Ahmad Jamal has been playing the piano for 80 years. At 83, he still swings hard on his new record Saturday Morning with bassist Reginald Veal and drummer Herlin Riley. Whether improvising over Afro-Caribbean rhythms on “Back To The Future” and “One (Ahad)” or weaving together Duke Ellington’s ballads on “I Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good,” he shows no sign of slowing down. With his virtuosic playing on “Edith’s Cake” and “I’m in the Mood for Love,” Jamal proves that his chops and still amazing and that his age ain’t nothing but a number.

Unitea is a fictitious tea company I developed for the final project of my graduate design seminar. The goal was to build a brand with a unique story. The concept behind Unitea is the playoff on the word “unity.” When we gather around drinking tea, we unite. Tea brings people together. In Vietnamese tradition, a marriage between two individual is started with tea. I can still recall the day I served tea to my in-laws to ask them permission to married their daughter.

The story of Unitea is that we’re passionate about pure, organic tea and the inspiration for the company came from our grandfather whose expertise taught us the art of growing and drinking tea. He used tea to serve, connect and unite his community and we want to take that approach in a much larger scale.

For the project, I designed a clean, classy logo using Baskerville typeface with the three leaves on the dot of the letter “i” to signify unity. To build a unique story about our brand, I developed a campaign web site to inform our customers the things that we care most about. The intention of the web site is to highlight the five core principles of our brand: clarity, connectivity, community, charity and creativity. I called them “The Five C’s of Unitea.”

One of the most challenging parts of the project has to be coming up with the writing for each individual component. I had to do quite a bit of research. Even though I am not a great writer, I enjoyed the writing process as much as the design process. Unitea is one of those class projects that turn into a portfolio showcase.

If you’re looking for some soothing instrumental Vietnamese ballads to get you into the holiday spirit, check out Quang Thắng’s Tình Yêu Cuối Đường. He plays some melodic saxophone rendition of familiar tunes including “Bao Giờ Biết Tương Tư” (Phạm Duy), “Anh Còn Nợ Em” (Anh Bằng) and “Trái Tim Bên Lề” (Phạm Khải Tuấn).

If you’re looking for something more innovative, however, this record isn’t it. The main issue here is that Quang Thắng plays every note as perfect as it was written. Even for the jazz rendition of “Phút Cuối,” he never breaks out of Lam Phương’s melodic lines. It’s a missed opportunity not to improvise on such a popular tune. The perfect example would be Coleman Hawkin’s rendition of “Body and Soul.” He didn’t even reinstate the melody because most people knew the ballad.

Another major drawback is the lacking of spontaneity since Quang Thắng played his saxes over pre-arrangements rather than with a live band. You can’t just blow your horn over a recorded rhythm section unless you’re Miles Davis. Even Miles needed talented producers like Marcus Miller to provide him with top-notch arrangements for Tutu.

While “Thuở Ấy Có Em” (Huỳnh Anh) has a wonderful bluesy feel to it, Quang Thắng plays the melody note for note. When I hear this tune, Miles’ advice comes to mind: “Don’t play what’s there; play what’s not there.” Then again, maybe Quang Thắng’s intention is just to make a soothing record.

The new Tình Vẫn Thiết Tha indicates the emancipation of Y Phương. She is free from drowning her soul in Asia’s mechanical, recycled productions. Hearing her sensual voice covering non-Vietnamese standards without Asia arrangements is quite refreshing.

Y Phương is also experimenting with something new in term of getting the record out. Tình Vẫn Thiết Tha is released through digital channels like Amazon and iTunes rather than the traditional distribution, which is quite impressive, but the only issue is that she didn’t put too much effort into the album design. No credits are listed even though the producer had done an outstanding job of keeping the arrangements simple and tasteful, particularly on the bossa-nova flavors like “Bài Ngợi Ca Tình Yêu,” “Ngàn Đời Chờ Mong” and “Yêu Nhau Đi.” Her rendition of “Bài Ngợi Ca Tình Yêu” is the only Vietnamese version that is pretty damn closed to Ngọc Lan’s thanks to the swaying rhythm.

