Last night’s portfolio presentation wrapped up the spring 2014 semester. Instead of doing an independent study for one credit, I opted in for a forth seminar. The focus on analog type turned out to fun even though I am horrible with doing crafts with my hands. The projects were somewhat challenging, but they gave me an opportunity to play. I had a blast handcrafting types.

The 4-credit Professional Design Practices turned out to be very useful. The class helped me improve my presentation skills. I am now more confidence in talking and showing my work to a small crowd. We also had lectures came to teach us speaking skills, inform us about the industry and share their experience in the work force. The professor was encouraging and sharing.

The workload was not so bad. Even though I enjoyed the classes, I am ready for the summer. We already have a few vacation spots planned. I can’t wait to spend time with my lovely girl and boys and catching up on readings.

This is a portfolio presentation for my final project in a class on professional design practices. I was not interviewed a for job at Big Spaceship.

Thank you for the opportunity to present my work. I have been a huge fan of Big Spaceship many years ago when Michael, the founder, came to Vassar to speak about his projects at the agency. I knew I wanted to work here one day.

To begin, I would like to share a fun app based on a project called Sketches of Miles. The intention of the app is to let users create their own artwork based on Miles Davis’s records. The app featured a straightforward, intuitive interface to let users play and share their sketches of Miles.

Vietjazz is a recording company I created for a branding class. The concept was to connect Vietnamese ballad with jazz. I designed the logo, stationery, and applications. I also developed a responsive web site for the brand guidelines.

For the movie poster, the goal was to redesign an existing piece using type and then redesign it again in the opposite genre. I selected Donnie Darko, which is a horror film. For the horror version, I chose Trajan Pro for its sharp serifs. For the comedy version, I chose the cherish Cooper Black.

The film ratings system is a redesign project to improve the visual information of the five major ratings. The new system uses visual progression to give viewers clear indication of each rating. I chose Adrian Frutiger’s Univers for its simplicity and legibility.

For motion design, I am interested in the storytelling aspect of it. Go the Fuck to Sleep is a story that I could relate to as a father of two toddlers. After hearing Samuel L. Jackson reading the story, I had to create a typographic motion piece based on his narration.

“Please Give Me” is a personal piece for me. Back when my wife and I were still dating, she sent me an article that talked about how the victims of Agent Orange, especially children, were forgotten. After reading the article, I wanted to create something to raise awareness of the forgotten victims. I reached out to photographer Justin Maxon, whose photos were featured in the article, to see if he would let me use his work to create a slideshow. He sent me a handful of hi-res images for me to use. For the music, I chose a particular singer not only because her emotional vocals, but because of her background. She grew up poor and has a facial disfigured because her family couldn’t effort the proper treatment. When she sang this song, I could feel that was living it. Let me give you a short translation of the lyrics:

Please give me mother’s embracing arms
Please let me hear the joyful sound of children’s footsteps
Please let my country has a peaceful sleep
I’ll love you from that moment on.
Please let me come back in one body
To let me hear nature’s songs
Please let me forget imprisonment
To let me be the bitter wine
Please give me the whole life
So one day when a child sings in his cradle
Please, just give me one day.

The last project for this year’s graduate seminar is designing a series of three posters. Purpose for the posters could be informative, educational, political, social or decorative. Posters needs to work together individually and as a group to make a graphical statement. Computer typesetting and images could be used, but the typographical focal point must be created by hand.

After giving the project some thoughts, I wanted to do something fun. I picked phrases that Dao and Dan had said in the past to use for the posters. The three I picked are quite hilarious.

“Daddy, dump fuck.”

While we were driving one day, Dan said to me real loud, “Daddy, dump fuck.” I was shocked so I asked him, “What did you just call me?” He replied, “Dump fuck” and pointed me to the dump truck. My execution was to take pictures of the dump truck toys and used Photoshop to place the toys together by hand to form the word “Fuck.”

“Daddy, I am allergic to your singing.”

