BEHIND THE SCENES AND DESIGN WORK OF THE NEW LOGO FOR THE 33RD SEA GAMES AND PARA GAMES BY TNOP DESIGN THAT CHANGES THE IMAGE OF THE SPORTS INDUSTRY WITH THE CONCEPT OF ‘PLAY BY THE RULES’
TEXT: WEE VIRAPORN
IMAGE COURTESY OF TNOP DESIGN
(For Thai, press here)
In mid-2024, the organization of the Olympic Games in Paris garnered widespread praise from around the world. One aspect that received particular acclaim, especially within design circles—was the graphic design of the 2024 Paris Olympics. It served as a reminder that graphic design in large-scale sporting events still holds vast potential for creative exploration and innovation, sparking curiosity about what visual surprises future games might unveil.
Later this year, Thailand will host the 33rd SEA Games. For this occasion, the Sports Authority of Thailand held a public competition to design the official logo and mascot. Although the selected winning entries were arguably the best among a large pool of submissions, the public response was mixed. Many questioned whether such critical visual elements should be reduced to just a logo and mascot, arguing instead that these are powerful tools for expressing national vision and projecting a positive image of the country. In this regard, the selected designs were seen by many as falling short.
In response, the Thailand Creative Culture Agency (THACCA) proposed a complete redesign of the logo, mascot, and the graphic system for the 33rd SEA Games. The studio selected for this responsibility was TNOP DESIGN, one of Thailand’s leading graphic design studios, renowned for its extensive list of international accolades.
As soon as TNOP DESIGN unveiled its new logo and mascot for the SEA Games and the ASEAN Para Games, the response was overwhelmingly positive. In fact, a designer from a neighboring country, whom we spoke to at the BITS (Brand Identity and Typography Symposium) earlier this year, expressed deep admiration for the new designs. Beyond their visual appeal, he was especially impressed by the decision of the Thai government to hire professional designers – something that, in his country, would be unthinkable. There, design competitions are still the norm, and winning entries often reflect outdated tastes of the judging panels. He hoped that TNOP DESIGN’s work would inspire the authorities in his country to recognize the value of commissioning professionals, leading not only to better outcomes and greater national prestige, but also to more sustainable growth for the local design industry.
This prompted us to reach out to Tnop Wangsillapakun, founder of TNOP DESIGN, to learn more about the conceptual thinking and creative process behind this body of work. We also wanted to explore a larger question: can design truly serve as a form of soft power for Thailand?
art4d: What made you decide to take on this project?
Tnop Wangsillapakun: Design in the realm of sports has been gaining increasing attention, largely due to the momentum created by the Paris Olympics. We were one of several studios nominated during a meeting held by THACCA or the National Soft Power Development Committee (Design Division). Once we were selected, the main reason I accepted the project was that this might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me to work on something of this nature. Thailand doesn’t host the SEA Games very often, and it’s unlikely we’ll be hosting the Asian Games or the Olympics anytime soon. Personally, I’ve had a deep connection with the SEA Games ever since Thailand hosted the 13th edition back in 1985. As a child, I saw it as a grand sporting event, and I felt immensely proud. I remember the commemorative stamp collections, coins, and various memorabilia that came out at the time. But that feeling has faded over the years. This project felt like a rare chance to rekindle that sense of pride and wonder.
art4d: One of the key challenges of this project was to showcase Thai design as a form of soft power. What is your perspective on soft power?
TW: To me, soft power is when ‘you simply remain true to yourself, and others look at you with admiration—they want to be like you.’ But it doesn’t stop at other nations being envious of our beautiful design work. We also need to show that Thai graphic designers can produce work at a world-class standard and live well, receiving the societal recognition they deserve. Only then will it become a way of life that other countries might genuinely want to emulate. From my experience working abroad and collaborating with international clients, I’ve found that designers are treated with far more respect overseas than they are in Thailand.
art4d: In what way do you hope this project will help raise the standards of Thailand’s graphic design industry?
