Roi Re Illustration by Poovakorn Watcharaphongphiphat is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2022 A' Design Award in Social Design Competition Category.
IronSocial· 2022
Roi Re Illustration
by Poovakorn Watcharaphongphiphat
Client: Mahidol University International College
A' Design Award Winner in Social Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #127338The Design
About Roi Re Illustration
Roi Re is an online exhibition website focusing on stories of Thai old style street peddlers that rarely exist in the present day. The aim is to create appreciation and awareness among young generations toward Thai culture through the exploration of these rare old-style street vending activities. Roi Re provides information, knowledge, and tools through the use of a unique and riveting series of illustrations.
The Recognition
About the A' Design Award
Roi Re Illustration is an Iron A' Design Award winner, a prestigious recognition granted to good designs that meet the professional and industrial requirements expected from well-designed creations. Iron winners demonstrate great skill, high specialization, expert understanding, and creative capacity of their creators. Roi Re Illustration is expected to be a highly regarded, admired, and cherished creation that is practical and innovative. This Iron A' Design Award-winning design integrates industry best practices and has competent technical characteristics linked with know-how and talent. Roi Re Illustration is respected for its thoroughness and is designed to provide quality of life improvements that help make the world a better place.
Interviews
Grand Interview
Your innovative approach to preserving Thai street peddler culture through Roi Re Illustration has earned recognition at the A' Design Award - could you share what inspired you to choose this particular aspect of Thai heritage to document and celebrate?
The inspiration came from my personal observations of Bangkok's streets. Growing up in Thailand, street peddlers were an inseparable part of everyday life. They were not only vendors but also storytellers, community members, and symbols of a unique way of living. However, as urban development accelerated, I noticed many of these familiar scenes gradually disappearing. I felt that if these stories were not documented, future generations might never experience or understand their significance. Through Roi Re Illustration, I wanted to preserve these memories and celebrate the cultural value of street peddlers before they faded from public awareness.
The augmented reality integration in Roi Re Illustration creates a unique bridge between past and present - how did you develop this technological approach to make historical street vending culture accessible to younger generations?
I recognized that younger audiences often engage more naturally with digital and interactive media than with traditional historical documentation. Rather than presenting information through static text alone, I wanted to create an experience that felt immersive and engaging. Augmented reality allowed viewers to interact with illustrations and uncover stories hidden behind each image. By combining traditional narratives with contemporary technology, I was able to transform cultural preservation into an interactive discovery process, making historical content more accessible and relevant to today's generation.
Your research process for Roi Re Illustration involved gathering oral histories from older generations - could you describe the most surprising or touching stories you discovered while collecting these memories of street peddlers?
One of the most touching aspects was realizing how deeply these vendors were connected to people's lives. Many interviewees could vividly remember the sounds of specific vendors calling through the neighborhood or recall particular foods they eagerly waited for as children. What surprised me most was that these memories were not just about products being sold—they were about relationships, routines, and a sense of community. These conversations revealed how street peddlers contributed to the social fabric of Thai society in ways that often go unnoticed.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- "Roi Re" is an online exhibition website focusing on stories of Thai old style street peddlers that rarely exist in the present day. The aim is to create appreciation and awareness among young generations toward Thai culture through the exploration of these rare old-style street vending activities. Roi Re provides information, knowledge, and tools through the use of a unique and riveting series of illustrations.
- Tags
- illustration, Graphic Design, Culture, Archive, Thai, Website, Exhibition, Young, History
- Production Technology
- “Roi-Re” provides information, knowledge, and tools through the use of unique and riveting series of illustrations, on-location Augmented Technology (AR) in the form of pop-up kiosks, and series of promotional materials to connect the younger generation to what street paddlers used to be in the past.
- Design Challenge
- Many of the stories often come from word of mouth and memories of an older generation and the official records of their stories are hard to find. Therefore, the content mostly comes from interviews of older generations who had known and experienced old-style street peddlers.
- Research
- Thai old-style street peddlers have had a long and strong relationship with Thai culture and people. However, the development and modernization these days cause them to be less dominant, many have slowly changed their form, and some of them have disappeared. In addition, their stories often come from word of mouth and memories of older generations, which sometimes got disconnected with newer generations and the official records of their stories are rare and hard to find.
The aim of this project is to preserve and create an appreciation of Thai old-style street peddlers to a younger generation. By bringing their stories back in the present time with the help of technology, AR, virtual museum, motion graphic video, on-location pop-up kiosk, and fun illustration style, the young generation is allowed to explore and experience what was it like for street padders in the past. - Inspiration
- Since the past, street peddlers have had a long and strong relationship with Thailand. However, the development and modernization caused old style street peddlers to be less dominant. Many of the unique street peddlers have slowly changed their form, and some of them have disappeared. Moreover, their stories often come from word of mouth and memories of older generations, which sometimes got disconnected from younger generations.
- Project Duration
- The project started in September 2019 with the research and design development and finished in July 2020 for the exhibition showcase at Siam Center (Bangkok) on 20-22 November 2020.
- Operation Flow
- The online exhibition website provides information, knowledge, and tools through the use of a unique and riveting series of animated illustrations to mimic the environment of the street peddlers in the past. Audiences can play and explore items that pop up on the screen along with on the physical exhibition display, pop-up kiosks, using Augmented Technology (AR) to explore the hidden peddlers' stories on various historical locations, such as, Charoen Krung Road.
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