Her Design Stories - FMP Project Report by Trần Phương Thảo Ngọc

PROJECT REPORT

TRAN PHUONG THAO NGOC HAN18080001 - 1810CCP BRITISH UNIVERSITY VIETNAM Ecopark Townership, Hung Yen, Vietnam

— JULY, 2021

PROJECT REPORT — JULY, 2021

TRAN PHUONG THAO NGOC HAN18080001 - 1810CCP

PROJECT REPORT — JULY, 2021

BRITISH UNIVERSITY VIETNAM Ecopark Townership, Hung Yen, Vietnam

HER DESIGN STORIES - PROJECT REPORT Tran Phuong Thao Ngoc Website: thaongoc.site Email: hi@thaongoc.site Edited by Tran Phuong Thao Ngoc Design by Tran Phuong Thao Ngoc Interviews by Tran Phuong Thao Ngoc Interview transcripts proofread by Trang Nguyen Tinh Vu, Hoang Ngoc Diep, Dang Nguyen Ha Phuong

First Edition © 2021 Tran Phuong Thao Ngoc All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part of any form. No part of this report may be reproduced, stored in retrieval systems, or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including but not limited to photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval methods, without written permission from the author. All copyrights on text and design work are held by the respective designers and contributors. All artwork and textual information in this book are based on the materials offered by the designers and contributors whose work has been included, and all interviews have been lightly edited and condensed for the purpose of clarity. While every effort has been made to ensure their accuracy, the author does not accept any responsibility, under any circumstances, for any errors or omissions.

DEDICATION To all the amazing female designers that have inspired and nurtured my creative journey, thank you so much for your great work. May we continue our path with grace. And to Q, for inspiring my final major project topic. Thank you for making sure I don’t give up every day.

Table of Content Preface - the Final Major Project

1. INTRODUCTION

Background 16 The Brief 18 Project Naming 18 Target Audience 19 Project Timeline 20

2. RESEARCH

Secondary research Primary research

24 38

3. CREATIVE PROCESS

Branding & Visual Identity 44 Website 60 Social Media 68

4. INTERVIEWS

Preparation 16 Filming & Post-production 82 Interview transcripts & Design showcases 85

5. EVALUATION Project evaluation Future plan

6. BIBLIOGRAPHY Reference list List of figures & tables

7. APPENDICES

176 178 182

184 185 189

190

lan BA (HONS) OF CONTEMPORARY CREATIVE PRACTICE: GRAPHIC DESIGN Year 3, Semester 2 April - July, 2021

rojam

l major ect TRAN PHUONG THAO NGOC HAN18080001 1810CCP

LECTURER: RICHARD PAUL CHILD

Programme Leader of Contemporary Creative Practice at British University Vietnam

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

PREFACE THE FINAL MAJOR PROJECT After two years of studying, working, and experimenting with multiple arts and design elements, materials and skills, I have decided to choose Graphic Design as my major and continue to develop my graphic skill in the most important project during my time at university: the Final Major Project. Since this is a Bachelor Graduation assignment, it requires an enormous amount of research, experiments, and professional practice. This is the most ambitious and long-term project that I have been assigned to. The study process was divided into 3 main phases, aligning with 3 modules: 1. Year 3, Semester 1 - Practical Contemporary Practices In the first phase of the project, I was required to identify and research a challenging contemporary creative topic that stems from my main interests in graphic design, as well as benefits my future professional practice after my graduation. The research and visual investigation during this semester would contribute to building a design brief for an independent project that would be carried out in the final semester. 2. Year 3, Spring break - Industrial Investigation Apart from the design work, I was assigned to conduct a contextual investigation and report with a level of primary and secondary research that is appropriate to the senior year of a Bachelor (Honours) degree. The research questions and objectives should directly/ indirectly support the topic and the decision-making process of the Final Major Project. 3. Year 3, Semester 2 - Negotiated Final Major Project In the final semester of both the project and the program, I would execute the proposed project in the last term, based on the research and visual investigation beforehand. The project outcomes and development would be strengthened by this project investigative report.

Your project will have been agreed because it provides the opportunity to gather extensive research and develop an informed debate on your chosen subject, whilst also allowing you to explore professional working methods connected with a specialist area of study. FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Project Report

— Negotiated Final Major Project Assignment Brief

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

1. introduction

Her Design Stories is a feminist design project that aims to support & empower female designers in Vietnam.

