work was shown at a famous museum but we didn't know about it. And then we found out that they are photoshopped so we started collecting the visuals and then we contacted him and told him we wanted to make a book about it. He was really happy.

PC: He sent like a thousand pictures to us.

PL: And they were all named 'untitled..' because he was 78.

PC: he just made it for fun. Then he started getting some likes and I think he enjoyed.

PL: this day and age you can just email people to make things happen.

Any advise for younger peoplpe? 

PC: To express your own statement.

PL: Or the message of what you want to stand for. 

PC: We define graphic design as art and you have to have your own voice for it. And you find it by working...