December 3, 2018

Check out Koy Suntichotinun’s Artwork

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Koy Suntichotinun.

Koy, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I was born in Thailand, but I immigrated to South Carolina at a young age. I originally went through the Boiling Springs public school curriculum before transferring to another high school called South Carolina Governors School for the Arts and Humanities where I graduated and was trained in sculpture and typography. I moved out of South Carolina and studied Art & Technology at School of the Art Institute of Chicago before I dropped out due to attempting suicide but now prospering back with my family in San Diego, currently getting treatment for my mental illness and working as a freelance designer.

Not being able to access the tools I had in Chicago, I began focusing on illustration and lettering since pen and paper were all I had. I began posting on social media and developed a personal brand. Despite dropping out of SAIC, I actually started getting commissions from the work I made at home that flourished my current career. I’ve worked with Amplifier and Project 1324 in designing a poster that was given out across the nation for the March for Our Lives protest as well as various local businesses around San Diego such as The Water Conservation Garden in El Cajon, and The Ammar Campa–Najjar campaign. I’m currently studying at Grossmont College and planning to transfer to SDSU for a BA in Graphic Design.

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
As a multidisciplinary artist, I’ve worked with stone carving, bronze casting, photography, and 3D printing but my main focus is in illustration and typography. My father is a toy collector and growing up being surrounded by tin toys and reclaimed wooden crates found in dumpsters, I naturally attached myself to the vintage aesthetic. When I got mentored by Neil Summerour, founder of Positype, I began honing my craft in lettering, referencing much of my typographic work from my dad’s collection.

My graphic design career started when I helped my parents design their new restaurant. I reformatted their menu, helped find and setup new chairs and decorations, and redesigned their logo. My family and I faced gentrification throughout our life in the United States, so I empathize with struggling businesses owned by immigrants and people of color. Growing up in South Carolina, I remember the stress my family faced due to racism from customers and how we were marginalized to serve at a low price despite our high quality entrees because of how immigrant businesses are stereotyped to be cheap, yet uphold the same level of quality as a mid to high priced establishment. Despite now living in San Diego, my family and I still face the same prejudice so I chose to study graphic design because my goal is to support local businesses, like my family’s, and cater my practice around grassroots activism such as uplifting underprivileged communities by redesigning the branding of their stores without whitewashing the culture embedded within the community.

Artists have a responsibility to be conscious of representation because art influences the future ideologies of culture just as much as culture influences the artist. There are many days where I make art purely on aesthetics but my main focus, regardless of medium, is to push the representation of the minority story and influence other young artists to embrace their heritage and where they come from.

What do you think it takes to be successful as an artist?
Finding success as an artist is difficult but being fulfilled with yourself as an artist can sometimes feel nearly impossible. Living in the age of information, consumers are constantly barraged by images of how someone should live or how people should find success which makes it hard for many people, including myself, to live with themselves.

Good art is pretty but amazing art is timeless, and art can only be timeless if it’s honest. If an artist does dishonest work with the intention of popularity or monetary value, viewers can see through that, and the work will exude a sense of ingenuity. Despite my past successes, I had a hard time achieving a sense of fulfillment because I didn’t love myself and accepted who I am, thus I didn’t accept my work. It wasn’t until I started trusting what my mind and body wanted did I make the work that genuinely made me feel fulfilled and successful. Around this time was also when my following grew which shows that people were responding positively to my honesty. Learning to love yourself and your art is the hardest part, and I still struggle with self-love, but in the end, whenever I start a project, I always focus on making sure that everything I make is informed, honest, and with understanding of the self. If I achieve those three traits within my work, then I perceive myself to be successful.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
I’ve had work in Siggraph Asia in collaboration with Paul Hertz, but most of my exhibitions are usually put together by friends around San Diego such as the owners of Fivespace records in North Park and the good people at Picture Party. Most of my physical framed pieces is displayed at my parent’s restaurant called, “Aroi Cafe.” Otherwise, the best place to see my work is through Instagram and my website. I try my best to document and write about my process, going into great detail about how I develop my works from both a technical and conceptual level.

People can support my work through buying my merchandise such as t-shirts and prints whenever I announce them on social media and by connecting me to businesses who are looking for designers. My favorite projects are often the ones where I’m intimately connected to the community such as my current design collaboration with Good Vibe Tribe studios, a dance community I go to weekly.

One of the goals in my design bucket-list is to design a label for whisky or wine so let me know! ;D

I’m currently preparing several exhibitions coming next year but with no clear dates, its best to keep updated through my Instagram.

Contact Info:

Address: Aroi Cafe 7523 Fay Ave
Unit A La Jolla, CA 92037
Website: www.koysun.fun
Email: koysunti@gmail.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/koysun
Facebook: www.facebook.com/koysunArt

Image Credit:
Wednesday Tran, Proud Rarin, Mica Powers.

Getting in touch: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.