TW: We worked on this project with a very limited budget and tight timeline, so we had to be extremely strict about licensing and rights retention, ensuring that the design ownership stayed in the hands of the designer. One thing I’ve consistently advocated for is shifting the mindset of clients: hiring a graphic designer is not simply a transaction where files are delivered and that’s the end of it. Clients often assume they can do whatever they want with the final design, passing it on to others, and reusing it endlessly. But in reality, the usage rights should be strictly limited to what was agreed upon in the original contract. For events like sporting competitions or festivals, the rights holders often take a logo and turn it into merchandise or license it for commercial use, generating substantial revenue. Designers should benefit from that value as well.
In other countries, designers who work on major sporting events are given budgets that cover the full scope of applications. In Thailand, though, most of the time there’s only a small budget for a logo competition, and the rest gets outsourced to others. How can you maintain quality that way? For this project, we ensured that the usage rights for the logo and mascot were clearly defined. We’re not involved in the production of merchandise, and any additional designs or ideas beyond the logo and mascot that we propose are intended as guidelines – not something to be used freely.
art4d: So does that mean what we’ve seen on TNOP DESIGN’s social media may not actually appear in the SEA Games itself?
TW: What we’ve proposed are ‘guidelines and possibilities.’ We’ve been trying to push beyond just the logo and mascot to include fonts, identity systems, and pictograms as well—even though those fell outside the scope of the budget, which only covered the logo and mascot (as per the agreement, the rights are still with the designer, although we’re currently in the process of transferring usage rights). The point is, visual identity design for a major sporting event doesn’t always have to begin with a logo and a mascot.
art4d: What was your starting point for this project, and how did the concept ‘Play by the Rules’ come about?
TW: We began by surveying public perception of the SEA Games. What we found was that while people once saw it as a prestigious event, it has recently come to feel more like a regional competition, often marred by questionable judging and a lack of transparency. So we wanted to flip that perception on its head; to use this opportunity to establish a new standard. We hoped the concept would not only be applied to the visual identity but to the games themselves. The word rules can mean regulations, but it can also mean structural lines, like the framework used in Thai traditional pattern-making. When creating a Thai motif, there’s a precise system of structure and proportion involved, far more intricate than most people realize. We wanted to emphasize that dimension.
Which brings us to a broader question: why haven’t we been able to clearly define what contemporary Thai design actually is? When you look at Dutch or Japanese work, there’s always a sense of continuity – past, present, and future all in dialogue. Take Expo Osaka, for example: it’s building the world’s largest circular timber structure, the Grand Ring (designed by Sou Fujimoto – author’s note). It carries forward traditional Japanese wisdom while managing to be both traditional and modern at once. And there’s no denying: it’s unmistakably Japanese.
In Thailand, what we lack is a continuous evolution from traditional to modern. I tried to trace the designer responsible for the visual identity of the 1985 SEA Games but couldn’t find a name. And personally, I don’t agree with the way ‘Thainess’ is often expressed as something overly ornate, excessively colorful, or comically exaggerated. This prompted an exploration into the core of Thai visual art, leading to the diamond shape, or khao lam tad, symbolizing elegance and balance. By integrating this form with the guiding-line principles of ‘Play by the Rules,’ we crafted a custom typeface from which the logo naturally evolved. In this framework, you can say the logo serves to complement the typeface. It’s the same approach taken with Mexico 68, Lance Wyman’s iconic identity for the Mexico City Olympic Games, which began with a typeface and then extended into the logo and a full set of pictograms. It’s a system where all components speak the same visual language.
art4d: I must admit, when I first saw the SEA Games typeface, Mexico 68 was what came to mind immediately.
