Featuring in People and Blog
Every Friday, I looked forward to reading a new edition from Manuel Moreale’s People and Blogs newsletter. I enjoyed discovering a new blog through his interview. For months, I wanted to be featured in the newsletter, but I didn’t want to suggest my own blog. A few weeks ago, I decided to do a mock interview instead. I took Manu’s questions and answered them myself. As I was about to hit the publish button on my own blog, I reached out to Manu to see if he was cool with it. To me surprise, he responded, “It’s totally fine to suggest your own blog and I’m down to feature you.” I was astounded and I was so glad that I didn’t hit that publish button. My mock interview turned into a reality. You can read the interview on People and Blogs or below, which I want to keep for posterity.
P&B: Donny Trương
This is the 75th edition of People and Blogs, the series where I ask interesting people to talk about themselves and their blogs. Today we have Donny Trương and his blog, visualgui.com
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Let’s start from the basics: Can you introduce yourself?
My name is Donny Trương. I am a web designer. I still write HTML and CSS by hand. I haven’t used frameworks because I haven’t found the need for them.
I have a BA in digital arts & multimedia design and an MA in graphic design. For my independent study in grad school, I wrote Professional Web Typography and published it as a web book. For my final thesis, I wrote Vietnamese Typography and also published it online for free access.
Vietnamese Typography has become an essential reading for type designers who would like to support the Vietnamese language for their typefaces. The web book has also led me to become a type advisor, in which I work with type designers around the world to help them with their Vietnamese diacritics for their typefaces.
In recent years, I have become obsessed with skiing and snowboarding. I skied for four seasons and snowboarded for two. This winter, I became a snowboard instructor. I am teaching beginner group lessons. When I first learned snowboarding, I fell a lot. My goal is to help people fall less and enjoy riding more.
I live in Fairfax, Virginia with my lovely wife and our four boys. I enjoy blogging, reading, rollerblading, ice skating, skiing, and of course, snowboarding.
What’s the story behind your blog?
I started blogging in 2003 to experiment with design, share my thoughts, and improve my writing. English is my second language and I wanted to communicate better through words. When I came to the US at the age of eleven, I didn’t know a word of English and I hated writing. I couldn’t put a sentence together.
Even in my college years, I never let anyone, except for the professors, read my papers. I was afraid of being judged. When I started blogging, however, all of my fears went out the window. I didn’t worry about my grammar errors. I didn’t worry about my incomplete sentences. I didn’t care how I sounded on the page. I didn’t care who read my blog. I just wanted to write.
I appreciate the freedom of blogging. I write for no one, but myself. I grew up listening to rap music; therefore, I used lots of curse words in my early blogging. The more I write, however, the less curse words I use. I still use curse words once in a while, but only when it is necessary.
What does your creative process look like when it comes to blogging?
My process is just to write whatever comes to my mind. Whenever I have 15 to 30 minutes, I would sit down and bang out 100 to 300 words. I constantly think about topics to write about in my head. Once I sit in front of my computer, I don’t have to stare at the blank screen and the blinking cursor.
When I am out and about, I jot down my thoughts right on my phone. I write when I stand waiting in line or at the doctor’s office. I use Google Docs so I can quickly transfer my writing from my phone to my laptop.
I give myself no restrictions. I can write one line or ten paragraphs. I want to be as open and as honest as possible in my journal. I share as much as I can without getting in trouble.
Blogging is both pleasure and therapeutic for me. By writing down my thoughts, I no longer need to carry the weight in my head. Writing to release my tension has kept me blogging regularly for over 20 years.
Do you have an ideal creative environment? Do you believe the physical space influences your creativity?
Blogging for myself doesn’t require any creativity. I just need to get the words from my head to the page. I write when I am bored. Even when I am driving on the road for long trips, I write in my head. It makes the driving go faster. Once I have access to my phone or my laptop, I would write down what I was writing in my head; therefore, I don’t necessarily need a physical space. I can write and hit publish anywhere and any time on my phone.
A question for the techie readers: Can you run us through your tech stack?
My blog is powered by WordPress. I design my own theme with just three files: index.php, screenshot.png, and style.css. A modern WordPress theme these days has hundreds of files. I just checked WordPress’s default Twentytwentyfive and it has 253 files. How insane is that?
I redesign and realign my blog several times a year. When I licensed a new typeface, I would want to use it first on my blog. When I found inspiration or got bored with thee current design, I would change it. Although I changed the look and feel quite often, the underneath blogging structure hadn’t changed much since the beginning. If I were forced to move over to Gutenberg, I would be screwed. I wouldn’t know how to create a modern theme.
For hosting, I use a Droplet from DigitalOcean. I use Cloudflare for SSL, basic caching, and security measures.
Given your experience, if you were to start a blog today, would you do anything differently?
WordPress has served me well over 20 years. It has grown significantly as a solid CMS over the years, but I still use it as a blogging platform.
I am deeply concerned about the controversies lately between WordPress and another premium WordPress hosting company. The WordPress founder is going bananas. I am not sure about the future of WordPress.
If I have to do it all over today, I don’t know where to start. I don’t know what platform to choose. I know other CMSes, but they are not a blogging tool out of the box like WordPress.
Financial question: How much does it cost to run your blog? Is it just a cost, or does it generate revenue?
I pay about $250 a year for hosting and domain registration. My blog does not generate any revenue. I tried ads. They didn’t work and I found them distracting the reading experience. I tried custom banner ads, in which I would work with the clients to design them to fit with my design and their message. They didn’t work out.
I am asking for support from readers and that isn’t working either. My blog remains my own hobby.
Time for some recommendations: Any blog you think is worth checking out? And who do you think I should interview next?
Here’s my blogroll. You should interview Mandy Brown next.
Final question: Is there anything you want to share with us?
Check out donnytruong.com. It’s my portfolio site. You can see my works there.
This was the 75th edition of People and Blogs. Hope you enjoyed this interview with Donny. Make sure to follow his blog (RSS) and get in touch with him if you have any questions.