Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 22, 1995 TAG: 9508230109
SECTION: WELCOME STUDENTS PAGE: WS-53 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ERIN MCFARLAND SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
A superior graphic designer.
At least that's what Dujdao Mek-Aroonreung hopes. A rising senior at Radford University, Mek-Aroonreung, known as Pum to family, friends and professors, has won a regional ADDY award for student work. The advertising awards are presented once a year to advertising agencies and marketing departments for their best creative endeavors.
Mek-Aroonreung says she likes to enter competitions because "for me it's a really good experience to just see how good my stuff is."
Time and time again she gets to see just that. Her resume boasts a host of scholarships and awards, including an Art Society scholarship and the title of outstanding student at Radford. She has also held an internship at the internationally known advertising firm Ogilvy and Mather.
With all of these honors under her belt, it is no surprise that Mek-Aroonreung's winning ADDY entry was a self-promotion campaign that she completed as a class assignment. In it, Mek-Aroonreung included her own logo, which she feels expresses her love of art, her femininity and the architecture of her native home of Thailand.
The packet also includes her resume and letterhead and envelope that she designed and assembled herself. She hopes to create several more of these to distribute to prospective employers.
A native of Bangkok, Mek-Aroonreung has been training for her profession since childhood when her mother noticed her artistic talent. She studied art with a private tutor throughout her youth.
Her interest in advertising and graphic design comes from a love of art with a purpose.
At Radford University, Mek-Aroonreung has been able to find that purpose over and over.
She designed the poster for the Radford Ballet Theater's 1994 production of the Nutcracker. A work-study employee in the Radford's creative services division of the public relations department, she also has designed posters for guest speakers and functions.
Mek-Aroonreung also is assisting in the design of the prospectus that Radford distributes to high school juniors and seniors.
Working in creative services has allowed Mek-Aroonreung the opportunity to see what working within a budget is like and has given her the chance to use new technology. She admits to the convenience of computer graphics programs but is quick to say, "I am an artist and I don't try to do everything by computer because I have the ability to do it by hand. It's more personal."
"Thailand is still my home," says Mek-Aroonreung as she speaks of the family and friends that she misses. She describes her first year in the United States as a high school exchange student as "culture shock." Radford is a much different place than her home city of Bangkok, which has a population of 10 million.
Nevertheless, she plans to pursue an advertising career in the United States. "It will be easier for me to find a job here since I learned everything in English," she says. "I learned the system here."
Mek-Aroonreung says she appreciates the freedom she will have in an American advertising firm. During her internship at the Bangkok offices of Ogilvy and Mather, she learned that Thailand has strict guidelines about what can be said and shown in an ad campaign.
Still, her designs are influenced by Eastern culture. The Thai influence is clear in the design of her logo and appears more subtly in other projects - her vivid use of color in the Nutcracker poster, for instance.
"I use a lot of bright color," Mek-Aroonreung says, because it ties her to Eastern culture.
For now, though, Mek-Aroonreung is solidly immersed in western culture. She loves seeing movies with her American boyfriend and hopes to relocate to Washington, D.C., when she graduates.
By staying in the United States she says, "I can do anything. I have no limits."
by CNB