VAHTHAI Restaurant was founded in 1988 and has grown up with generations of Macau people since then. As the first restaurant in Macau to introduce the classic Thai snack boat noodles, the owner has developed his own unique boat noodle recipe and secret seasoning in response to the food culture of the Macau people. In this design project, we wanted to emphasize the fusion of Chinese and Thai cultures and the story of the restaurant's 30 years of history, incorporating the strong human and neighborhood ties of Macau. The illustrations were created around the classic fresh ingredients and signature boat noodles of the restaurant, together with a typography that documented some of the stories of the founder of the restaurant. In terms of font, the brand font design especially combines the characteristics of Chinese and Thai cultural fusion. In addition, we did a lot of research on the fonts commonly used in Macau and Thai restaurants in the 80s, and selected similar fonts. Finally, we chose Risograph printing, which was popular in the 80s, to print the brand posters, showing the history and culture of the restaurant while presenting a new continuation of the tradition.

Boat noodles - one of Thailand's classic traditional dishes - are usually served in a very small bowl, so most people can finish a bowl of noodles in just one or two bites, so it is common to eat several bowls before they can be full and see several bowls stacked around one person in a boat noodle restaurant.

Macau is a small city located in the south of China, with a relatively high population density, hence a strong local neighborhood. The owner of VAHTHAI Restaurant always cooks the boat noodles himself, and when he's not cooking, he also chats with the diners. It is a restaurant that many people have grown up eating and then bring their children to patronize. VAHTHAI Restaurant is one of the restaurants that have grown up with many Macanese and have a special bond with them. In addition, the meat supply in the Macau market is mainly imported chilled ingredients, so the daily supply of fresh meat is limited, but the owner of VAHTHAI insists on using only fresh ingredients for more than 30 years to serve a limited number of boat noodles daily, so the illustration and text content also emphasize this point.

Professional or Personal
Professional

Creative Discipline
Advertising
Graphic Design
Illustration

Role in Project
In this project, I mainly served as creative director and design director, and am responsible for the market positioning of the rebranding, the formulation of the promotion direction, and the graphic and illustration design work. Vah Thai is a restaurant that has accompanied Macau people for more than 30 years, and has integrated Chinese and Thai culture and cuisine. A lot of focus was put on how to preserve the restaurant’s history and convey the combination of Chinese and Thai culture. In the early stage, I did a lot of data collection on the brand’s background information, traditional Thai food boat noodles and Chinese and Thai culture. I interviewed many relatives and friends to fully comprehend the strong bond between Vah Thai and Macau people from the perspective of different age groups. Regarding the brand logo, I specially designed a font that combines the common features of Chinese and Thai architecture to emphasize the integration of Chinese and Thai cultures. For the auxiliary font, I selected Chinese fonts and Thai fonts that were common in the year when the restaurant was established to express the history of the restaurant. The illustrations are mainly about the restaurant’s signature boat noodles and Macau architecture, and how Vah Thai insists on choosing only fresh ingredients for more than 30 years. It retains the sense of history while continuing the development of the brand in a new form. The graphic design incorporates some graphic layout elements of China and Thailand in the 1980s, including phone numbers presented in Chinese capitals instead of numbers. Based on the cultural and historical background of the restaurant, the brand's visual image has been comprehensively upgraded.

Project Credits
Art director : LAM IEONG KUN
Creative director : LAM IEONG KUN
Illustration : LAM IEONG KUN
Graphic design : LAM IEONG KUN
Photographer : ZERO YOUNG