A DESIGN FOR LIFE
French-trained Thai designer Sarngsan Na Soontorn on what gets his creative juices flowing
At the International Furniture Fair Singapore taking place now until Sunday, a Thai designer is one of the 10 international talents featured under the Design Stars Showcase. Sarngsan Na Soontorn graduated from Chiang Mai University in 2003, went to École Nationale Supérieure de Création Industrielle in Paris, and has since spent his career in Paris and Chiang Mai, working in several designers’ studios where he combines the influences of both worlds into products.
Prior to his show, Sarngsan — his name literally means “create” — answers our questions on the elusive nature of “design trends” and the meaning of good design.
As a Thai designer who lives and works outside Thailand, how does that affect you?
In France, I had experience working for four years in different designers’ studios and then, until now, I teach in a national design school called ENSCI-Les Ateliers (École Nationale Supérieure de Création Industrielle). I have experience in both a professional environment and in an institute which produces those professionals. It is very crucial for me to get to know how those who design things are designed here in France. And I try to pursue this double aspect of work in Thailand. These experiences do open my eyes, wide open. It lets me have a more complex mind and a certain distance towards things.
Is it possible to observe a ‘design trend’ of today? We talk about ‘minimalism’ or ‘eco-design’, etc? How does that trend work for you?
I would say ‘trend’ is a tricky word, as well as ‘design’. Without being tricky, I will try to answer these questions: The work of design is to propose solutions to users’ problems. In doing so, we need to study or to observe the problems as thoroughly as possible, in order to see the tendency which helps predict the causes, or more accurately, to see the causes themselves, in order then to give or create the appropriate or the right solutions. And once the solutions are right, if they are minimal or ecological is no longer a question [but naturally this type of solution is always optimal]. This is how I work design, or try to. [Trend is not a subject.]
What are some of the products you’ll be presenting at the fair?
There will be some ceramic works that I have designed for Prempracha Chiang Mai; vases and stools, and tableware for this company’s new brand Prem; a bench and a shelf collection in teakwood for Deesawat; bamboo boxes for Bambounique; and a hanging mirror and coat rack for my own brand Jaoban. You can also see more works of our design studio MOK KAM POR at www.mokkampor.com.
What are some of the best product designs you’ve seen lately? Why?
This is very new. Just a couple of days before coming to the fair, I finished conducting a workshop of playground designs for a child psychiatric hospital. It was a workshop between Japanese students from Chiba University and French students from ENSCI-Les Ateliers. We observed and worked with the children and the team of a child psychiatric hospital in Paris. The problem is that the stage of the empty courtyard where children can play in an old building where the hospital is located is rather miserable and sad, and they don’t have much budget for doing anything. The works of the students here are very meaningful and they worked out very well. The plays they designed and the space renovation they proposed responded well to the needs of people and the constraints of the context. The hospital team and the children were happy with the works and the propositions.
They were well thought out, simple and human, like every good design is. So I do not know whether I could say that those product designs were the best, but they are the beautiful designs I have seen lately. Any advice for Thai designers who want to have a career abroad?
Cultural difference is at the core of working and living abroad. Be open and patient. Be sensible and curious. Administrative issues are another thing that could put your mind in a spiritual test.