I have always wanted to do a motion piece for my mother, but I haven’t found the right song do pull it together. “Long Me” was obviously my first choice, but that song is like the national anthem for Vietnamese mothers. I needed something more personal.

A couple weeks ago, Cu Dao got up around three in the morning and didn’t want to go back to sleep. Half asleep, I took him down to the living room trying to get him to close his eyes. I reached for a CD without even looking at the title and it was Ngoc Tu Anh’s Nhin Noi Niem Troi. I have listened to the album a while back and was impressed with her lyricism. That night in particular, “Me, Ngan Doa Hoa Doi,” struck my chord. The opening smooth sax intro turned me off, but Hong Nhung’s heartfelt delivery tuned me in. Cu Dao slept in my arms, but I couldn’t help repeat the song again and again.

The next day, I began to hunt down all of my mom’s photos and started the slideshow. This is very much a personal piece and I just had to work with what I had. I started off incorporating types with images, but the types were distracting so I scrapped the words and just let the photos speak for themselves.

With Mẹ, I just want show my love and appreciation for the sweet lady who brought me into this world and has always been there for me. Love you, ma.

This personal slideshow captures my feelings for my first son. The serious tone of the clip is inspired by Duke’s expressions. He always has a deep-thinking look on his face. Even when he sleeps, he would rest his hand on his cheek as if he’s contemplating.

His vulnerable look on the last slide, in which I held him in my arms, gets me every time. He looks so “tội nghiệp” (I can’t think of an equivalent word in English). The poor thing makes me want to hold him tight and protect him from the real world, yet he’s the reason I am surviving in the real world. How ironic is that? Whenever I get so fed up with everyday crap, the image of him gets me going. It reminds me that the day I have him, there’s no storm I cannot weathered.

The piece is also inspired by Tierney Sutton’s outstanding rendition of “You Are My Sunshine.” She had turned a kid tune into a sweet and gentle ballad. The way she phrases the last bar, “Please don’t take my sunshine away,” is the exact feeling I have for Duke. He is my sunshine and please do not take him away from me.

The past three weeks have been so incredible and I am enjoying every moment with him. Why sleep when I have Duke to accompany me? Insomnia has prepared me well. Hope you enjoy my joy!

My project for Vassar’s Campus Activities has finally launched. The clean, simple design replies on vibrant typography to create a sense of liveliness. A huge thank to Megg for her awesome collaboration.

In addition, Chris revives Drama with his skillful illustration and typographic treatment while Tim brings a fresh new vibe to the English department. Fantastic job, guys!

For the past three weeks Dana and I had worked tirelessly well past midnight to launch our collaborative online jewelry store: Simplexpression.com. While she handcrafted and took photographed each piece, I touched up the images and put the web site together.

With Simplexpression, our goal is to create simple, elegant jewelries that are not only visually attractive, but also comfortable to wear on a daily basis. To reflect on our products, we wanted a clean, classy site with ease of use. The layout lets the products speak for themselves. We also integrated PayPal to handle our transactions for a smooth, secured experience.

Dana is obviously the creative mind behind the works. I am not sure how she comes up with the design, but she always strikes the perfect balance between shapes, colors, tones and textures while still manages to keep the piece simple. The labor goes into each piece is intensive, yet the final product is just stunning.

One of the fun tasks of the project is to come up with the name for each piece. We listen mostly to jazz in our design process. So we figure why not name them after the jazz ladies. All we have to do is matching up each piece with a female jazz artist based on her style and personality. For example, we honored this necklace after Billie Holiday because it shows Billie’s dramatic lifestyle. She was like the brilliant, orange centerpiece that still lid up inside the ring of darkness. We named this piece after Anita O’Day because its rhythm and its flow correspond to her dazzled sense of time and improvising virtuosity.

What makes this project so special to us is that we get to put our skills together as a couple even though we have different career paths. Because this project is a result of love and passion, we make our products affordable so that we could share them with you and hope that you would take pleasure in wearing them as much as we do in crafting them. So head over to Simplexpression.com and check out our small but expanding collection.

The special slideshow dedicated to the children of Agent Orange is finally released. The project, motivated by Dana to help raise awareness of the affects and donation for the victims, actually started back in July but was on hold due to the lack of imageries.

Although Justin Maxon was kind enough to allow me to use his photos, I didn’t have enough to complete the whole song. So I decided to work with what I have. The good thing about working with limitation is that I have to be precise when choosing a musical track to convey the message.

After going through my collection, Thuy Tien’s soul-searching rendition of Trinh Cong Son’s “Xin Cho Toi” stood out. The solo piano accompanying the painful but hopeful vocals sets the right tone for the photos. The lyrics of the entire song do not fit with content, but one particular part is spot on, so I decided just to use that segment.

Even though the clip is short, I am satisfied with the result. It’s concise and straight to the point. The music, the lyrics and the photos fit well together to bring out the message.

I was given an opportunity to redesign tledc.com, Theresa Le’s jewelry designs. Theresa is a good friend who I have met over several bun mam occasions and she gave me complete freedom to rework her site. The only instruction she gave me was to keep it simple and sleek.

After browsing through her extensive gallery, I decided to incorporate her jewelry works into the layout. On the homepage, I wanted to let her artwork speak for itself, and it does so clear and bold against black background. On the secondary pages, I wanted to switch the layout to white for readability and accessibility. I revamped the entire gallery and made it much simpler to navigate. Customers don’t have to click through pages and pages to browse the collection. Everything in on one page and if you want to see the larger photo, you can do so without leaving the page. As of now, Theresa has not added e-commerce feature to her site and she still prefers the good old mailing payment. I have pushed her to go with PayPal, so hopefully we will see that in the near future.

The entire site is structured in XHML and styled in CSS. I kept the markup clean and simple so that Theresa could update the site herself. I also gave her logo a new, refreshing look. The type is set in lowercase with various colors.

So go ahead and take a tour at tledc.com and buy some jewelry before they are gone. As you see, she has sold quite a bit of them. Make sure you read the about page too. I love the way she describes her design process:

I don’t always know the name of the stones. I identify them by their beauty and character. Each stone is unique in its own way, and each is a piece of art. I take my time feeling them with my fingers, my mind filled with images of where they’ve been and how their paths and adventures had brought them into my hands. Sometimes I stare at a rock for hours seeing designs and possibilities. It takes a long time for me to work through each piece, savoring that wonderful feeling of creating something unique. I’m really just bringing out their natural beauty and I make a point to keep my pieces simple and elegant.

Isn’t that beautiful? Thanks Theresa for allowing me to redesign tledc.com. It was quite a pleasure project to work on.

Although I am no longer working for Vassar, the web group keeps me on board for freelance projects. The redesign of the Art Department is my first work after Vassar. The department wants a clean and simple site and so it was delivered just the way it wanted.

While riding the bus to work yesterday, the idea struck. As soon as I arrived into my office, shot an email over to Ao Trang requesting for the photos from the 2008 calendar. Like always, the PR guy was very fast in responding to me (Thanks, you guys rock). The music has been on the back of my mind for quite a while now. I was just waiting for the right images. Without further to say, here is Tinh Hoai Huong.

The fresh new site for the Office for Fellowships and Preprofessioanl Advising kicks off my first design for 2008, but also marks my last work for Vassar. I hope there will be room for freelance project in the future.

The new design for Vassar College Department of Music has rolled out earlier than intended schedule due to the first live webcast of Vassar College Choir on Friday. In addition to designing the look and feel, I had a chance to work on a real project with Cascade Server (Vassar’s newly implemented CMS). My colleague Megg Brown has been a tremendous help with the CMS as well as in making the site possible to go live.