Emma Shean was finishing up her final year of university at Arts University Bournemouth and she was working on her dissertation on Vietnamese typography. She found my web book through her research and reached out to me for an interview. In the synopsis of her dissertation, she writes:

This essay will look at the typography in Vietnam, where I spent a month on a cultural immersion trip. It will begin by setting the scene of Vietnamese typography in terms of photographs of billboards, advertisements and posters, and analysing their colours and their significance in Vietnamese culture.

I will then delve into the history of the Vietnamese language, its origins, and the challenges of getting all the Vietnamese diacritics digitally encoded by Unicode and the lack of fonts with Vietnamese accessibility due to this late encoding. Donny Trương is my case study for advocating for this accessibility, and I will research how he is revolutionising graphic design and what fonts he recommends for Vietnamese using answers from questions that I asked him over email and secondary research. This will lead into the history and analysis of these fonts and why they are good for Vietnamese characters.

The Dissertation Interview

Do you think that custom designs for typefaces in Vietnam (including their diacritics) could boost their design economy?

Absolutely! Type design is still fairly new in Vietnam; therefore, the opportunity to boost the design economy in this area is now. By designing your typefaces with Vietnamese diacritics, you can reach millions of Vietnamese readers and much more with Latin readers around the world. It is definitely a career to look into.

How do you think the Vietnamese design world compares to that of other countries and cultures?

When I was studying design in college over 20 years ago, I didn’t see much attention paid to design in Vietnam and in Vietnamese community outside of Vietnam. That has changed now with more awareness of design. More design education is being offered in Vietnam. More young Vietnamese are getting into design. More Vietnamese design agencies are popping up. As Vietnam is growing, the demand for design and marketing are also growing to catch up with western countries.

Is your culture important to your work, or, if not, what drives your inspiration?

Yes, Vietnamese culture is very important to me. I left Vietnam when I was eleven years old and I always carried my Vietnamese culture with me. I listened to Vietnamese music and read Vietnamese literature profusely.

I often get my inspiration from my Vietnamese background. In 2006, I put together a Flash slideshow of Vietnam photography after listening to a French tune titled “Bonjour Vietnam,” performed by Phạm Quỳnh Anh. The slideshow reached many Vietnamese around the world and in Vietnam. Recently, I created a typographic sample page on “Bonjour Vietnam” for posterity.

Even though Vietnamese Typography was launched in 2015 and revised in 2018, I still add new content to the book site, particularly the section featuring typographic samples. These samples are driven by Vietnamese culture.

For your logos, how do you find typefaces to use, or do you design them yourself? Have you ever had to use a completely different typeface when you realised they can’t support Vietnamese diacritics?

For logos, I chose the typeface that would be appropriate for the brand. If the selected typeface had Vietnamese diacritics, that would be great. If not, I would add them myself. I don’t design typefaces, but I can customize an existing one just for the logo.

As for the second part of your question, I have not run into that issue because my priority for choosing a typeface is support for the Vietnamese language. If a typeface didn’t support Vietnamese diacritics, I wouldn’t consider using it for a project that required Vietnamese text. If I must use that particular typeface with no Vietnamese support, I would reach out to the designers to see if they would expand their fonts to support Vietnamese. I have all the resources that they need and I can also advise them in the design process for Vietnamese diacritics.

In a 2016 interview with Medium, you said that “you don’t think the Vietnamese people pay much attention to typography.” Do you still think this is the case, or has that changed in recent years as graphic design becomes more popular in Vietnam? Also, why did you initially think they didn’t pay much attention to it?

I made that statement in 2016 because I was frustrated with the countless Vietnamese online publications using typefaces that didn’t support the Vietnamese language.

On the web, if a font didn’t have Vietnamese diacritics, browsers would fall back to the system font. As a result, browsers would display two different fonts together.

The glaring examples where headlines were set in a scripted font, but the letters with diacritics were defaulted to a sans-serif font. I came across these issues on both the web and printed materials; therefore, I came to a conclusion that many Vietnamese people did not pay attention to Vietnamese typography.

I still spot mixed font issues once in a while these days, but I have seen tremendous improvements as graphic design becomes more popular in Vietnam. I also notice the change in the typographic scene. Through Vietnamese Typography, I talked to young Vietnamese graphic designers who paid attention to typesetting. I also talked to young type designers who created typefaces with attention to diacritics. I am happy to see the changes.

And finally, why did you decide to go to America for your masters degree, instead of staying in Vietnam?

I decided to get my masters at George Mason University because of the tuition exemption for employees. At the time, I was a web services developer at the law school. I didn’t give much thought when I applied. I didn’t think I could get into the MA graphic design program because I didn’t do much print design. Most of my works were digital. I was surprised when I got accepted.

I didn’t expect much from the program, but it worked out well at the end because I had to do a final thesis, which turned out to be Vietnamese Typography.

I took off work today to go skiing and snowboarding with our family. The conditions at Liberty were awesome. I did some runs on the double blacks and blues. The crowd was not too crazy.

