The new WordCamp Asia 2020 Wapuu is on air! The Call for Wapuu  received 16 Wapuu design submissions by 12 designers from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, India, Japan, and Thailand. The organizers voted for the design that best represents the vision of WordCamp Asia 2020. The new Wapuu will be WordCamp Asia 2020 mascot.

So here it is… the new WordCamp Asia 2020 mascot, Tuk-tuk Wapuu!

Tuk Tuk Wapuu

The designer of Tuk Tuk Wapuu of WordCamp Asia 2020 is Chiaki Kouno. She is a Japanese designer who is currently living in Hong Kong. Below is the concept of the Wapuu that she sent with her submission.

Name: Tuk-tuk Wapuu
Concept: Let’s take Tuk-tuk and get together in Bangkok, Asia! Multiple Wapuu representing knowledge sharing, social activities, liveliness are riding Tuk-tuk on the street of the bustling Asian city, Bangkok. The Tuk-tuk is colored with red, a key color of WCAsia to let the blue color of the sphere with the WordPress logo stand out at the same time. I tried to express the image of leap, speed, lightness, and fun.

About Chiaki Kouno

Chiaki Kouno: I’m a Japanese website developer and a marketer. I’ve been living in Hong Kong since 2008. I support companies through developing and promoting their websites (mainly with WordPress) that target Hong Kong and Japan markets.

I am an active participant in WordCamps since 2017 and have participated 10 times in 6 countries, mainly in Asia. I was one of the organizers of WordCamp Ogijima 2018 and WordCamp Hong Kong 2019. I also participated in WordCamp Tokyo in 2019 as one of the speakers.

Chiaki’s Twitter: chiaki_kouno
She will be attending WordCamp Asia 2020, so please feel free to talk to her.

Interview with Chiaki

The organing team interviewed her about the Tuktuk Wapuu!

— What was the inspiration behind this Wapuu?

Chiaki: I wanted to express my personal impressions of Thailand and Asia with Tuk-Tuk. I’ve been to Bangkok twice. I’ve only ridden Tuk-Tuk once. I also took a boat on the Chao Phraya River, but the Tuk-Tuk experience was unique and more impressive. So I decided to try Tuk-Tuk this time. 

— Please tell us more about the design process!

Chiaki: At first, I drew Tuk-Tuk from the front, but it wasn’t interesting, so I changed it to a slightly lower angle. I searched for many pictures of Tuk-Tuk and looked at illustrations and pictures of cars and motorcycles. To create a sense of chaos, I increased the number of Wapuus to three. When I searched up until now, there was no one with 3 Wapuus, so I thought it was a new attempt. As I was drawing a Wapuu on the roof, I thought that the Wapuu had a belly, but I realized that it was slim just by holding a round ball. TukTuk distorts it to give it the feeling of speeding and flaps its ears in the wind to give it a vibrant feel.

— Did you face any challenges or difficulties when designing this Wapuu?

Chiaki: I finished this right before WordCamp Hong Kong, so it was hard.

— Is there anything you would like to share with WordCamp Asia participants?

Chiaki: The three Wapuus also represent diversity. They come from various cities and enjoy the gathering in Bangkok. Let’s enjoy WordCamp, like these Wapuus.

Meet the other Submissions

Below are the rest of the submissions that were sent to WordCamp Asia 2020 Call for Wapuu Designers. All designers have created and submitted great ideas for Wapuu designs!