We were driving home from daycare and I hit a pretty terrible falsetto just to tease him and he gave such an idiosyncratic respond: “Daddy, I am allergic to your singing.” My execute was to draw musical notes in Illustrator and place them together by hand to form the word “singing.”

“Daddy look, it’s my tadpole.”

I still can’t figure out where Dan got the association from. I was about to give him a bath. As I put the water in the bathtub and put him in, he said to me, “Daddy look, it’s my tadpole.” Then he grabbed his penis. I asked him again, “Your what?” He replied, “Tadpole.” I laughed my ass off in silent.

This seminar has been fun. Creating analog type was much more pleasure than I thought. Special thanks to my wife for assisting me on a few pieces. She’s much more craftier than I am and she is so good at mounting.

For my video résumé, a graduate project in my class on professional design practices, I knew from the start that I would not appear in front of the camera talking about my résumé or my work. I took the professor’s advice to create something that I am passionate about to give potential employer my personality. My passion is for web design and typography; therefore, I created a short typographic motion to show why I love the web and why now’s the time for an exciting transformation to be a web designer. I used FreightSans, a strong, bold sans-serif typeface, to tie the video into my personal brand.

For the musical score, I sampled a clip from Charlie Parker’s “Now’s the Time.” The tune was written in the mid 40s when jazz was dominated by white swing band including Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw and Jimmy Dorsey. Parker wanted to take jazz back to Black American; therefore, he and Dizzy Gillespie started the bebop moment. Bebop required virtuosity and the ability to play furious speed. “Now’s the Time” is one of the pieces that marked the transformation from jazz dance club to the street. I wanted to use that transformational vibe to show “Now’s the Time” to be a web designer as typography is making its into the web.

For the leave behind project for my class on professional design practices, I created a six-panel accordion to be given out after a job interview. I wanted my perspective employer to know that I care about typography and that I pay attention to the type world. The front side of the piece has my contact information, a bit about myself and the title panel that reads: Jan Tschichold’s Typographic Rules. On the interior side, I listed out the six rules Tschichold has created. Because I wanted this piece to be simple, easy to produce and convenience to give out, I based the panel on the size of the business card. The final product ended up looking like my business card, but has some extra typographic information. If I would go to a real job interview, I would make this pieces ahead of time and give them out the interviewers instead of my business card. Killing two birds with one stone.

One of the challenges of working on the portfolio project [for my class on professional design practices] were choosing the works I would like to showcase. Instead of picking out 6 to 8 random pieces, I wanted to focus on a specific audience. After doing some research, I want to cater my portfolio for an interactive agency I had wanted to work at. Based in New York, Big Spaceship worked with clients in the entertainment industry including HBO, 20th Fox Century, Miramax and Ken Burns. In this portfolio project, I have carefully selected the pieces that show a variety of range, but still related to entertainment.

Sketches of Miles App

A prototype of a tablet app that would allow users (Miles Davis’s fans) to create their own sketches of Miles based on the records that they love. The app is straightforward with intuitive user interface to let users play around on their tablet. They could change the texts, draw their own sketches or import photos into the app. They could share their work with other fans as well as social media networks.

Vietjazz Brand Guidelines

Vietjazz is a recording company that connects and advances the two distinctive musical forces: Vietnamese music and jazz. I came up with the concept as music lover of both sides and wanted to married them into one. I designed the logo, stationery, applications (web site, app and album cover). I developed the responsive web site and all of its contents to provide the simplest standards and guidelines for the consistent use of the Vietjazz visual identity.

Go the Fuck to Sleep

As a father of two boys, I could related to Adam Mansbach’s Go the Fuck to Sleep. The inspiration came from Samuel L. Jackson’s narration of the book. I chose a straightforward san serif typeface to match up with Jackson’s expressive voice. The project turned to be a fun, experimental typography in motion.

