👋🏼 Hello, I’m Som.
Currently, I am a senior product designer at Salesforce for the AI and Data Cloud Team.
I am a designer and illustrator from Bangkok, currently in NYC. My name means orange in Thai, both the fruit and the color. I strive to design thoughtful experiences that inspire and delight my users and create illustrations that tell human stories. When I’m not designing or drawing, you can find me in the studio working on my pointe work, making art, bookbinding, or knitting.
Interviews
Girl Club Asia: On female Asian representation in the design and art space ↗.
Chat with me about…
🩰 Ballet
By ballet standards, I started incredibly late at 13. However, since I had no plans on becoming a professional, it’s just become my defining hobby. During COVID-19 lockdown, I continued to take ballet and pointe classes by using my kitchen counter as a barre.
🎉 Planning Events
To be frank, I just love planning. However, there is something incredibly special about bringing people together and having a grand ole time. Events I have planned include a scavenger hunt at the Met, Harry Potter Trivia Night, NYTimes Crossword tournament, and Field Day.
🏫 Teaching Design
I only got started in design because of the amazing mentors who helped me along the way. I have taught many design workshops and used to do it as a job as a Design Lab Coordinator at NYU Makerspace. Reach out to me if you're looking for someone to teach a workshop or give a talk!
🐶 Dogs
In fourth grade, I memorized the entire breed catalog of the American Kennel Club. Though I am not as versed in my breed identifying skills nowadays, I still love all dogs and volunteered my time at animal shelters. I have an album on my phone of just dogs I see on the NYC subway, lol.
📚 Bookbinding & Fanfiction
My love for bookbinding is feral and uncompromising — a hands-on craft that turns fleeting fandom into something tangible and lasting. Bookbinding feels like an umbrella of so many things I love to do: art, reading, storytelling, and working with my hands. I bind mostly fanfiction because, for me, it’s the only legal path to a physical copy: a quiet act of preservation that honors the original creators and the communities that write and read beyond commercial channels.
I believe fanfiction should remain free and accessible — a space for experimentation, connection, and communal storytelling that thrives outside paywalls and proprietary control. While some mass market books today can be compared to Mcdonalds, every piece of fanfiction is a home-cooked meal.
Bookbinding is an intentional rejection of mass-produced, algorithm-driven output. The work is slow, human, and imperfect by design — a counterpoint to synthetic replicas churned out by AI. I refuse to let generative systems erase the labor, voice, and originality of human creators. Binding by hand restores agency to the makers and to the readers, reaffirming that art is a human act, not a product of models optimized for profit.
🧶 Knitting
I have fully become a grandma and fell in love with knitting over the era of COVID. The times I can bundle up on my couch and turn yarn into fabric is some of my happiest moments. I am like a babushka in her chick leg house. I have strong opinions in materials and bind-off techniques. No, I will not knit you a sweater. It will cost me $250 in yarn and 4 months of my life.
🎧 Podcasts
I listen to an episode of a podcast every day. I find it the best way to stay consistently informed and entertained. Here is a shortlist of my favorite podcasts: 99% Invisible, The Daily, and You’re Dead to Me. (Note 2026: I’m still on my Heated Rivalry train).