About Lotus Design and Publishing
Lotus Design and Publishing was established by Susan Race, an Australian expatriate living in Bangkok with her husband, in 1990. Susan is an artist and the company gave her a chance to turn her designs into delightful quality greetings, Christmas and New Year cards which she sold at the monthly women's lunches, school fairs and church bizarre. Her designs, especially the comical cartoon "Father Christmas in Bangkok" range, proved popular with the expat ladies who were looking for something unusual to send back to their families and friends.
Shortly after the launch of the company, Susan noticed that although there are many items available to buy in Thailand, no-one had yet produced a quality calendar showing Thailand's beautiful scenery and culture, so she decided to produce one. She contacted a well known Thai photographer Khun Damrong Juntawonsup, and selected 12 of his striking photographs to make the first ever Lotus Thailand Calendar in 1991. Again her new product was a great success with hanging and desktop calendars being bought by the dozen by many to give away as seasonal gifts. Susan expanded the Lotus range to include quality wrapping paper with a Thai theme and gift tags. She also produced a cookery book which was suitable for Thai maids working in expat homes as it included recipes for favourite international dishes, translated into Thai.
Over the years Susan continued to expand the Lotus range and started to sell the products in popular shops and outlets used not only by the foreigners living in Thailand but also by tourists. These retail outlets included Asia Books, Central Department Stores, Bookazine and Villa Supermarkets. Susan continued to run the company until 2006 when she was forced to sell it due to the relocation of her husband's work back to Australia.
The new owners are Angela Stafford, a British expatriate who has lived in Thailand for nearly 12 years and has been an avid fan and customer of the Lotus products (especially the calendars), and Khun Wipa, a Thai national and the owner of a quality printing company which she established over 10 years ago. Their partnership is ideal for the continuance and expansion of the Lotus business. The existing range of cards will be continued and new designs and products will be added featuring the work of popular Thai artist Khun Som whose designs are charming and delightful and certainly compliment the Lotus products produced by Susan.
Lotus Design and Publishing 's support of the Thailand Hill tribes Educational Projects (T.H.E.P.)
One of the strongest motives behind Susan starting the Lotus Company in 1991 was as a means to raise money from the sale of her cards and calendars which she used to finance educational projects to help the Hill tribes people in the north of Thailand. This endeavor soon became the passion of her life and the reason d'etre for the Lotus Company. She travelled regularly to the Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai provinces of Thailand seeking out projects which she could help achieve. These included providing mobile libraries for villages in remote mountainous areas and the rebuilding of school rooms, dormitories and village halls. Some of the needs and projects she discovered required hundreds of thousands of baht which was way beyond the capacity of her small business to finance, so Susan decided to became an 'Ambassador' for the people she grown to love and set about promoting their needs to a wider and very responsive audience; namely the expatriate women's groups she had first sold her products too, such as S.I.L.C. (Samut Prakan International Ladies Club), the British Women's Group, the Australian and New Zealand Women's Group and the St George's Society. She also found a sympathetic ear at many of the embassies in Bangkok. In 1992 she founded the 'Thailand Hill tribes Educational Projects' trust which is still pursuing the goals she set for it. Even after selling the Lotus Company Susan has remained actively involved in the construction of two dormitories in Thailand's northern Chiang Rai province, using the money she received from selling the company to partially finance both projects.
New ownership since 2006
In April 2006 Lotus Design and Publishing was taken over by Angela Stafford and Khun Wipa. Both were impressed with the quality of Susan's designs and felt that they could continue and expand the company. Both ladies had (and still have) existing work commitments; Angela is a Senior Manger at the BNH Hospital responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with the expatriate community, Khun Wipa is the managing director of the Siwat Printing company which she established in 1997. Both had worked together on a number of projects prior to forming their partnership, which included the printing of a monthly magazine, "The Banner", for the St George's Society when Angela was the president of the society and editor of the magazine between 2001 and 2005. Angela, as mentioned above, had known Susan for many years and had supported her charity projects by requesting the St George's Society committee to approve the donation of funds to the T.H.E.P. projects, which they did on many occasions.
Under the new ownership, the Lotus Company has continued to produce the existing product range and plans to introduce a new range of cartoon Christmas cards, designed by the popular Thai artist Khun Som, later this year. The 2007 Thailand calendar was as beautiful as in previous years featuring a set of enchanting photographs of Thailand captured by the same photographer used over the years, Khun Damrong. The 2008 calendar is already in the proof stage and will be available for ordering towards the end of June - it's fans will not be disappointed!
Lotus Design and Publishing's continued support of Thai Charities
The new owners of the Lotus Company have pledged to maintain an association with Thai charities and have promised to give a percentage of the profits made through the sale of the Lotus Thailand calendars to the "People Eye Care Foundation" which Angela has been involved with as a volunteer and fund raiser for over 8 years. Details of this charity and how Lotus Design supports it, can be found in our People Eye Care Foundation Page.