In many ways, this album could also be a tribute to the late great Ngọc Lan. From “Chuyện Tình Yêu,” “Chờ Phone Của Anh,” Yêu Nhau Đi,” “Người Yêu Đã Ra Đi” to “Người Yêu Ơi Giã Từ” are all classics that Ngọc Lan had built her fame on. Y Phương obviously got her inspiration from Ngọc Lan, but she also held her own. In Asia, Y Phương has been known to be a belter, but she has learned to refrain and to lay back. In “Ngàn Đời Chờ Mong” she never pushes beyond her range and only glides up just a tiny bit to give the lyrics a nice touch.

Y Phương caught my ears when she opened Asia 53: Bốn Mùa with Nguyên Khang back in 2007. I knew she has potential, but then she kept on disappointed us with release after release from Asia. It’s about damn time she makes her own record.

Bun B is back in full force. Trill OG: The Epilogue offers 12 concise tracks filled with a handful of compelling productions, some excellent guest spots and a whole lot of aggressiveness from the king of the trill himself. Even when his wordplay is hilarious, “Opinions is like assholes and I don’t like assholes / So stick your opinion in your ass ho,” he doesn’t seem to be amused. Without a doubt, Bun takes his craft very serious and he has issues with “pussy niggas” through the exceptional cuts including “No Competition,” “Gladiator” and “Stop Playin’.” Rap is a competitive sport and he has every reason to go after the studio gangsta: “You born a sucker, die a sucker, yea you get the picture.” Going after women, however, is unnecessary and the filthy, misogynistic rhymes that aren’t even quotable here just make him sound like an asshole that he hates. Other than that, Trill OG is an impressive record.

Over Thanksgiving break, I had a chance to go through two books on grid. Both Grids and Page Layouts by Amy Graver & Ben Jura and 100 Design Principles for Using Grids by Beth Tondreau are filled with great case studies and informative tips, but they don’t delve into the technical details of designing with grid. If you want to dig deep into the technique, start with Khoi Vinh’s excellent Ordering Disorder first before reading these two books for inspiration. The only thing that sticks out like a sore thumb is in Grids and Page Layouts where the quotes aren’t hanging. I don’t mind serif all-cap typeface, but the unhung quotes are unforgiven.

Around this time of the year, one of my favorite things to do is kicking back to Christmas music. Vince Guaraldi Trio’s A Charlie Brown Christmas is the one that I return again and again each Christmas season. That “Linus and Lucy” joint gets me every time. In addition, “Christmas is Coming” and “O Tannenbaum” bring out the holiday spirit in me. This year, the album gets a remastered release, which I am more than excited to revisit this classic. Gosh, I love the trio’s delightful swing. I can listen to this album all the way to 2014, but there are additional Christmas releases this year as well.

A Mary Christmas from Mary J. Blige brings out the soulful vibe from the hip-hop-r-&-b queen, especially “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” and “Mary, Did You Know?” The standout track has to be “Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Who would have imagine that MJB could swing? Not only she could swing, but she could also scat. The track ends with MJB saying, “Man, that was fun.” There is no doubt she was having a blast recording this tune.

While MJB’s take on “My Favorite Things” is tasteful and laid-back, Kelly Clarkson’s swings it up in her new Christmas release titled Wrapped In Red. Clarkson has a few flavors on her Christmas covers and a few exceptional include country blues “Blue Christmas,” jazzy “Baby It’s Cold Outside” (a duet with Ronnie Dunn) and soothing “I’ll Be Home For Christmas.”

Whereas Mary J. Blige’s and Kelly Clarkson’s album are straightforward and jolly, Nick Lowe brings wit and subtlety to his Quality Street: A Seasonal Selection for All the Family. “Christmas at the Airport” brings out the sentiment of traveling during the holidays. The track that has been on repeat for five or six times straight while on the road is “The North Pole Express.” Our two-year-old Dan has been watching The Polar Express the time he wakes up until the night he goes to sleep. Both Dao and Dan love “The North Pole Express.” Every time Dan hears this song, the first thing that comes out of his mouth would be, “All aboard.”

It’s not a coincident that “Silent Night” appears on all three albums. Lowe’s rock, up-tempo rendition is not doing the tune the justice. MJB’s version has the Spanish verse with Marc Anthony and it doesn’t sound quite right either. As much as I appreciate the new flavors on Lowe’s and MJB’s, I still prefer the classic approach from Kelly Clarkson. She just delivers the tune with her big voice backing up by a choir. That alone does the trick.

