‘I am not an artist’, I always said that whenever someone interview me. How can you separate artist and designer? I used to believe that artists are those who create expressive artworks from personal point of view or personal statements toward a subject, for themselves. On other hand, designers would be those create art for others; people or clients, improving the existing or solving problems. Recently, I start to demolish the wall of separation. Artist and designer should be the same person, except the nature of artwork that they produce, personal artwork or commercial piece. It is the ability of adaptation, flexibility and implementation. These are the key words of my design philosophy.

            ‘Process is as important as the finished product.’ Everything around us now is in progression, in the process of growth. During my undergraduate years in Sydney, we had learned the significance of conceptual process. Greatly influences by Tomato, and their conceptual book of process, it is all about the narrative journey you take in exploration of design brief. Every steps you take will define the rest of the path and the light at the end of the tunnel. Often, I have never foreseen the appearance of my final product/artwork. Start with pencil on paper and riding through design process journey; brainstorming, experimentation and prototyping are indeed challenging to me. Of course, it would never be applicable in the commercial world, due to the restriction of time and budget. That is why the ideas of adaptation and flexibility are crucial.

            ‘Boredom is our friend.’ When you feel bored you feel bad, right? I am one of the type that can hardly stand doing thing for long time. That is why I can never be a movie director or animator. Let’s look at the flip side, I have used boredom as the source of energy to seek for something new and exciting. It is in fact the motto of our design collective, Boreddesign.net. We can always create something ‘fun’ and ‘fresh’ out of boredom. At boreddesign we have never limited ourselves into one path. We produce integrated artworks that combine many design disciplines, from live visual concert to product design. It is more about experimentation and exploration. At the end of the day, everything only comes down to the word ‘creativity’.

            One of my earliest inspirational figures is John Maeda. Despite his nerdy appearance, his concept of ‘simplicity’ becomes the major influence in my design approach and direction. To make something simple and effective is indeed difficult. Life is complicated, I lived in Bangkok, the complicated city and now I am in New York in the most complicated lifestyle. I still believe in simplicity would bring about the better and easier solution to the task. Apart from Maeda’s concept of simplicity, one of his work, 12 o’clock, trigger my curiousity of time and space. Time is such an abstract concept, the sense of time refer to the sense of progression. No one can measure the real time, we could only precieve the time at the present, and it will never turn backward. It is one of the most interesting concept to explore. However, we can control time by the simulation.  The simulations refer to the time-based art, animation, motion graphic, film and interactive media.
           
            Motion Graphic. I could say it is my specialty, but I am not the specialist. From the boredom of static graphic, I began to explore on the dynamic solution and life on the timeline. Motion graphic is unique, it is an art in between film, animation based on the principle of graphic design. They have rhythm, beats, transition as well as audio to enrich the viewers experience and communicate message. There are 2 types of motion graphic that I have explored; first the design for boardcast/tv commercial which require more on narrative/storytelling, and design for live performance which often employ more of sensory experience of the visitors. I am equally interested in both fields, begin to question how can they combine?

            Boredom is my primary reason to be in New York. Motion graphic industry in Thailand is so dull. There is necessity to search for the source of inspirational energy. As soon as I landed in New York I realized there are no differences here and Bangkok, they are both messy and chaotic. However, each of them has their own ‘identity’. As I have been living in 3 different continents, and from looking ‘outside in’ I am capable of identify the hidden uniqueness of the cultures. I believe there is no true universal language. The differences and identity that is something we are interested in. Therefore it is important to identify the identity of the work. Especially for Thailand, in term of design, we still have no strong sense of identity in comparison to Japan and Europe. Personal identity or signature should also be visible.

            Design and technology is my unknown territory. After turning my head toward broadcast design few years ago, I had abandoned web design and flash, again due to my boredom of the internet. Perhaps, it was the difficulty of programming, as for all visual designers always trying to avoid. After an intensive semester, technology has become the opportunity and effectives tool to delivering ideas and concept. Creativity defines the medium and vice versa. While developing advanced technical skills, I will use narrative as the core strategy in design problem solving without prior definition of the end product. The solution shall be reached along the way of experiment process. However, the aesthetic is also equally important as the concept, just like being beautiful and intelligence, truly ‘good design’. 
           
            From this point on, my future is still on the narrative path. It is a challenge of how we think of the world. In Japan, the extensive uses of characters in daily products create the sense of ‘life’ and act as the ambassador to audiences’ heart. This is an example of using narrative approach into design. My future goal is to explore possibility of narrative via technology in human centered design realm.

At last I think, I am still not an artist. Perhaps I am getting closer, but not there just yet.

Varathit Uthaisri (TU)
MFA DT / N00053864
12.23.07