Background The Brief Project Naming Target Audience Project Timeline

16 18 18 19 20

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

BACKGROUND Women have been a core component in the study of art & design, alongside being significant contributors to the creative fields. Nonetheless, there remains a lack of female creative directors, as well as women in leadership positions. Moreover, despite how designers usually take pride in their design thinking and problem-solving ability, gender-related issues are still very much present in the creative workplace. From this circumstance was a question raised: What has happened to the female designers between the classroom and the workplace? Where are the representatives of women in design? What could be the possible difficulties that inconvenience the female designers and demotivate girls to pursue a career in art & design? I find the topic of feminism in general and the above questions in particular fascinating and relatable since I am a female designer from Vietnam, which means that I could encounter those gender-related difficulties anytime. Therefore, through my Final Major Project, I aim to search for a long-term and sustainable approach to feminism and gender issues. These questions and considerations have established my chosen theme and topic for my Final Major Project: a design project that centers around feminism and gender inequality in the workplace.

→ How to help out? Surveys about Women in Design - a Poster series (Tran, 2020)

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Introduction

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

THE BRIEF Responding to the aforementioned phenomenon, Her Design Stories was founded with the mission to increase the visibility of Vietnamese female designers, and to encourage more girls & women to pursue a career in art & design. The project plans to achieve its goal through a series of conversations with successful women in the field, as well as design showcases from those female creatives. The project addresses its goals and visions through an intersectional feminist lens. We acknowledge the complex challenges each individual is facing due to the intersection of privileges and social injustice. By “supporting women”, we mean every woman, regardless of their race, sexuality, age, ability, or background.

PROJECT NAMING The project was first named "Let Her Design", and originally oriented as a feminist awareness campaign to spread information and raise awareness about the topic of Feminism in Design. However, research conducted in preparation for this project has discovered that many individuals held negative perceptions towards feminism and feminists (Goldberg et al, 1975). Moreover, discomfort with the term “Feminism” and resistance to claiming a feminist identity is even present among those with beliefs that align with feminist ideologies (Hoskin et al, 2017). Therefore, the project's former approach to the problem could potentially result in the project receiving backlash from the community because of its feminist core. Consequently, the project was renamed "Her Design Stories", and the brand story was redefined to portray a friendlier vibe and tone of voice. The renaming process was directly supported and backed up by my Industrial Investigation research paper.

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Introduction

TARGET AUDIENCE Her Design Stories supports underrepresented designers & design students, mainly focusing on girls & women. Marketing-wise, the project is aimed at 2 main audience groups: • Vietnamese female designers who are looking for a source of motivation & inspiration. • Designers at leadership and employer positions in Vietnam.

Increase the visibility of Vietnamese female designers, and encourage more girls and women to pursue a career in art & design

project timeline

2. research

Her Design Stories is supported by thorough secondary research and an Industrial Investigation report.

SECONDARY RESEARCH

Feminism & Intersectionality Feminism in Design Feminism in Vietnam's Art & Design

26 28 37

PRIMARY RESEARCH

Methodology Research results & discussion

39 41

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

Secondary Research Throughout the first phase of the project, I conducted much research into different topics related to the theme of my Final Major Project to construct a project brief for the later phases. Moreover, the main theoretical underpinning was addressed in the contextual investigation for the Industrial Investigation module. Those research have contributed to the decision-making process about renaming and redefining the project. In • • •

this section of the report, my research will be summarized in three key points: Feminism & Intersectionality Feminism in Design Feminism in Vietnam's Art & Design

→ What happened between the classroom and the studio? Surveys about Women in Design - a Poster series (Tran, 2020)

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Research

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

1*Feminism & Intersectionality

FEMINISM The concept and meaning of "Feminism" have always been unclear, complex, and somewhat paradoxical (Hoskin et al, 2017), yet many scholars have attempted to explain "Feminism". For example, Rita M. Gross described "Feminism" as the "freedom from the prison of gender roles" (Gross, 2003). Meanwhile, June Hannam (2016) claimed that "Feminism" holds three defining qualities: • Acknowledging women's power inferiority compared to men's; • Believing in the future feasibility of change for women's social constructed condition; • Highlighting female autonomy and freedom to present themselves. Another way to interpret "feminism" could be how Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie described in her TEDx Talk: "There's a problem with gender as it is today and we must fix it, we must do better." (Adichie, 2014)