Ao Dai Trang A Oi

Ao Trang is a non-profit organization that puts out a calendar each year featuring stunning photography of Vietnamese traditional white dress. In the past years, Ao Trang has donated over $136,000 to aid orphanages in Vietnam through direct delivery of practical supplies. The creative team at Ao Trang commissioned me to do a motion slideshow to showcase its photography. After browsing through its collection, which featured pure, modern Vietnamese’s beauty of the traditional white dress, I chose a musical piece that has the fusion of Vietnamese folk poetry and ambient futuristic sound. The combination of the images and musical score produced an organic, rich, and lyrical presentation.

Please Give Me

A special collaboration with photographer Justin Maxon to raise awareness of the victims of Agent Orange. The inspiration came from Thuy Tien’s soul-searching rendition of Trinh Cong Son’s “Xin Cho Toi.” The solo piano accompanying the painful but hopeful vocals sets the right tone for the message.

Film Rating Redesign

A graduate assignment to redesign the look and feel of the film rating system. The content, which based on MPAA rating system, stays the same. My job was to improve the visual information of the five major ratings: G, PG, PG-13, R and NC-17. The new system uses visual progression to give viewers clear indication of each rating. I chose Adrian Frutiger’s Univers for its legibility.

The third assignment for our graduate seminar was to integrate handmade type with a location. The environment can be private or public and any size. My initial concept was to create the word “Law” out of law books in the library, but the class didn’t seem impressed. So I changed the environment to my home office, in which I housed a dozen of books on typography. With the help of the books, I created the word TYPE out of matting board as a display on my table where I work. The project turned out well and the class liked the concept better.

I refreshed my business card for my graduate course on professional design practices. I wanted to go into the Swiss direction because I have been doing a bit of reading about it. I submitted several conventional versions and threw in this one to see if it stood out. The professor liked it and I did as well. I always loved playing with big and tall typeface; therefore, League Gothic was a perfect choice for the name. As much as I wanted to stick with the same typeface for the entire card, League Gothic didn’t work well at small size; therefore, I substitute Univers for the rest of the information. I am going to print out about 100 copies and keep them for bookmarks. Who uses printed business card nowadays.

Hi, I am Donny and I run a small web studio called Visualgui.com.

Five years ago, a fiction writer named Kristin Bair O’Keeffe contacted me and asked if I would be interested in creating a web site to promote her upcoming first novel titled Thirsty. I jumped to the opportunity because it sounded like a fantastic project.

Before I even started to think about the design, I asked Kristin if I could read the novel first. She sent me the entire unedited manuscript. I read the whole book and it gave me everything I needed to design the site.

The story is about a Croatian woman who fell in love with an American. After they got married, she migrated to a steel town in Pittsburg where her husband lived and worked. He turned out to an abusive husband. It’s a dark, powerful and hopeful novel and I wanted to convey those elements right on the homepage.

Out of all if the images Kristin sent me, I chose the steel plant for the background. For the title of the book, I selected Baskerville, which is a transitional typeface to signify the woman’s transition from Croatia to America. The image of the butterfly, which suggested hope, was used throughout the book; therefore, I incorporated it into the design as well. For the secondary pages, I kept the dark header, but reverted the main content area to white for readability.

I mocked up a homepage, a secondary page and shared with Kristin my design process and she loved it immediately.

One of the things that I loved working with Kristin was that she cared deeply about her content. She had almost everything together before she even contacted me.

Once we launched the site, she asked me if I wanted to make a trailer for the book. With the storyboard she wrote and a musical score her friend created, I put together a short clip using Flash.

In a coincidence, her second novel, The Art of Floating, is also released today and she contacted me several months ago to create and landing page for it. I gave the page a responsive design to be displayed on multiple devices. Go check it out and get the book.

The ads for Simplexpression were produced for my graduate seminar project. The assignment was to create an integrative design of handcrafted types and digital components. The challenge was to gather the beads as well as the jewelry pieces that my wife had made and made them into letters. The arrangement alone took hours. Once I came up with the words using beads, I took photos of them and brought them into Photoshop to integrate digital typefaces. It was a fun project and well-received in class.