“Communication Design is the study of design in a commercial way,” explains Tah, who graduated in the subject from Bangkok University, with a minor in Fine Art.
Tu, meanwhile, majored in more traditional Fine Art at Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. “I studied about every kind of drawing and painting. I also learned about colour, equipment and technique.”
Referencing the ever-present rivalry that affects siblings, let alone twin brothers, Tu says that people from his faculty tended to do work based on their ideas, but that Tah's work was always aimed at a particular market.
Living in the capital city took its toll on the brothers however, and so a few years ago they moved back to Phuket to see if they could make it in the artistic world, both commercially and artistically.
“The first piece of art we did was at Fu Bar [in Phuket Town's Indy Market] and the next one was at the Comics Bar [on Phang Nga Rd],” says Tu.
“At Comics, although we were hired to paint the cartoons by order, we also asked the owner if we could add our own characters.”
“We both think that when somebody wants us to do art work for them, that means they like our style, so we will do it in our style not completely by order,” adds Tu.
As the finished Comics Bar mural shows, much of the brothers’ work is inspired by street art.
“First, there was graffiti which used only colour sprays. The next age was 'street art', which means using all the equipment and techniques at your disposal,” explains Tah.
“We cannot say that we have completely created our own style because the techniques were created by artists from ages ago,” he says.
“But even though they may repeat the work, there will always be a difference in our art.”
Unfortunately nowadays, the twin artists can only make street art in their free time, which owing to full time work commitments, isn’t very much.
Tu is an art teacher at Anubarn Phuket School, while Tah works as a graphic designer.
As well as murals, paintings and graphic design, the brothers spend their free time designing T-shirts, which they initially did for fun, but which has become quite a successful online business.
“A few years ago, during Vegetarian Festival, we decided to design our own white T shirts, and there was basically word to mouth advertisement about the shirts, so we started to sell them online,” says Tu.
So what next for the enterprising brothers? Tu dreams of one day having his own gallery where he can hang his artwork, while Tah wants to “walk his own way” and design things under his own brand.
One thing's for sure, the brothers gonna work it out.