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Research

INTERSECTIONALITY In 1989, professor Kimberlé Crensaw developed the theory of intersectionality, proposing that individuals experience overlapping several forms of discrimination at the same time (Crenshaw, 2018). She used the imagery of a traffic accident at an intersection as a metaphor to illustrate how an individual's race, class, gender, religion, and other personal identities could "intersect" and cause overlapping oppressions on one (Coaston, 2019). Ever since it was established, the concept of intersectionality has attracted much attention from the community because of its inclusivity (Coaston, 2019). Intersectionality is also applied in feminism, creating intersectional feminism. Approaching feminism through an intersectional lens means acknowledging a person's complicated experiences based on their unique intersectional identity (Anon, 2020)

There is no such thing as a singleissue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives. — Audre Lorde

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

2*Feminism in Design Table 1. HE qualifications obtained by subject area (Creative arts & design) and sex (academic years from 2014/15 to 2018/19) (High Education Statistics Authority, 2018) Male (total)

Male Female (percentage) (total)

Female Other (total) (percentage)

Other Total (percentage)

2016/17

20,450

34.4%

38,030

65.0%

0.6%

58,515

2017/18

20,845

34.8%

39,060

65.1%

0.1%

59,980

2018/19

21,620

34.4%

41,180

65.4%

125

0.2%

62,930

THE GENDER INEQUALITY SITUATION IN THE DESIGN INDUSTRY 1. In the UK Even though 65% of creative students in the UK were women (Higher Education Statistics Authority, 2018) (See Table 1), male designers still tremendously dominated the UK design workforce, and only 22% of designers were female by 2016 (Design Council, 2018) (See Table 2). Two years later, the percentage of UK women in design remained at a standstill, as the UK Design Museum research showed only one-fifth of working designers were female (Fairs, 2018). Moreover, women are less likely to be leaders and managers in the creative industry (17% of managers and 14% of forepersons are women) (Design Council, 2018) (See Figure 1).

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Research

Table 2. Design occupations by gender, 2016 (Design Council, 2018)

Design subsector

Male (total)

Male (percentage)

Female (total)

Female (percentage)

Total

Design economy

1,052,400

78.1%

295,200

21.9%

1,347,700

Creative industries

1,134,900

63.3%

657,500

36.7%

1,792400

UK economy

16,223,400

53.3%

14,230,500

46.7%

30,453,900

Source: Office for National Statistics (2018) Annual Population Survey (2004 - 2017)

Figure 1. The seniority of designers by gender in UK (2016) (Design Council, 2018)

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

Figure 2. US Design Workforce by Gender (AIGA Eye on Design, 2020)

2. In the US In 2019, the number of female designers (61%) in the US almost doubled that of male designers (36%) (AIGA Eye on Design, 2020) (See Figure 2), indicating that women were becoming much more active in the design industry. However, women only consisted of 11% of the total of creative directors (AIGA Eye on Design, 2020). This circumstance has provoked questions related to gender inequality in the design industry: What has happened to female designers between the classroom and the studio? An essay project by Readymag ascribed the roots of the issues to several elements, such as the lack of female role models and representatives, sexism in the workplace, or the responsibility of motherhood (Readymag, 2020)

→ Attention designers, we have a problem Surveys about Women in Design - a Poster series (Tran, 2020)

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Research

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

EXAMPLES OF FEMINIST & WOMEN-SUPPORTIVE DESIGN ORGANIZATIONS AND PROJECTS Acknowledging the gender issues in the design industry, various organizations and projects have been founded to support the female designer community and to spread knowledge and information about the situation of genderrelated difficulties in the design workplace. These organizations and projects are the tremendous inspirations and motivation for the founding process of Her Design Stories. 1. Ladies, Wine & Design Ladies, Wine & Design (LW&D) is a global feminist project, founded by Jessica Walsh in 2015. Its mission is to promote and celebrate diversity in the creative industry, specifically in senior roles. LW&D now has 280 chapters spreading around the world, offering free mentorship and portfolio reviews for underrepresented creative ladies worldwide. (Ladies, Wine & Design, 2015) Website: ladieswinedesign.com

→ No Filter Photography series for Ladies, Wine & Design (Walsh, 2019)

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Research

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

2. notamuse "notamuse" in a German-based design project that centers around the lack of visibility of female graphic designers. Searching for more woman representatives in design, the notamuse team interviewed 22 female designers in 2017 to talk about gender-related topics. All interviews are documented on the project's website and book - "notamuse - A New Perspective on Graphic Design in Europe" (notamuse, 2017). Website: notamuse.de