As for the past Christmas records, I still enjoy the eccentricity of Jingle All The Way from Bela Fleck and The Flecktones, the joyfulness of Christmas with the Puppini Sisters, the tasteful Christmas Songs from Diana Krall, the soothing Jazz Piano Christmas from Beegie Adair Trio and multicultural mixtures of Joy to The World from Pink Martini. Damn, that’s a lot of Christmas records. The good thing is that I have a whole month to enjoy them.

I am obviously not doing well under stress. Between taking care of my mom in the hospital and missing my wife and kids, I have been eating like there’s no tomorrow.

I had fried chicken wings and Alize for three days. Took my mom out to a Thai restaurant to regain her strength. Took my niece and nephew to TGI Fridays and Friendlys and stuffed ourselves with burgers, fries and all the junkie food. I have such a bad influence on them. I’ll get them to excercise once the weather gets nicer.

Now that my mom is recovering and I am about to head back to my wife and kids. This is actually the first time that I am away from them for a week. I need to get back to a healthier diet, but Dan’s birthday and Thanksgiving is coming up. Ok, maybe after Thanksgiving, but then Christmas is coming up. Alright, let’s make it a New Year resolution then. I know I say that every year.

Trần Thái Hoà is apparently very boring. Like many Vietnamese singers, particularly the oversea ones, Trần Thái Hoà has locked himself into a one-dimensional style. He hardly pushes his delivery out of his comfort range, which is quite limit.

What makes his latest release, Quên Đi Tình Yêu Cũ, incredibly dull is that he had chosen a handful of bland ballad including the title track by Trịnh Nam Sơn, “Mùa Đông Sắp Đến” by Đức Huy and “Tình Đã Vụt Bay” by Vũ Tuấn Đức. On top of his song choices, his productions aren’t so exciting either. Even the bluesy vibe on “Một Lần Nào Cho Tôi Gặp Lại Em” (Vũ Thành An) and the Latin flavor on “Tình Đã Vụt Bay” are just yawn-worthy.

The album closer, “Buồn Ơi, Chào Mi” (Nguyễn Ánh 9), is the only track that isn’t so monotonous. Then again, Quên Đi Tình Yêu Cũ is Trần Thái Hoà’s tenth solo release of this same old shit. He must be doing something right.

My goal is to make some changes to Visualgui every year. Despite my crazy schedule, Visualgui for 2014 comes a bit earlier this year since I have a bit of time on my hand while staying in the hospital with my mom. Whenever she fell asleep, I worked on it to pass time.

The focus for this year is the work section. I want to combine everything into one page. My colleauges and professors say that I have way too much crap in my porfolio. Potential employers don’t have time to look at everything. They just want to see my best work. While I completely understand thier perspective, I have no intention of making this site for employers. The work section is not a portfolio. It’s an archive of all my works. Now with just one click, you can see everything in an hierachy. The top hero showcases the most recent projects. The featured section displays the sites I want to highlight. If you want to see more, the three-column are list of works that still exist on the Internet. It could be overwhelming, but I do want to have everything.

In previous designs, I restricted myself to the screenshot of the works. Every time I want to do a redesign, I have to keep the width the same so that I don’t have to recrop each and every screenshots every time. The new work section is do away with all that. Now if I want to do a redesign, I only have to deal with three images.

The new logo is also a huge departure. I am going for a very minimal initial of the V simply because I am getting tired of seeing the word Visualgui. Another reason is that I now have a better understand of branding after taking the two graduate courses this semester on brand and identity. They both were very valueble courses even though they took up so much of my time.

As for typography, I chose Roboto sans for body copy and Roboto Slab for headers. Since they both come from the same designer, big up to Christian Robertson, they complement each other well. In addition, both typefaces support Vietnamese characters.

The new layout isn’t drastically different. I still like the one-column blog for readability. I also do away with comment entirely. I no longer have to include the comment functionality as well as the CSS styling for them. I do thank and appreciate all 17, 047 comments left on this blog. Even though they are no longer available to the public, I still have them for my own muse.

If you still reading and visiting this blog, I hope you enjoy the renovation. I also gave the Strength page a new look. My mom and I need some strength right now.