A Children's Book
Hello I’m Junjira or also known as Paris. I am originally from Chiang Mai, Thailand. I have always been passionate about travelling, art, craft, and design since I was young. Moving to another country was not easy. Fortunately, I have found great friendships and gained knowledge throughout these years in New Zealand. I also had an amazing opportunity to do an exchange semester at Köln International School of Design in Germany. Furthermore, when I had the chance to visit historical attractions around European countries, it even made me so grateful for this opportunity to see closer details in real life. Collaborating with Parsons students from New York City was a memorable trip throughout Berlin and Paris.
If there are two choices for learning a subject, from a short-analysed information and the traditional way of reading through the original book to understand the context completely, an individual might choose the faster option. If you were to slow down your approach, the result would turn out differently, as the process may lead the individual to a quality stage of focus. As well as studying the literature, the reader would gain knowledge through the original text, looking up the unknown vocabularies that will support the context in a higher level of understanding. Introducing the literature Phra Apaimanee, a beautifully written piece in a Thai poem structure that shows the language used in the old days during the Rattanakosin period.
“The Rise of Sudsakorn” is one of many chapters of Phra Aphai Mani, a well-known legendary poem written by Sunthorn Phu. This poet is known as Thailand’s best royal poet during Rattanakosin period. The poem is taught Thai children in middle school. Every student must study its structure, the meaning of what poet is meant to deliver to the readers, and the proper beautiful way of reading the poem out loud. This chapter of Sudsakorn, is briefly about a half human and mermaid boy named Sudsakorn. He was a born genius with strong physical strength. It follows his journey starting from his birth on a mysterious Island raised by one of the most powerful Yogi. When he turned 3 years old, he caught a really strong creature which is a mixture of a horse and a fish. After that Yogi told him about his dad who is travelling far away in the North, so he makes a decision to find his dad. The adventure continues from there.
This publication that houses this beautiful story has been created through a mixture of Thai traditional way of drawings and modern world illustration styles. These specifically target a Thai and International teenagers’ group aged between 13-15 years old. Although, this present time of fast invention of technology has affected how children learn, this physical publication would support young people's reading and writing skills without causing health problems compared to mobile device usage. This book is supported by knowledge of Thai colour tone research. Thai colour palette from ancient times was developed from natural components. I have gone through Dr Phairoj Pittayamaytee’s research about ranges of colours to better understand this. I have chosen a colourful palette of blue, pink, red, yellow, green and orange to encourage creativity in children, yet I have dropped the colour tone into a subtle darker colour and left some vibrant colours that target teenagers which I had learned through my colour application research. Thailand is the country that is rich with culture and art is delicately created with in a significant impact of national religion which is Buddhism. The cultural drawings and a mixture of modern Illustration styles would draw children's attention into it.
In conclusion, I hope I could transform my childhood memories of this Sudsakorn literature lesson during school period into a better visual communication to young learners who either interested in Thai culture or not. They would gain the most benefit from the translated story in Thai and English, while also learning the complex language from the original poem throughout the publication.