← not a muse - A New Perspective on Women Graphic Designers in Europe Project Book (notamuse, 2017)

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Research

↑ DESIGN{H}ERS: A celebration of Women in Design today (Viction:ary, 2019)

3. DESIGN{H}ERS: A celebration of Women in Design today "DESIGN{H}ERS is a stunning showcase of up-and-coming talent spanning across a variety of design mediums to highlight the distinction and diversity that women bring to their respective fields. Coupled with compelling stories revolving around the journeys of luminaries who have already made their mark, this book serves to intrigue and inspire the creatives of the future." (Viction:ary, 2019)

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

Lip Xinh A Feminist Art Project in Vietnam (Dinh & Duong, 2018)

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Research

3*Feminism in Vietnam's Art & Design industry

Feminist topics are not usually discussed in daily life conversations of the general Vietnamese (Vietnam Inside, 2020). Nevertheless, many independent artists in Vietnam, especially females, have raised their voices and prompted discussions about gender norms through their creative work (Sarkar, 2019). The work of these artists was claimed to be pivotal to the gender circumstances in Vietnam, where feminist conversations are not encouraged (Sarkar, 2019). Some of the notable artists in this feminist movement are Himiko Nguyen with her photography installation series - "Come Out I", Anh-Thuy Nguyen with her interactive performative artwork - "Encroaching Space", and curators Dinh Thi Nhung and Duong Manh Hung with a feminist art exhibition called "Lip Xinh". Nevertheless, these artists have to deal with numerous challenges, like the lack of a potential commercial market (Sarkar, 2019), and censorship from the authorities (Vietnam Insider, 2020). Consequently, many artists decide to exhibit their art abroad or in secret (Vietnam Insider, 2020). Furthermore, most artworks in this artistic feminist movement are classified as fine arts and visual arts, meaning that feminism is yet a popular topic in graphic design if counting by the number of projects (Tran, 2021).

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

Primary Research

From the secondary research and literature review for the research, I realized a lack of feminist-cored design projects in Vietnam, as well as resources focusing how Vietnamese designers perceive the concept of Feminism. Thus, I decided to center my research questions and objectives around fulfilling that research gap. The Industrial Investigation paper aims to answer these two research questions: 1. How is the concept of “Feminism” received and understood among the Vietnamese design community? 2. Do designers’ perceptions of Feminism affect their decisions to join feminist projects or their experience when working in feminist projects?

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Research

METHODOLOGY Methodological approach To achieve the research objectives, the Industrial Investigation study used mixed-method research with an explanatory-sequential strategy, which is a two-part procedure for researchers interested in analyzing quantitative outcomes in phase 1 with qualitative data collected in phase 2 (Edmonds and Kennedy, 2012). Data collection process The research targeted two main types of demographic: Designers with no experience and designers with experience with working in a feminist project. The data collection process is summarized in the data collection model below:

Figure 3. Data Collection Model (Tran, 2021)

DATA COLLECTION MODEL

PHASE 1 QUESTIONNAIRE Target 1 - R.O.1 Classificatory question Target 2 - R.O.2

The researcher published a questionnaire for Vietnamese designers with a classificatory question to determine wheter the participated designer belongs to target group 1 or 2. The questionnaire would consist of 2 question sets for the 2 groups.

Participant -selection process

PHASE 2 INTERVIEW Target 2 - R.O.2

Based on the responses in Phase 1, the researcher identified designers of group 2 for in-depth interviews.

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

Phase 1: Questionnaire design The questionnaire was designed based on my understanding of the concepts covered in the Literature Review. It was also created to adapt to the Vietnamese design community. The questionnaire was published on Google Form - an online self-administered survey platform (Tran, 2021). Phase 2: Interview preparation and conduction Interviewees in Phase 2 are survey participants categorized in Target Group 2. The interview phase employs a semi-structured interview strategy to learn about each interviewee's personal experience (Tran, 2021) Data analysis process The data analysis process began as soon as the replies began to come in and the interviews were scheduled, employing the data triangulation method, which allows me to analyze different sources of data to increase the research's plausibility (Denzin, 1989) Table 3. Data analysis process (Tran, 2021)

Stage

Process

Organize the research responses to have an overview of the received material: • Categorize & pinpoint questionnaire answers in a data table • Summarize & refine fields notes from interviews

