The Journal is a running record of the work behind the work: the roles, qualifications, and projects that sit underneath the finished case studies shown in the portfolio. Where the portfolio shows the output, The Journal explains how it came about, tracking the roles Best Apisit Uthakhamkong has held, the qualifications he has earned, and the community projects he has led or taken part in along the way, from his earliest design internships through to his current work as a brand and creative producer across New Zealand and Australia.

Career updates make up a large part of what’s covered here. Entries trace his path from a graphic design internship at the New Dunedin Hospital build, through roles at Otago Polytechnic and PGG Wrightson, to his current position as Brand and Content Manager at DIRI, working across New Zealand and Australia and travelling internationally to support the institute’s research partnerships in China, Norway, and Sri Lanka. Each entry sets out what the role actually involved, rather than simply naming a job title, covering the briefs he worked on, the people he worked alongside, and what the role asked of him at the time.

Education sits alongside career in equal measure. The Journal covers his Bachelor of Communication Arts from Bangkok University, his years studying English at the University of Otago Language Centre, and the certificates and Graduate Diploma he completed at Otago Polytechnic, including the awards that came with them. Rather than listing qualifications on their own, each entry explains what the study actually covered and how it fed into the work that followed, treating education as a foundation for the career rather than a separate credential sitting apart from it.

A significant part of The Journal is given over to community work, much of it connected to The Peace Club, the Dunedin charitable trust Best founded in 2018. That thread runs from the club’s earliest days as a small student group through its growth into a registered charitable trust, its documentary series and Art for Peace competitions, and the recognition it brought him, including a shortlisting for the Commonwealth Youth Awards. Alongside The Peace Club, The Journal covers his roles with the Commonwealth Alliance of Young Entrepreneurs Pacific, the Dunedin Midwinter Carnival board, and the 3 Kapu Kawhe mentoring programme, each one a different way of contributing to a community beyond his day to day design work.

What ties these entries together is an emphasis on the actual detail behind each milestone rather than a polished highlight reel. Entries name the people involved, the organisations behind each project, and the outcomes that followed, and where the work involved setbacks, adjustments, or a genuine learning curve, The Journal says so rather than skipping straight to the result. That approach reflects how Best has described his own career: less a straight line and more a series of deliberate steps, each one building on the last, from a design internship in Dunedin to brand and communications work spanning three countries.

The Journal updates as new milestones happen, whether that’s a new role, a completed qualification, or a community project reaching a significant point. Read on its own, each entry stands as a short account of a single moment. Read together, they build a fuller picture of how Best’s design practice, brand thinking, and community commitments have developed over time, and of the people and organisations, from Otago Polytechnic to DIRI to The Peace Club, who have shaped that development along the way.