I should just stop snowboarding on the double blacks and just focus on carving on the greens and blues. I want to get better before the season’s over.

Nevertheless, I had fun with my kids. I’ll be back to work tomorrow.

I went to sleep late last night and had to wake up early. Needless to say, I didn’t get enough sleep.

I arrived at Whitetail around 7:30 am and headed over to Kid Mountain Camp around 8:15 am. I was supposed to teach snowboarding, but no students showed up. I was reassigned to help another instructor teach skiing instead. No problem. I just had to change my boots. I was a bit bored. Teach snowboarding was way more fun. Nevertheless, the kids were doing great.

We had a cookout for lunch. I had a veggie burger. I didn’t want to eat beef to risk a gout attack. This is not a good time to get gout attack.

After lunch I knew I was not going to teach. I was planning on working on my carving skills on snowboard, but the snowboard instructors decided to have a clinic. I joined them. It was not that useful. I should have just ride on my own. Then the rain was just pouring. We went back to the school house soaking wet. I decided to get another veggie burger and waited for the rain to die out.

I headed home when the rain stopped and was struggling to stay awake. I didn’t get to do much on my own. That’s fine. I already took the day off tomorrow for President’s Day. I’ll take Xuân and Vương with me.

I can believe today marks my 40 days on the mountains this year.

As our whole family headed to Whitetail, we ran into snow rain, which was fine until it turned into rain. Nevertheless, I had a group lesson with two ladies. They did OK despite the rain.

After the two-hour lesson, I was soaking wet. Fortunately, I had another jacket to replace my uniform jacket. There was no lesson in the evening; therefore, I was done at 3:00 pm.

I went riding with Xuân. We both snowboarded. Xuân wanted to carve. He was carving for a bit. I turned my body forward more into an open position. I also leaned forward with my body low to the ground. I could feel the board gripped into the snow.

I am finally carving. I would like to do some more carving tomorrow after teaching.

I skied at Liberty. The conditions were great. I skied down the double black and carved on the blues. I am starting to get a hang of carving and loving it. I can carve all day. I had to take advantage of the nice weather. Tomorrow and Sunday will be rained. Let’s hope Monday will be great. Happy Valentine’s Day.

Just happened to stumble upon the Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio. I loved the duo rendition of “Jealous Guy,” in which Mr. Yamamoto played the pop melody then he added some syncopations in the left hand. Isao Fukui joined in with his hypnotic double-bass. With “Girl Blues,” drummer Tetsujiro Obara and Mr. Fukui held down the rhythm section while Mr. Yamamoto played the blues and some classic poundings, which reminded me of Cecil Taylor’s style. I enjoyed their take on jazz standards on Speak Low.

After a day of snow, I thought it would be good to hit the mountains. Unfortunately, the rain and the warm temperature melted the snow. Nevertheless, the condition at Liberty was decent.

I took Đạo, Xuân, and Vương to Liberty for a few runs. Đán didn’t want to join. He’s a game addict. We arrived at Liberty at 4:00 pm. The rain picked up a bit and the fog made visibility poor.

We went to the back side and did a blue run to warm up. As we took the lift up, we saw a teenage boy skied down the double-black terrain fast and out of control. He crashed into two little kids about Vương’s age. It was a hard crash. Both of the kids were yanked out of their skis. The poor little girl broke her leg. My heart broke for her. I hoped his conscience ate at him. I was not on the mood to snowboard anymore.

Nevertheless, I followed Xuân and Vương. We stayed for 2 hours and headed back home. It was still a nice bonding time together.

Khôi Trần was wrapping up his final-year student of Bachelor of Design Studies at RMIT University Hanoi. He was working on his Capstone project, which included designing a zine about typography in Vietnam. For the content of the zine, he wished to interview a series of typographers and type designers in the Vietnamese design community. His first experience with typography in the Vietnamese setting was through my web book, which inspired his to do this project. He reached out to me for an interview.

Our Conversation

Why would foreign designers include Vietnamese in the first place if they do not have any association with the language?

To be honest, I did not think of type designers when I had the idea for Vietnamese Typography. The initial aim of the book was to highlight the problem of Vietnamese language support in typefaces. However, when the book was published, I learnt that many designers were interested in the Vietnamese diacritics to make their typefaces more accessible. In comparison to some other Asian languages, which use their own shapes to form their own writing, Vietnamese uses the Latin alphabet. This makes it so that designers wanting to design Vietnamese characters do not have to speak the language; they only have to know about the way the diacritics work. The book, thus, has given them the knowledge and confidence to take on the unique challenge of Vietnamese characters.

The thesis was originally published in 2015. Since then, the situation with Vietnamese typography has improved exponentially. Do you feel the book had a big role in this so-called ‘movement’?

It was very interesting as I was receiving enquiries about Vietnamese characters from experienced, foreign designers, I was also finding out about young Vietnamese designers looking at this as an opportunity to design their own typefaces. Since then, I have seen many Vietnamese-supported typefaces pop up, both in Vietnam and around the world, and I am very happy to play a small role in this change.