Indicate and color-code highlights and outstanding points from both the questionnaire and the interviews to identify the principal emergent ideas in each response

Pinpoint and reduce the data to the central themes of the study for further discussion and conclusion

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Research

RESEARCH RESULTS & DISCUSSION I came to the following conclusions after doing the investigation and assessing the collected data using a variety of methods: 1. In general, Vietnamese designers have a favorable attitude toward Feminism and the concept of working with a creative feminist brief. Their hesitancy, though, persists. (Tran, 2021) Many survey participants voiced concern about the controversies surrounding the “Feminism” movement in Vietnam. They recalled numerous heated debates on social media about how Feminism was being exaggerated and misunderstood, which leads to them choosing to remain unbiased on the subject to avoid putting themselves in trouble (Tran, 2021). This finding has made me reconsider Her Design Stories (formally as Let Her Design)'s early approach to Feminism. Eventually, I decided to rename and redefine the brand story and the vibe of the project. 2. The designers' understanding of Feminism influences their decision to join a feminist-focused project, but it is not the only or most important element. Meanwhile, designers' experiences in a feminist project are influenced by factors unrelated to their feminist beliefs. (Tran, 2021) In conclusion, this research provides my Final Major Project with additional insights into the opinions about Feminism, specifically among the Vietnamese design community. The research results directly backed up the renaming process of Her Design Stories.

3. creative process

The process of Her Design Stories follows the 5 stages of design thinking.

BRANDING & VISUAL IDENTITY

Ideation & Experiments Finalize the Visual Identity

46 56

WEBSITE

Horizontal & Vertical views Webflow Home page experiments

62 63 64

SOCIAL MEDIA

Marketing Timeline Instagram Posts

70 74

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

Branding & Visual Identity

THE CHALLENGE Her Design Stories requires a visual identity that can embody the three purposes it aims to fulfill: • A friendly and stimulating environment for Vietnamese female designers to voice unspoken stories. • A professional design platform to represent Vietnamese female designer community. • An approachable feminist project that aims to create dialogue rather than dogma.

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Creative Process

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

1*Ideation & Experiments

LOGO SKETCHES I started the brainstorming process with some obvious symbols and icons associated with women, feminity, and feminism like female symbols, triangles, female body features, female clothing, etc. However, I preferred a more abstract and different icon, rather than the mediocre images, so I came up with using the asterisk to symbolize the intersectional core of the project. Moreover, since this is an interview-based project, I wanted to include the speech bubble in the logo, hence the speech bubble sketches. Here are some of the early sketches from my ideation phase. Besides brainstorming the logo, I also considered the composition of the icons and typography in the logo.

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Creative Process

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Creative Process

DIGITAL DEVELOPMENTS Here are some digital developments and experiments with the asterisk. I tested the idea with several typefaces. However, I had decided to use Baryton italic in advance of the branding process (which is explained in the Typeface section), so I mainly focused on playing with Baryton’s asterisk. Besides, I simplified the speech bubble to 2 round brackets, and I rotated the brackets to find a suitable and eye-catching degree. However, after the consideration that the 2 brackets did not look connected, I changed it to an oval instead.

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

TYPOGRAPHY EXPERIMENTS Before experimenting with typography for the branding design, I have researched and selected some beautiful typefaces designed by female designers to show support for their work. Those typefaces include: • Baryton - designed by My-Lan Thuong (a Vietnamese female type designer). The background information of this typeface has convinced me to use it as the primary typeface of the project. • Min Sans - designed by Tien-Min Lao (a New York-based female type designer). • AUTHENTIC Sans - designed by Christina Janus (also a New York-based female type designer). • Athelas - designed by Veronika Burian (a type designer from Prague). Here are some of my typographic experiments with combining different letters, fonts, and styles to visualize the project’s name.

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Creative Process

design HER

STORIES

her

DESIGN STORIES her

DESIGN her

her DESIGN STORIES DESIGN STORIES

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

COMBINING LOGO AND TYPOGRAPHY The inclined oval in the logo makes it quite challenging to combine logo and typography, which was why I struggled to test and experiment with different typography styles and combinations to find a suitable composition.

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Creative Process

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

COLOR & GRADIENT EXPERIMENTS For the color palette of the project, I would like to step out of my comfort zone and experiment with a gradient and holographic color palette. I prefer the pastel and light colors to the normally seen vivid holographic colors because I think it is more feminine and friendlier.

