Advocacy
How The Netherlands Became World’s First Country With No Stray Dogs on the Streets
Pets, as cherished members of our families, deserve rights and protections that ...
Her art transforms social commentary and personal narrative into experiences that connect worlds. Seine Kongruangkit encourages reflection and sheds light on what often goes unnoticed.
Art is a language that cuts across words, cultures and time, delivering messages that land instantly and linger with the audience. Through colours, shapes, textures and forms, artists condense complex ideas into a language the brain can digest in a flash. Art makes the intangible tangible, the complicated simple, and the unseen impossible to ignore.
Koktail gets a chance to explore the vision of Seine Kongruangkit, a multidisciplinary artist and senior art director based in New York. She shows how art can communicate ideas as powerfully as words, connecting people across cultures and experiences.
The Creative Journey: Turning a Lifelong Love of Art into a Career
“I’ve been drawn to art for as long as I can remember. There was never a big explanation for it. The moment I picked up a pencil in kindergarten, I just started drawing and never stopped. I carried a sketchbook everywhere, filling page after page with doodles without thinking about why.”
Born and raised in Thailand, Seine grew up surrounded by art without even noticing it. She didn’t come from a world of galleries or formal studios, yet creativity quietly shaped her everyday life. “When teachers in primary school asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always said artist,” she recalls. “I said it before I even knew jobs like art director or designer existed.”
Years later her creative world took a sharp turn in the middle of a bookstore, in an aisle between school supplies and books. That’s where she stumbled upon one magazine and its column of standout ads. Advertising wasn’t just selling things; it was a chaotic mash-up of everything she loved: film, sound, photography, typography, design and ideas.
She went on to study Communication Design at a Faculty of Arts programme where she honed her graphic design skills.
“I’ve realised recently that not every art director can do graphic design, which honestly blew my mind. An art director’s main job is to come up with ideas and create mood boards; we’re not usually the ones executing the final design. We collaborate with graphic designers, film directors, illustrators and so many others.
But having a background in graphic design has really elevated my work. It makes it easier for me to present my ideas and illustrate how something should look.”
To sharpen her creative edge even further she later enrolled at Miami Ad School, specialising in Art Direction.
As she shared with us, one defining challenge, one turning point that pushed her into a new creative orbit, was leaving Thailand. Crossing that threshold opened doors she never imagined. Her career became a passport stamped with opportunities from some of the industry’s most respected names: Droga5 New York where she currently works; FCB Chicago from 2023 to 2025; AKQA Miami in 2022–23; Innocean Berlin in 2021; and even a freelance art director role at Dentsu Dubai in 2020.
The Art of Thought: Exploring the Mind Behind the Work
Her creative vision has helped shape campaigns for global brands including Kia, Urban Outfitters, Coca Cola, and her work has been recognised on some of the world’s most prestigious creative stages. She has received multiple honours from The One Show, including Gold awards for The Vulva Spaceship, as well as accolades from the Cannes Lions, including a Silver for Planetary Guardians. Her campaigns have also been celebrated by the Clios, and her work is included in the MoMA Permanent Design Collection.
Courtesy of Seine Kongruangkit
“As a creative person, art is the clearest language I have. It’s the place where I can express what I’ve lived through, what I’m feeling and what I refuse to stay silent about. Using art as a tool to communicate and to stand up against what’s wrong feels like the most natural and necessary thing I can do.
A lot of my work is born from anger in a way: anger at injustice, at the unsustainability of the fashion world, at people ignoring COVID and refusing to quarantine, at xenophobia, at homophobia. Those feelings have always been the spark. “Stay angry.” That’s the advice Erik Kessels, legendary Dutch designer and artist, once gave me when we met in Berlin.”
Much of her work reflects the societal challenges of today. For example, with Pride parades cancelled during the COVID-19 pandemic, celebrations have taken on a new form. Seine, part of the LGBTQ+ community, was invited to transform the Kurfürstendamm store window of Urban Outfitters in celebration of Pride, serving as a reminder that this pride can be celebrated every day. She turned the store into an immersive sound installation, designed to evoke her imagined event inspired by the energy, love and joy of Pride parades.
“Growing up in Thailand means being exposed to some of the world’s best advertising. From emotional tear-jerkers to global viral humour, Thai creativity has a distinct point of view that stands out on the world stage. It shaped me into a storyteller early on, armed with references and ideas that many people outside Thailand might never have heard of or even thought about.”
One of her signature approaches in creating art is humour. One standout work is a speculative Netflix billboard created by her and Matithorn Prachuabmoh Chaimoungkalo which read: “Jim Hopper dies. Then he doesn’t.” The campaign cleverly highlighted how poorly the government was enforcing social distancing, using humour to encourage people to stay home by playfully spoiling their favourite series, in this case Stranger Things (2016-2025), during the pandemic. It quickly went viral online, helping raise awareness about the importance of staying home.
“Humour, in my opinion, is easier to access and easier to digest. If you respond to an already serious issue with an equally serious tone, people might tune it out. But when they laugh their guard drops. That’s when they become more open to thinking deeply about what’s actually being said. For me, it’s also just my style. Even if I tried to be serious it wouldn’t feel natural.”
Using Art to Challenge and Inspire Others
What stands out in Seine’s work is her determination. From focusing on what she loved during her university days to committing to explore the arts beyond her home country, her journey reflects persistence and purpose. Here she shares her thoughts on her fight to challenge boundaries and provoke meaningful conversations through her work.
“When I showed my work in a more liberal city like Berlin, the reception was usually positive. But in more conservative places like Miami, Florida, the reaction was quite different. One of my political pieces was even vandalised once. At first it shocked me but then I realised that meant the work was doing its job. It provoked a reaction, made people confront something uncomfortable, stirred something up.
That’s why I actually like showing my work in more conservative environments, or places with opposing opinions. It feels like the work has a real purpose there, pushing against something, challenging the space and sparking a conversation that wouldn’t exist otherwise.”
Now as a senior art director at Droga5, she continues to challenge the limits of creative expression.
“The goal is always the same: I want people to feel something. Maybe rethink how they see the world, feel more empathy, get angry, disagree, or just laugh. The worst outcome is when someone feels nothing at all.”
