Yujarej Somana

Founder and Creative Director, De Quarr – Crafting Community

Industry : Advocacy

Traditional craftsmanship has little future if it cannot remain part of contemporary life. That conviction has shaped more than a decade of work for Yujarej Somana, founder and Creative Director of De Quarr – Crafting Community, where design becomes a bridge between Northern Thailand’s ethnic artisan communities and new markets.
Yujarej works directly with craftspeople to adapt inherited techniques for modern lifestyles without stripping them of cultural meaning. The aim is neither nostalgia nor reinvention for its own sake, but products that preserve local knowledge while generating sustainable income and reaching wider audiences.
Her approach has brought together an unusually broad circle of partners, from government agencies and universities to businesses and international organisations. Projects spanning craft development, cultural tourism and community enterprise have helped strengthen local supply chains and create new opportunities for artisans, demonstrating how thoughtful design can contribute to longer-term community development.
Yet Yujarej’s starting point is notably simple: listen first. Years spent alongside diverse ethnic communities have deepened her belief that each possesses knowledge and skills whose value deserves recognition on its own terms.
That principle gives her work its integrity. By pairing design expertise with collaboration and mutual respect, Yujarej is helping traditional craftsmanship remain economically viable, culturally rooted and capable of being carried forward by another generation.