Thrown into the Deep End
When Arana “Kiwi” Thongmee walked into Bravo BKK, a shopping mall in the center of Bangkok, for the first time, he thought he knew what he was getting into. Thongmee was hired as an intern, a supporting role, learning from the sidelines. But within a week, he found himself stepping into shoes much bigger than expected. The lead graphic designer had resigned, and suddenly, the weight of every banner, flyer, and digital campaign for the entire mall rested on him.
Lessons From BYU–Hawaii and Beyond
Thongmee is a junior from Thailand majoring in visual arts, graphic design concentration, with minors in psychology and entrepreneurship. He chose this path because he believes that design is more than making things look beautiful; it’s about shaping how people feel, think, and connect. “My internship at Bravo BKK allowed me to test those beliefs in the real world,” Thongmee says.
In quick fashion, Thongmee’s role expanded. He created posters, flyers, signage, and social media content for platforms like TikTok and Instagram, sometimes juggling two to three of those projects per week. Along with his responsibilities as a graphic designer, he was also entrusted with managing photography, video editing, and perhaps most daunting of all, the complete redesign of Bravo BKK’s website. “Bravo BKK is a company that runs a mall; they had just switched to a more cost-efficient website platform, and I spent a month learning, experimenting, and building a site that reflected their vision,” he shares. What started as an internship for Thongmee suddenly felt like a full-time job.
Looking back, Thongmee feels grateful for how the classes at BYU–Hawaii prepared him for this role. He highlights Professor Robert McConnell’s Interaction Design class for teaching him the foundations of user experience and user interface. Such skills are required for website design; in this case, it was essential for the work Thongmee was doing. He also recognized how instrumental visual arts seminars were, “The school holds special seminars for visual arts majors, and it is where I absorbed the importance of listening, seeking feedback, and pushing myself beyond what felt 'good enough.’ Those lessons echoed in every project I tackled at Bravo BKK,” he shares.
Thongmee also learned about cultural design. Thai marketing is bold, colorful, and playful, quite different from the more subtle and modest styles he was used to. He struggled at first but eventually learned to blend his training with the unique energy of Thai design. Thongmee believes this stretched him as a creator and gave him a newfound look for cultural expression in art.
Anchored by Values and Family
Thongmee’s days were long but fulfilling. He would wake up early to catch the subway, often arriving 30 minutes before clock-in time so he could gather inspiration. Sometimes, this meant scrolling through Pinterest or watching the people around him and noticing small details like “From the mix of clothes people wear on their way to work to the bright ads on the train, inspiration can be found in every part of the city’s daily life. The changing signs, symbols, and busy scenes all come together to show us something new if we just look around,” shares Thongmee.
Of course, not all challenges were about design. As a returned missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Thongmee carried the values that set him apart in professional settings. “Sometimes, colleagues invited me to activities that clashed with my standards. It wasn’t always easy to decline, but my mission had taught me patience, courage, and obedience. Those Christlike attributes became anchors, reminding me of who I am and what I stand for,” he recalls.
This journey for Thongmee was also a deeply personal one. Shortly after he came to Hawaii, his mother suffered a brainstem stroke and became bedridden. Before she lost consciousness, she asked Thongmee’s father to pray for her so that she would live long enough to see her son graduate and become the man she hoped he would become. “That memory drives me every day. Every project I complete, every step I take toward my career, I do it with her in mind. I want her to see that her hope for me is being fulfilled,” Thongmee shares.
Designing His Future
There's one piece of advice that has been carrying Thongmee through both school and work. His father once shared words of his grandfather, who served as a district president: ‘Don’t come back. Finish what you started.’ “Those words ring in my ears whenever I feel overwhelmed. Life rarely goes the way we plan—sometimes it throws us straight into the deep end—but finishing what we start is how we discover who we really are.” Thongmee shares.
Thongmee believes his internship at Bravo BKK has taught him more than design Skills. It has taught him resilience, adaptability, and, most of all, that when unexpected opportunities come, we must prepare well so we can rise to them. As Thongmee would simply put it, “This wasn’t just an internship. It was the moment I realized I wasn’t just designing posters or websites—I was designing my future.”