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Creative Process

The reason why I want to choose gradient colors for this project’s branding because gradient colors are very unpredictable, which represents the uniqueness of every designer and stories that get featured on this project. Here are some of my experiments with gradient and holographic color palettes. I created these gradients with Mesh tool in Adobe Illustrator.

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

2*Finalize the Visual Identity

APPROACH The solution: a visual identity that is minimalist, feminine, humane, and dynamic to capture the core characteristics of Her Design Stories. The gradient background illustrates the nature of femininity: a spectrum of hues that are open to interpretation. The uniqueness of each gradient emphasizes the singularity and diversity of each featured designer and her story.

THE LOGO The logo is a minimalist, feminine, and aesthetic combination of two elements: 1. An italic asterisk - a visual presentation for the project’s intersectional feminist lens. Additionally, as an asterisk is traditionally used in footnotes, the symbol represents a means to greater understanding. Here, it denotes the rich and multidimensional nature of the stories behind Vietnamese female designers, which slowly unfold through the course of conversations with them. 2. A curvy oval - a stylized and feminine version of the speech bubble that symbolizes conversations.

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Creative Process

Logo without wordmark Used in small designs that don’t have enough space for the wordmark, or when the brand Her Design Stories has already been established.

Logo with wordmark - Square Used in display designs that only have the logo. The layout of this logo & wordmark is changeable, as long as the element’s size is correctly scaled.

Logo with wordmark - Horizontal The layout of this logo & wordmark is dynamic and changeable, as long as the elements’ sizes are correctly scaled.

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

TYPOGRAPHY All typefaces are used with an approved license.

title baryton Baryton is designed by My-Lan Thuong - a Vietnamese female typeface designer.

HEADING MIN SANS Min Sans is designed by Tien-Min Liao - a female typeface designer based in New York, US.

female designers UNFOLD THEIR DESIGN STORIES

Bodytext AUTHENTIC Sans AUTHENTIC Sans is designed by Christina Janus - a female typeface designer based in New York, US.

Women have always played an important part in art & design, with noteworthy contributions to the creative fields.

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Creative Process

COLOR PALETTE

#F38D7A

R: 243 G: 141 B: 122

C: 0 M: 42 Y: 50 K: 5

#F1A187

R: 241 G: 161 B: 135

C: 0 M: 33 Y: 44 K: 5

#DEA5B9

R: 222 G: 165 B: 185

C: 0 M: 26 Y: 17 K: 13

#E2BAB2

R: 226 G: 186 B: 178

C: 0 M: 18 Y: 21 K: 11

#ACADC8

R: 172 G: 173 B: 200

C: 14 M: 13 Y: 0 K: 22

#CACADC

R: 202 G: 202 B: 220

C: 8 M: 8 Y: 0 K: 14

Salmon

Vivid Tangerine 5

Nadeshiko Pink

Baby Pink

Wild Blue Yonder

Light Periwinkle

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

Website The project’s website was built on Cargo web builder with a purchased domain and email from Namecheap. The website is designed to be responsive on both Desktop and Phone views. Desktop view has an interactive gradient background. Live website: herdesignstories.me Email: hello@herdesignstories.me

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Creative Process

HER DESIGN STORIES | A| Feminist FINAL MAJOR PROJECT Creative Design ProcessProject

HORIZONTAL & VERTICAL VIEWS The website is designed on Cargo Site - a website builder specialized for building portfolios. Its features are simple and easy to learn, and it only requires basic knowledge about coding, so Cargo is very popular among the design community. I chose to build my project’s website on Cargo because I have had some experience with building websites on Cargo beforehand, and Cargo offers a student code for BUV students to public 1 website for free. Convenient as it is, Cargo still has some disadvantages, one of which is the limit in designing for multiple website views. Cargo only provides 1 horizontal view (Desktop) and 1 vertical view (Mobile), unlike other website builders like Squarespace or Wix. Moreover, the design will be scaled based on the viewer’s device screen size, so it’s difficult to foresee all possibilities of failed scaling of the website. Therefore, I created 2 separate pages for horizontal view and vertical view.

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Creative Process

WEBFLOW Here is a brief overview of the website flow, as well as the content of each page.

Choose device state Horizontal/ Vertical

HOME - Project Overview - Latest Feature

ABOUT - Project Introduction - The Host - Project’s Phase 1

STORIES Archive of stories from the featured female designers

CONTACT Contact information & Feauture Inquiry

FEATURED DESIGNER - Designer Introduction - Conversation with the designer on YouTube & Spotify - Design Showcase

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

HOME PAGE EXPERIMENTS The Home page is always the most important of a website since it is the first impression for the user when visiting the website. Therefore, I put a lot of thought and effort into designing the layout of the Home page. Here are all of the proposed home page options.

