March 18, 2024 – Faculty of Architecture, Khon Kaen University, held the awarding ceremony for the design winners of Khon Kaen identity patterns and pants, which will be called “Khon City Patterns” or “Lai Muang Khon” in Thai. The awarding ceremony took place at the Multipurpose Building, Faculty of Architecture, and was presided over by Assoc. Prof. Niyom Wongpongkham, Ph.D., Vice President for Art, Culture and Creative Economy. Among lecturers and distinguished guests attending to congratulate the winners were Dr. Thannan Srithongchai, Vice Dean for Academic and International Relation Affairs and Asst. Prof. Nattapong Prompongsatorn, Ph.D., Chairman of the Design Program.
Assoc. Prof. Niyom Wongpongkham, Ph.D., Vice President for Art, Culture and Creative Economy explained that Khon Kaen University, as an academic institution that incubates students with creative ideas has joined Khon Kaen Industrial Council and Khon Kaen Provincial Administrative Organization to promote value adding to products made by local communities as well as supporting the ideas for designing identity patterns of materials and pants that are called “Lai Muang Khon” in Thai. The project has been supported by Ko Kan Dee Foundation.
“Besides supporting the governmental policy in creating soft power in the locality, academic institutions are collaborating for participatory development. The Faculty of Architecture was thus asked to design material patterns and pants with identity of Khon Kaen Province, for selling under the same of allied organizations and at the same time promoting circulated economy in the community.”
Asst. Prof. Somying Sa-adchom, Ph.D., the head of this project who works with a team of lecturers of the Department of Architectural Design, Faculty of Architecture, added, “Faculty of Architecture has a policy for design integration with instruction that also solves community problems and supports development of communities as needed. The collaboration has been carried out in the courses: AR042 304 Drawing and Illustration Design, AR 043 305 Art and Experimental Graphic Design, and AR025 304 Graphic Design on Product and Packaging. The students studying these courses can apply the knowledge in graphic design to design patterns on products such as material patterns. They are also able to build a 3D prototype that resembles real products. The working team therefore organized this contest.”
Khun Nanthiya Sirikantananan, Vice President of the Industrial Council and Chairperson of Ko Kan Dee Foundation said that this project opened a chance for students to learn outside classroom by real practices. “We then asked the Faculty of Architecture to get students to do the design. We received collaboration from Asst. Prof. Somying Sa-adchom. The students then designed the patterns using the identity of Khon Kaen Province.”
“As we see, there are many dinosaur-patterned pants sold in the province. So why do we have to get Ko Kan Dee dinosaur-pattern pants? The answer is that the buyer helps sharing the tangible part of the province. The Foundation is doing this to help the community. When you buy our pants, you also help the community in Khon Kaen. The first batch of dinosaur-pattern pants totals 1,000 pants, sold at 269 baht, but for the size 3XL, they cost 399 baht each. The pants are sold at Ko Kan Dee Foundation. We are seeing how the community will make money. The prices mentioned are the retail prices. So we are going to set the wholesale prices to each district. The community enterprise of each district can buy the pants from us. We plan to make profits happen to each community. The other thing is that, pant makers are all people in Khon Kaen. So everything is within our province.”
This project has been integrated by both governmental and private sector. Those interested to buy the pants can contact Ko Kan Dee Foundation at Facebook Page of the Foundation.
Names of winners:
Two excellent design winners, receiving 5,000 baht each were: Mr. Prakasit Atthanak and Miss Khwanchanok Jai-klang, 1st year students majoring in design.
Three winners of creative ideas, receiving 2,500 baht each were: Mr. Kittipong Thinnarat, Miss Waratip Klanbida, and Mr. Tanachote Iamsri, 1st year students majoring in design.
Two honorable mention award winners, receiving 1,000 baht each were: Mr. Thatsapol Pokkrong and Miss Punyawee Niamket, 2nd year students majoring in design.
News / Photos: Kannapas Sirikiat
