For the second assignment in professional design practices, I rewrote my entire resume, particularly the descriptions in the experience section. I also focused on the typographic details and settled on two typefaces: Lora and Lato.

For the work portion, I broke down into two separate pages. The work landing page now featured only eight selected projects. I don’t want to overwhelm visitors with everything I have done. The full list page has all the projects I have worked on. This page is more for me than for visitors, but it is available for the public if anyone is interested in the exhausted list.

I also moved some of my past work to Pinterest. Here are the boards: Graphic Design Portfolio, Visualgui past designs, Vassar homepage banner archive and Vassar homepage archive.

Two weeks ago (Feb. 17, 2o14), my Sienna windshield cracked. I called my insurance and the representative connected me with Perfection Glass, which is one of its vendor. We set up the next day for the replacement. The technician was supposed to call me in the morning to tell me what time he would come out.

The next day I heard nothing. Around 3 PM, I called Perfection Glass and the sale rep didn’t seem to have my record on file. After ten minutes verifying my info, she told me that they were waiting for the seal to arrive and they wouldn’t be able to come out in another three days. Why didn’t she called to let me know and let me waited a whole day? She didn’t know and didn’t seem to care.

On Feb. 20, 2014, I called the company in the morning to make sure that someone could come out. My wife was at home and a technician did come out to replace the glass. From what she told me, the technician seemed like a nice guy. The only problem was that there was a scratch on the glass and they made a deal to come back to replace a new one last Thursday.

He called me on the day it was rescheduled, but he never came and never called me back. In the evening I called him and he apologized for being behind so we have to reschedule for yesterday. Unfortunately, the snow was heavy so I didn’t expect him to come out. Now I am not even sure when they’ll come again to replace the glass.

It was such a frustrating experience. One lesson learned: never go with what your insurance company recommend.

Yesterday I received the following email from General Assembly:

Hey,

Just saw that you’re interested in learning more about our Front-End Web Development program. My name is Daniel and I handle Admissions for the FEWD course at General Assembly in Washington, D.C.

I’d love to learn more about your goals and program expectations. When’s a good time for a quick chat?

Cheers,
D

Then I realized that I was about a week ago, I was Googling for some front-end web development training in D.C. I know Google tracks me and all, but sharing my info to a third party is a bit too far. General Assembly has appeared in my Facebook feed as well. I guess this is the price I have to bay for using the Internet.

In his exceptional biography of Louis Armstrong, Terry Teachout pointed out that jazz was in everything that Pops recorded. Even his poppiest hits including “Hello, Dolly!” and “What a Wonderful World,” Pops incorporated jazz elements into them. Pops is an engaging read as Teachout unfolds of the controversy of Armstrong’s “old-fashioned way of mixing high art with low comedy” and the dark side behind his happy face.

Dan: Daddy, you! Get off my face (as I tried to rub Vaseline on his face)
Dan: Daddy, stop before police catch you (as we were driving home)
Dan: Daddy, the fries smell good (in the car).
Dad: When we go home, don’t tell your mom that I gave you fries.
Dao: Why?
Dad: She’ll yell at me.
Dao: Don’t worry. Her voice isn’t that loud.

As we were heading back to Pennsylvania to visit my mom and the billboard read: “Pennsylvania welcomes you.”

Dad: Dao, we’re in Pennsylvania.
Dao: Yes, Pennsylvania looks like a pencil.
Dad: Huh?
Dao: Pencilvania.
Dad: Oh I get it. (LMAO)

Hồ Hoàng Yến is like a bird trapped in Asia’s cage. She can’t escape the production’s unimaginative direction even though she has so much potentials. Her third release, Dù Tình Yêu Đã Mất, is just another cover of ballads with recycled arrangements. From the opening title track to the closing “Yêu,” she interprets these standards like a copy machine. She sings right off the page and never deviates from the melodies. They are not bad by any means. They are just boring. It’s sad to witness such a sensuous of a voice being wasted. Fortunately, it is still not too later for her to break away from Asia and to take on a more challenging moves with her music career. If she keeps heading down this same path, however, she’ll be soon forgotten.