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Creative Process

In conclusion, I chose Option 10 to be the official version because it is clean, minimal, and well represents the feminine vibe of the project. I also like how the logo is shown both clearly and subtly in that option. Afterward, I developed the Mobile view for the Home page based on the layout of the chosen option. Once the Home page is finalized, the design and layouts of other pages were developed correspondingly.

Option 4

Option 5

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

Option 6

Option 7

Option 8

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Creative Process

Option 9

Option 10 (chosen)

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

Social Media The project is now published on 3 main platforms (Instagram, YouTube & Spotify) to reach as many audiences as possible. The marketing plan is planned 1 week before the published timeline. For now, I am in charge of both design and copywriting. In the future, I plan to recruit a media time to take over the marketing plan for me, so I can focus more on other tasks, such as networking with female designers and produce more content for the project. Instagram: @herdesignstories YouTube & Spotify: Her Design Stories

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Creative Process

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

MARKETING TIMELINE This is a brief Instagram timeline for June & July 2021. The • dot in front of a post indicates that is a Feature publish post. The interview video and podcast will be published on YouTube and Spotify on the same day of that post.

Jun 7

28 Cam Anh's illustrations

Introduce the host

Lan Anh's designs

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Creative Process

13 First introduction of the project

25 Highlights of Lan Anh's interviews

Jul 1

2 Highlights of Cam Anh's interviews

Explain about Phase 1 of the project

• 1st feature Lan Anh Ng

• 2nd feature Cam Anh Ng

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

Jul 5

7 Branding Story

Tra Nhu's illustrations

Thy Ha's designs

Dong Giang's designs

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Creative Process

16 Highlights of Tra Nhu's interviews

Logo & Typefaces

22 Highlights of Thy Ha's interviews

• 4th feature Thy Ha

25 • 5th feature Dong Giang

30 Highlights of Dong Giang's interviews

• 3rd feature Tra Nhu

Aug 1

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

INSTAGRAM POSTS & STORIES I chose Instagram to be the primary marketing channel for the project because Instagram is an image-based social media platform, which is very advantageous for a design project. Moreover, Instagram offers a diverse range of marketing materials to work with, such as posts, stories, highlights, filters, IGTV, and reels; therefore, there is more room for experimenting with the marketing plan and materials with Instagram. Besides, I have a personal preference for Instagram more than Facebook, and I already have a design network on Instagram since I have a design Instagram account, so I hope to use my design account to promote the project better.

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Creative Process

4. interviews

Phase 1 of Her Design Stories featured 7 female designers with very diverse backgrounds. PREPARATION

The Feature Kit Question List

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FILMING & POST-PRODUCTION

Home Studio Post-Production

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INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS & DESIGN SHOWCASES

Lan Anh Ng Cam Anh Nguyen Tra Nhu Thy Ha Dong Giang Uyen Ngoc Gydient

86 102 112 128 140 152 166

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

Preparation

During the break of Year 3, I searched for many Vietnamese female designers from various sources: Instagram, Behance, Facebook, and friends' references. I started following their online portfolios and sharings about their working process and creative stories to find the most potential featured designers for Phase 1 of the project. After the branding process is finished, I started sending out feature invitation emails, which are included in Appendix 1 of this report. Furthermore, I also started listening to podcasts and watching online interviews to learn tips and tricks from other interview hosts. Even though I am aware that I am quite talkative and open for conversations already, I know that hosting a professional and recorded interview will be different, and therefore, quite challenging. Therefore, I tried to learn interview hosting skills so I can guide the interviews smoothly.

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Interviews

THE FEATURE KIT When reaching out to female designers via emails and inviting them to get featured on Her Design Stories, I also send them an information file about the project, which I call "the Feature Kit". This kit includes all information that the invited designer should know before making her decision to be featured in the project, such as Project Introduction, Featurer Appearance, Interview Methods, Question List, and Feature Notices. The Feature Kit is included in Appendix 2 of this report.