TW: That was actually one of the Olympic design case studies we looked at closely while developing the project. We proposed two concepts in total. The other one, which wasn’t selected, was favored by one of the judges because it ‘felt very Southeast Asian.’ But I don’t think we need to confine ourselves to regional definitions. Why not aim for an Olympic standard from the outset? We completed the typeface in both two-line and three-line versions. And in fact, we also designed a full set of pictograms to go with it, but those haven’t been released publicly.
art4d: And what about The Sans, the mascot, was it a conscious decision from the beginning not to make it an animal? I personally really like the flat design version.
TW: We studied a number of Olympic mascot case studies and found that mascots based on graphic forms tend to register more quickly with audiences. Take Waldi, the dachshund from Munich 1972, for example. We wanted to keep things minimal and avoid the direction of overly busy or eccentric mascots. Not using an animal wasn’t something we had planned from the start, but once the Play by the Rules concept came together with its focus on linework and Thai visual traditions, it organically became a mascot in its own right. We explored line-based forms from various elements in Thai culture, like the ‘Pakon’ pattern on the wall boards of traditional Thai houses, ‘Uba’ or a traditional floral tassel or garland strand, woven patterns, Prajam Yam, a traditional Thai decorative motif, the Yee Peng lanterns, and more. All of these gave us something to work with that didn’t require any animal symbolism. We began with a flat design and later explored more dimensional, cartoon-style versions. That pink triangle version ended up being interpreted by many people as a triangular cushion.
The name ‘The Saans’ was chosen to reflect the use of linear frameworks found across all forms of traditional Thai art, which served as the foundation for designing the mascot’s form. However, once the name was released, many misunderstood it as representing the overarching concept for both the logo and the mascot—mistakenly interpreting ‘สาน’ (saans) as a reference to basket weaving, which wasn’t the original intention. (Initially the team came up with two English spellings: The Sans and The Saans, eventually favoring the latter. But during the first press conference, the two versions were accidentally swapped, and The Sans ended up being used publicly. We decided to stick with it, viewing it as a distinctive and more memorable proper name.)
art4d: When we first reached out to request this interview, you asked us to wait until the design for the Para Games was launched. Is there something about it that you were particularly keen to share?
TW: Typically, the SEA Games and the Para Games should be designed in parallel, but in our case, we were brought on to do the Para Games identity later due to budget issues—the funding didn’t come through at the same time (laughs).
I really like the mascot for the Paris Paralympics with a prosthetic leg. And I’ve always loved Petra, the mascot from Barcelona ’92, who had no arms. That was a bold move at the time, completely unconventional. So when it came time to design two additional characters to join The Sans, we gave the purple one a prosthetic arm, while the orange one has heterochromia. You can see that one eye is a different color from the other.
As for the logo, we carried the conceptual continuity from the SEA Games but also introduced a new layer of meaning. Para athletes are not just competing against others; they’re constantly pushing against their own limits. At first glance, the logo appears to show three flags in a row, which can be read as symbols of victory. But if you look more closely, you’ll see that the triangular forms are asymmetrical, which is the reflection the physical diversity of the athletes.
We wanted both logos, the SEA Games and the Para Games, to hold equal weight, to look equally strong and meaningful when placed side by side. At the same time, there are subtle visual ties back to the 1985 SEA Games logo. The intention throughout was to present a new interpretation that respectfully builds on the past.
art4d: What was the most challenging aspect of this project?
TW: It was definitely about challenging certain standards that we felt were flawed and needed fixing. For example, we changed the SEA Games ring color from yellow to red, which is much more visually distinct. Or the ASEAN Para Games logo, which required significant adjustments because its form was distorted and overly detailed. It was time for a major overhaul to make it more suited to contemporary contexts and compatible with various media platforms. But in the end, we couldn’t fully carry out those fixes. Working with government agencies meant presenting our work through multiple rounds and departments, along with handling a lot of paperwork. Still, I’m grateful to THACCA for facilitating the process, understanding our workflow, and helping advocate for copyright protections. As for how the graphic system we developed will be implemented, I really hope the team taking over will carry the work forward with the same care and attention to quality.