There seems to be a lack of Vietnamese design documentation. A big part of making this magazine bilingual was to make information more accessible to the Vietnamese designers. Considering your work is monumental is Vietnamese type design, have you ever thought of translating the book into Vietnamese?

First, I would agree with the fact that there is a lack of content about Vietnamese design, in Vietnamese. In fact, when I did my research for Vietnamese Typography, I made a trip to Vietnam and searched for documents about design in Vietnamese bookstores, to no avail. In the end, I had to pretty much rely on my own knowledge of the Vietnamese language in order to be able to produce the book. Moreover, one of the weak points of the book is that I have included several Vietnamese-supported text typefaces as a starting point; however, none of them are made by a Vietnamese designer. The closest thing that I can find to a text typeface was Be Vietnam Pro by Lam Bao, which is open-source; I want to help these individuals by licensing their typefaces.

On translating the book, it definitely seems like a good idea, and I have actually had one person reach out to me about offering to help with the translation.

It seems pretty ironic that the Vietnamese text typefaces are being made by foreign designers…

But no! These type designers from all over the world have been doing it for years. I think that this industry is still very young and new in Vietnam, and requires time to grow. I don’t expect people to just come up with a typeface in a day or two; it takes years to make one. It takes a lot of patience. Then again, maybe I just don’t know the right people. I guess it’s on me as well to keep digging and finding these hidden gems within the community.

The typeface design process requires a lot of testing. For someone that does not know the Vietnamese language, this seems hard to be able to test for its legibility, as they do not have the natural inclination for the writing system. How do they overcome this challenge?

For this I can tell a little story. As the book slowly became sort of a guide to Vietnamese characters, I started receiving a lot of demo typefaces from designers all over the world to review. I would go through the diacritics, pointing out things that worked and things that didn’t, and how they could improve. For us Vietnamese, it’s very easy for us to spot irregularities in between the texts. An example I can give is the hook above; in serif typefaces, I really like for the hook above to have a tail, which designers often omit. I always ask them to include the tail and they are happy to make the change.

How are you doing now?

Well, I’m a web designer. After all these years, I’m still really excited about web design and typography. I’m still doing it now. And that’s pretty much it. Of course I do have hobbies and interests along the side, like skiing and snowboarding, but I’ll keep my daytime job (haha). I absolutely love the web and it makes it so easy to make my work be available to so many people. While the web itself has changed a lot over the years, the typography has been the thing that has kept my interest for all these years.

Any advice for new, young designers looking to get into typography?

Type is still very new in Vietnam, and I see young designers exploring more and more about this industry. It is definitely an exciting career. My advice is to follow your heart, be patient, and ask questions. The type community is very friendly; you could go up to any person and ask them about type, send them typefaces to review, and talk to them!

Khôi Trần translated our conversation into Vietnamese.

Kristin Bair’s fourth novel, Clementine Crane Prefers Not To, will be published on October 14, 2025. I gave her website a new coat of paints to reflect the new book. I have the pleasure of working with Kristin since 2009. I read all of her previous novels and couldn’t wait to read her latest. Congratulations, Kristin.

I arrived to work two hours early. No one was there. I relaxed a bit then put on my ski boots. I went out with the ski instructors for the clinic. It was very interesting even though I was not interested in the techniques. I just wanted to learn how to carve.

At the line up, my supervisor told me to keep my ski boots so I could shadow another ski instructor. Then I got reassigned to help out with a group of four kids. We tested their skills. Two of them skied well and two were first-time. She took the first-timer and assigned me with the intermediate skiers. I took them on the magic carpet, lift, and then we went on the long green. We had a lot of fun together.

At lunchtime, I ordered a veggie burger with bacon. The man behind the grill told me, “That’s an interesting request, but sure.” I really miss burgers. I just can’t risk getting a gout attack during the season. The impossible burger was actually pretty close to a real burger.

In the afternoon, I switched out to my snowboard boots. I planned on riding because I didn’t think I would have a class. I told my supervisor I already taught skiing this morning, someone else could take the lesson. For some reasons, other instructors turned down the lesson. They might want to dip out for the Super Bowl. She assigned me to the lesson. I taught two adults who were learning snowboarding for the first time. The lesson went well.

After the lesson, I went for a few runs, but I was exhausted so I left. I was having a hard time staying awake driving home. I pulled into a McDonald’s to take a nap. That helped a lot. For my own safety and others, I rather stopped and took a nap then kept driving.

I went home, took a quick shower, and arrived late at my friend’s house for the Super Bowl. He opened a bottle of the twelve-year-old Hakushu. It was so damn smooth. We killed between the three of us. We didn’t really pay much attention to the Super Bowl, but I was glad the Eagles won. Philadelphia was my college town.

I took the Lyft home afterward because I didn’t want to risk getting caught for DUI. Cops were probably out waiting for the post Super Bowl.