Seine Kongruangkit is a 26-year-old up-and-coming Berlin-based art director who has taken the world by storm with her Netflix: The Spoiler billboard ad campaign. Now, as guest art director for DADDY Magazine, Kongruangkit talks about her viral ad campaign, her journey to success, her hopes for the LGBTQI+ community, and her future in Miami.

If you saw the posts about the billboard campaign containing spoilers from Netflix series like Stranger Things and Love is Blind all over the internet at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, then you must have come across the name of this Thai-born, Berlin-based art director Seine Kongruangkit. What started as a school project went viral and landed the young art director several prestigious awards, including Clios and Andy awards.

The idea came when the art director returned to her home country Thailand during her school break from Miami Ad School in Hamburg, Germany. She noticed that the Thai government wasn’t doing a good job at curbing the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Kongruangkit then brainstormed with her copywriting partner Matithorn Prachuabmoh Chaimoungkalo and did what they do best, which was coming up with a creative idea. The most effective way to stop the spread of the virus at the time was staying at home. So the two came up with an advertising campaign to put the spoilers of everyone’s favorite Netflix shows on the billboards outdoor to prevent people from going out. Because that’s what people in our generation were afraid of most.

The pair then posted the ad campaign, which was only intended to be a school project, on Ads of the world, and soon realized it had gone viral. “After the writer from Forbes and Dazed contacted me and my partner after we posted our campaign on Ads of the world, that’s when we realized it had gone viral. Then, it was like interviews back to back. Almost the whole week. After that, I got job offers from some advertising agencies, and yeah, the rest is history,” laughs Kongruangkit. After graduating from the famous ad school, Kongruangkit didn’t lose any speed. She immediately accepted a job offer from an advertising agency Innocean Berlin.

Being queer herself, Kongruangkit also makes sure that her crafts contribute to the LGBTQI+ community. “For me, I always try my best and make sure that the work I do or the things that I say always mention or talk about the underrepresented, and never forget who I am. When there’s an opportunity for me to talk about it or raise awareness, I’ll do it. I also try to create works that empower these people,” says Kongruangkit. One of the projects she has done was ‘Seine Kongruangkit X Urban Outfitters Berlin Pride 2020.’ Due to the pandemic, all pride parades in Berlin had been canceled, but Kongruangkit wanted to remind people that there is still pride to celebrate every day. So she created a sound installation at the Urban Outfitters store in Kurfürstendamm. The installation let visitors enter her imagined event that was inspired by the characteristics of love and fun at pride parades.

DADDY Magazine: The Dreams Issue — *DADDY Magazine:* The Dreams Issue

For her latest project, Kongruangkit got invited to work as a guest art director for a Berlin-based publication DADDY Magazine, which is known for its focus on amplifying the voices and anecdotes of those underrepresented in the mainstream media. For the latest issue, “The Dreams Issue,” Kongruangkit designed the magazine’s layout. The founder, Kemi Fatoba, encourages all the contributors and writers in this issue to explore what dreaming means to them. Kongruangkit read through all the pieces that the writer had written, thought about what they meant to her and the writer, then designed the layout.

As for her future plans, Kongruangkit just got a new, exciting job, and she will be joining a globally renowned digital design and communications agency called AKQA in Miami. “It is a big move, so I haven’t really planned much because I really don’t know what to expect. I just want to keep doing what I love doing and make good work that inspires and empowers people, especially Asians, people of color, and those in the LGBTQI+ community.”

All images courtesy of Seine Kongruangkit

Art director to watch: Seine Kongruangkit

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