Visualgui proudly presents the Annual Fund, our latest site design for Vassar College.

Nhu Mot Loi Chia Xa (Like The Word Good-bye) is my special dedication to a legendary songwriter with more than 600 songs under his credit. While singers produce albums to remember him, I create this Flash piece to pay my respect to the man who had inspired me with his music.

“Nhu Mot Loi Chia Tay” is performed by Tuan Ngoc from his 10 Tinh Khuc Trinh Cong Son album. With Tuan Ngoc’s amazing voice and Duy Cuong’s incredible musical arrangement, “Nhu Mot Loi Chia Tay” is perfect for this tribute. This is my word of goodbye to Trinh Cong Son. I hope you will enjoy it and always remember his name.

For those interested in the meaning of the lyrics, I have found an English translation by Nguyen Vu Thanh.

Like The Word Good-bye (I only used the second half of the song)

Want a time to thank the life
which gives me passion.
Several times lie down, hear laughs
but it’s just dreaming.

Love’s like light, quickly sets at evening
love’s not far but not really near.
Love’s like rock with an endless longing
love is vague, why are we sad

Recalling every night’s whispering
it seems like drunkenness.
A yellow thin flower’s on the horizon
like the word good-bye.

There’s a rose of olden days
dropping next to my life.
A dash of love shoots like a breeze
suddenly I recognize me.

Recalling every night’s whispering
it seems like drunkenness.
A yellow thin flower’s on the horizon
like the word good-bye.

Because of the invaluable feedbacks, I have reworked Tinh Khuc Buon. I focused mainly on Ngoc Lan’s eyes because they show so much sadness and emotion; the key elements I was looking for to convey the message behind the song.

I also reworked the Powerhouse intro to feature the stars – including Lucy Liu – that are coming this summer.

Although Visualgui refers to visual “GUY” and not “G.U.I.,” I wanted to give the Graphical User Interface look and feel as well. Good design is occassionally not what you put in but what you take out; therefore, I went back to the clean and minimal approach. I am obsessed with white space and breathing room.

On the technical aspect, I kept the structure the same. Thanks to CSS, transform existing content to the new design is a piece of cake. Image rollover is the only new addition to the site. I also upgraded to WordPress 1.2. I really like the new editing interface.

What is the motivation for the new redesign? Another Nancy’s Frozen Caramella, another new design. It must have crack in it or something. I am extremely addicted to it. I hate going to the mall but I have to drag my ass in there everyday just for the Frozen Caramella. If you think Starbuck’s Frapuccino is bad, Nancy’s joint is even worse. I finally get off Starweed and now I am picking up Nancy’s crack. Isn’t that horrible? I need to go into rehab or Nancy has to give me some discounts in order for me to stay on her crack. In fact she should give me free crack for advertising it. I can’t afford it anymore. $5.40 is way more than a pack of cigarettes. I don’t smoke but I think it would take a person at least an hour to smoke the whole pack of cigarettes. On the other hand, a large Frozen Caramella takes me less than 15 minutes to sip it all up. I have to get my crack on or else I’ll be shaking. Once I get it, design juice started to flow. As a result, the new Visualgui.com is rebirth.

Just finished working on Dam Vinh Hung’s Giot Nuoc Mat Cho Doi. The motion graphic is inspired my Le Quang’s delightful lyrics and Dam Vinh Hung’s indelible vocal. Special thanks to my cousin Jessica for the high quality photos. Check it out!

Another reason I created this piece was to prove Dam Vinh Hung performance is untouchable. Some actually think that Luong Tung Quang performs Giot Nuoc Mat Cho Doi better than Dam Vinh Hung. No disrespect to anyone’s taste but Dam Vinh Hung has captured the essence of the lyrics and he sings it from the bottom of his heart and soul. There is no way Luong Tung Quang can come close that.

Just launched the redesigned of Vassar’s Women in Science hall of fame featured site. Actually, there is only one page but I felt it is important enough to get careful attention and to look attractive. So check it out! The site validated XHTML 1.0 Strict.

Recoded and redesigned the Registrar‘s little site. Trying to keep it to the minimal yet elegant.

Brought the Urban Studies website up to web standards. I only did the coding; someone else did the design.

Just launched Vassar’s Exploring Transfer web site. It’s clean, simple, table-less, and web standards. As you might have noticed, I haven’t been designing any new site at Vassar because the web team is retrofitting all the existing sites. We are not even half way through because there are about 130 official sites. Exploring Transfer is squeezed in between projects because their 20th anniversary is coming up. Anyway, go check it out while I am getting back on more retrofitting.

VisualGUI is an innovative design studio that combines creativity and simplicity to produce an enjoyable web experience.

What is VisualGUI? There is a double meaning behind it. Obviously, GUI stands for Graphical User Interface. A good interface design is not only intuitive and usable but visually attractive as well. The second meaning is about me. I am a “visual guy” and this site displays a collection of my visual designs, thoughts, and inspirations.

VisualGUI was formerly known as D3 (Donny Digital Design) Studio. D3 was started in 1999 for a class project (Electronic Visual Communication) at La Salle University. Fortunately, the success of the site opened the door to freelance projects. As a result, D3 evolved into the birth of a design studio because of the continuous growing body of work that resolves around it. The purpose of D3studio was to showcase my work only; however, I decided to include my journal in January 2003. The main goal of adding my journal is to release myself and improve my writing skills. It also serves as a stress management. In April 2003, I changed the name to VisualGUI to reflects both my professional works and my personal goals. As a result, VisualGUI is a combination of a portfolio showcase and a personal weblog. I could have created two separate sites but maintaining is a big issue. Keeping one site up to date is hard enough. On top of that, I am currently a full time web designer at Vassar College which takes up a big chunk of my time but I enjoy working with all the wonderful people and talented designers.

I hope you find this site enjoyable. If you are a potential client and would like to check out my works, please ignore my personal weblog. Although I have nothing to hide, my weblog is very personal and it contains all kinds of explicit contents that might give you a wrong impression about my design. However, if you don’t mind my personal thoughts, I encourage you to explore and enjoy both of my worlds. You might figure out why I design the way I do based on my personality.