Illustrating the ideal
After a decade abroad, Pomme Chan returns to Thailand with big artistic plans
As a child, Tatchamapan Chanchamrassang, aka Pomme Chan, was a nerd, she says. She used to read manga comics and then she starting making up her own stories and drawing her own manga. She loved Ai Yazawa’s Nana.
Pomme Chan is, and always has been, most happy when she is drawing.
As an illustrator, Pomme Chan’s universe is one that transports the ordinary into a hand-drawn dream world, one that places commercial products into a landscape of endless possibilities.
Now based in Bangkok, Pomme Chan spent much of the past decade in London, creating work and building up her profile. She has worked on advertising campaigns for brands from Singha to Nike, Mercedes Benz to The New York Times. Most recently, she collaborated with Baby-G to design a limited edition watch for their 20th anniversary. She is also one of the 15 artists in the “Imagine What’s Possible” artist series to design posters for the 2015 Oscars.
Pomme Chan studied interior design at the decorative arts faculty at Silpakorn University and as an undergraduate was sure that making art was the path she wanted to pursue, but was unsure of what it actually meant to be an interior designer.
“I knew you would decorate homes but I didn’t know I would be drawing plans with details down to the millimetre, that I would map out how wooden planks fit together to form a roof structure,” she says of the education system in Thailand that requires students to pick a focus before understanding how the jobs are actually carried out in real life.
She therefore ended up working as a graphic designer for WPP’s DY&R and Grey after university. She became interested in typography after working on layouts at the design agencies. To understand typography, she began sketching and started having fun with it.
“Whenever I went into book stores, I would look at design books. Most of the artists I like are from the UK. That’s when I decided to go there,” she says.
In 2002, she began studying graphic design and communication at the London College of Communication. She took five different internships while at school, in England and also in Hong Kong. She worked on many small projects. The first job she recalls was to illustrate a CD cover for an electro band called A Noise.
Pomme Chan used to create free posters of bands for music shops and it was through this that she was discovered by art agencies who then commissioned her to work on art campaigns for brands like Southern Comfort. She was also commissioned to create posters of the Beach Boys, Thievery Corporation and Adele.
“Studying interior design taught me to see things in three dimensions, to create depth with colours. I think of my design in terms of background and foreground. Silpakorn taught me to draw. No matter what you do, you have to draw well.”
In those years in London, she worked hard to get represented by various agencies. “Abroad, the corporate client deals with the advertising agency, which comes up with the framework before contacting the illustration agency, which then distribute the works to artists to create work that fits the branding of each company,” she explains. In contrast, in Thailand, the role of the middleman is more or less eliminated. “I had to fight to get into the agencies. It took me two years to be accepted by the US representative [Levine/Leavitt]. I sent in my portfolio five times.”
Over the years, her pen strokes have become distinctive. The movements in her designs are fluid and dynamic as if they were growing, twisting. Pomme Chan returned to Bangkok at the beginning of last year and immediately got busy.
She opened up Caffe What If, a café and showroom of her works printed on tableware, cushions, and wallpapers. She also launched AM/PM agency, the first illustration agency in Thailand, representing six artists from the UK.
“I think all artists have two modes: one where you work to earn a living and one where you work to enrich your spirit,” she says. “My commercial work is when I’m answering to the clients, finding solutions for them, making them happy. My own art is a process of letting loose. And once in a while, I work with clients who want me to just let go and they are responsible for the production.”
Last year, she participated in Absolut Artelier where she created “The Illuminated Garden” at the Jam Factory, lighting up the outdoor space with neon typography, turning her drawing strokes into shimmering light.
In spite of her busy schedule, she makes time to have a hearty breakfast every day. “This morning, I made myself an omelette with white sourdough bread. I pay attention to things like that even if my schedule at the studio is packed like canned fruit.”
I think all artists have two modes: one where you work to earn a living and one where you work to enrich your spirit