Dan: Donuts! (as we passed Dunkin’ Donuts)
Dad: Not this morning buddy.
Dao: That donut place was not there when I was a baby.
Dad: You’re right. It was built when Dan was a baby.
Dao: Yes. I went to the hospital to see mommy and Dan when he was a baby.
Dad: Do you want another baby brother or sister?
Dao: I want another baby brother.
Dad: You don’t want a baby girl?
Dao: No, I already have a girl?
Dad: Who?
Dao: Mommy!

In his previous Cánh Diều Lạc Phố, Nguyễn Đình Thanh Tâm was under the influence of Tùng Dương. In his new release, Gặp Tôi Mùa Rất Đông, Thanh Tâm has completely stepped out of his idol’s shadow by putting a restrain on his vocals and making pointless dance music that Tùng Dương would never record.

After almost two and a half minutes of an unnecessary intro, the title track, which written by Mew Amazing, begins with an atmospheric backdrop and then progressed into some inaudible rapping. “Nghe Ta Hồi Sinh” (music by Đỗ Hiếu and lyrics by Thanh Tâm) picks up the club beat with annoying ad-lib in the background. Then the catchy “Liêu Trai” (Nguyễn Hải Phong) makes you want to register for a Zumba class. Đỗ Hiếu’s production is infectious.

Still, highlights of the album are the none-dance tracks like the electric excellent “Bóng Tối.” The dark, hunting vibe brings to mind the Chemical Brothers. The second version of the title track is also way better than the first. The orchestration, which includes guitar, zither and strings, is astonishing. With only seven track on the album, Thanh Tâm should have concentrated on electric music instead of dance shit. It’s a missed opportunity.

The first assignment in Professional Design Practices, an advanced studio course on special topics, was a do-over project. After looking at my portfolio, my professor who also taught the branding course last semester suggested that I redo Sketches of Miles. It would give me a chance to finesse the typography. At first I was not thrilled because Sketches of Miles was a side project to teach myself HTML5 and CSS3 a few years ago. The typography was rough because it use design using CSS rather than Photoshop or Illustrator. The do-over project was to take a few sketches and make them into a series of posters.

After spending the weekend thinking deeper into the project, I came up with a different concept. Rather than going from the web back to print, I wanted to go forward to an app, particularly for the iPad. Instead of me making the sketches, I wanted to design an interactive app that would allow Miles’ freaks like myself to create their own sketches.

The app is very straightforward. Once fans downloaded the app, they could sign up using Facebook, Twitter or Google credential. Once they logged in they become the users. On the home screen they could see a gallery of sketches that other fans have created. They also have an option to create their own. I designed a set of very simple user interface to let the users play around on their iPad. They could change the texts, draw their own sketches or import graphics into the app. Once they are done sketching, they could share their work with other fans as well as other social media networks.

The app turned out to be a fun project. After creating the interface for the app, I also created a handful of sketches to show what users can do with the app. With the timeline as well as the scope of the class, which focuses only on design, I only get to do the prototype of the app. Besides, I don’t have the mobile development skills to create a robust app like that. It is definitely a great project to learn iOS programming. Maybe that would be down the line. Still, the prototype is worth checking out.

Teachout’s Duke is an engaging biography of an accomplished composer, renowned bandleader and skillful pianist who loved music, food and women. (Duke referred to himself as a “pussy freak.”) As an admirer of his work, particularly the Ellington effects, I find his composing process, which based on what he heard from his musicians, to be inspiring, but his way of treating women and his collaborators, especially how he took credits from the talented Billy Strayhorn, to be appalling. Then again, it is reassuring to know that even a great genius is deeply flawed just like the rest of us.

On an unrelated note on book design. Setting italic on long block quotes is quite distracting and hard to read.