Noi Noi’s Pi Mai Lao
Laos is a small landlocked country within South East Asia bordered by Thailand, China, and Vietnam. Not many people know about this humble and unique country so I hope to share a bit of my culture through a children’s book depicting our New Year’s traditions.
Noi Noi is a young child who often visits temples with her grandmother. On this particular visit to the temple, it is the start of the Pi Mai festival, or Lao New Year. Join Noi Noi as she experiences Pi Mai Lao with her grandmother and hears the legend behind the celebration.
Design Process
Empathize
Before diving into the project's creation phase, I wanted to ensure that I conveyed my culture accurately rather than just with my perspective. Through my own experience of Lao culture, there are still some questions that I have about how our traditions arose and why we do things a certain way. Growing up, and even today, I had a hard time explaining my culture and why we hold pageants every year other than to raise money. To fill in those gaps, I researched our traditions and spoke with family members from Laos to make sure the book reflected more than just my own experience of the culture.
Define
After gathering that information, I became more self-aware about how some Laotian American children do not have an understanding of their culture and just accept things as-is. My goal with this book is to create a resource to introduce and educate children about Lao culture by focusing on our most celebrated holiday, Lao New Year or Pi Mai Lao. The target audience is children ages ten and older, regardless of cultural background — this book is meant to be a window into Lao culture for anyone curious about it.
Ideation: Context
Children are more receptive than adults to learning through story — so I created a children's book that teaches Lao culture through rhythm and rhyme. Rather than presenting information directly, I wanted to make it something a child would want to return to. That's where Noi Noi came in: a relatable character to guide young readers through the world of the book.
Ideation: Visuals
After several revisions and critiques of the text, I moved on to the visual aspect of the book, character design, and color palette. I started by sketching out how I wanted Noi Noi and her grandmother to look and then came up with a contrasting color palette. To emphasize Noi Noi’s youthful appearance, I made her have a soft, rounded figure with big eyes. In contrast, her grandmother was slim with narrow eyes.
In terms of color palette, I gave Noi Noi more pastels than her grandmother’s darker colors which are also muted. Rather than choose vibrant colors, I decided on muted tones because I wanted them to be more warming to the eyes rather than striking. After developing my two main characters, I went on to do sketches of pages. I was assisted by Gina Rattanakone, a close friend who also shares my Lao heritage. Gina contributed five page skeletons and helped with background art for three page spreads.
Sketches
Test
After presenting the book's pages, the feedback that I received was that Noi Noi’s grandmother’s face tended to shift and not be consistent. Some pages were more detailed in the coloring than others in lighting. Overall, the style was consistent, but only in some areas was there room for improvement.
Reflection
After working on this project, I realized how much work goes into a children's book with many detailed images. Though I aimed for a simplistic style, it sometimes felt flat rather than aesthetically pleasing. I also learned more about my culture in the process — the annual pageant reflects the legend of Pi Mai and a king with seven daughters. It created a deeper connection to my heritage while showcasing my growth as an artist through a piece that captures a bit of my childhood with my grandmother.