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

THE QUESTION LIST During the research phase in the first semester, I have read through many interviews with female designers from feminist design projects (such as Ladies, Wine & Design, notamuse, DESIGN{H}ERS, etc.) to take reference from so I can build my question list for Her Design Stories. The question list is constructed based on what I wish to learn about the female designers in Vietnam: • How is their experience of being a female designer in a male-dominant industry? • Do they encounter any difficulties in being a female designer? If yes, how did they get over those difficulties? • Do they have any female role models/ idols in design? Besides these questions, I also want to learn about the pay gap and promotion for women, but the potential interviewees in my list are mainly freelancers, so asking these questions would not be suitable for them. After listing out all possible and appropriate questions, I put them into groups with formatted names - "Women who <something>", since I think that question categories would make it easier for the interviewees to read through and understand the question list For video interviews, this list is more of a suggested guideline. Questions could be customized to suit the designer's stories and the conversation flow.

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Interviews

WOMEN WHO DESIGN → Introduce yourself in 3 design-related words → Summarize your design journey as a designer: how did you get to where you are now? → What is your favorite design/ project that you’ve worked on so far, and why?

WOMEN WHO INSPIRE → Do you have any female role models, mentors, or inspirations in design? → What do you love about being a female designer?

WOMEN WHO CONFIDE → Being a female designer, have you ever encountered any gender-related difficulties (when in school, when working in-house, when freelancing)? → How did you get over those difficulties?

WOMEN WHO ADVISE → Do you have any advice for your younger self as a female designer about to enter the design industry in Vietnam?

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

Filming & Post-Production HOME STUDIO Due to the COVID-19 situation in Hanoi, it is impossible to conduct offline interviews and invite female designers to the photography studio at BUV as I planned. Despite feeling disappointed, I figured out an alternative interview method - online interviews via Riverside.fm - a remote video and audio platform that records high-quality video & audio for online interviews. During the process of setting my home studio for conducting and recording interviews, I encountered many technical issues such as configuring my DSLR camera to the laptop so it could be used as a high-quality webcam, audio recording, lighting, background noise, etc.

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Interviews

POST-PRODUCTION After each interview, I would work with the videos, audios, and graphics to produce a polished version of the interview, then I would send the video interviewee so they can have a review of the content and editing of the interview before it is published. Every video has an opening credit that introduces the featured interviewee and guides the listener to the main conversation.

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Interviews

Interview transcripts & Design showcases

Lan Anh Ng Cam Anh Nguyen Tra Nhu Thy Ha Dong Giang Uyen Ngoc Gydient

86 102 112 128 140 152 166

HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM

lan anh ng

Lan Anh Ng is a Graphic Designer based in Sai Gon, Vietnam. She started to be a Freelancer who loves to share and create some fun design challenges since Jun 2021. Graduated with a Graphic Design Bachelor degree, she puts all her focus on Branding, Typography, and Lettering Design. She has got 5 years as a freelance designer, a year working as an in-house designer, and 2 years working as Creative Executive in a small branding studio named Salt&Pepper. Besides being a Brand Designer, she allows herself to explore others’ types of creativity, one of them is Lettering Design.

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Interviews

Tiep Suc Mua Thi Student Campaign 2018 (Ng, 2018)

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS

Thao Ngoc (N): Hello. Lan Anh (LA): Nice to meet you. N: Nice to meet you too. Thank you so much for agreeing to join and get featured on my project which is “Her design stories”. LA: It’s my honor. N: My name is Thao Ngoc and I am a senior student at BUV - British University Vietnam and I am majoring in Graphic Design. I choose the topic of my graduation project as a feminist design project, because I myself am a female designer and I’m really interested in feminism and also how we female designers could support each others in such a male dominant industry. In order to execute this project, I’m really honored and glad that I could have so many conversations with amazing female designers in Vietnam. LA: Such an honor for me to talk with you. Thank you for inviting me. N: To start off the interview, can you talk a little bit about yourself as a designer. Could you introduce yourself in three design-related words? LA: I think of three main keywords that are “alignment”, “hierarchy” and “fun”, because it’s a little bit hard to find three design-related words to talk about myself. I’m a little bit confused. But yeah, alignment, hierarchy, and fun. I think that’s a way to design - really a way to design. N: It’s really interesting how you choose the words “alignment” and “hierarchy” because those are typography-related words. I think it explains a lot because I myself know about you through your typography work. LA: Right.

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Interviews

N: So how about your design journey as a female designer? So basically, how did you get to where you are now? LA: This is a little bit long story, but I will try to make it short. Okay. When I was a kid, my mother let me listen to music a lot. So at that moment, I started to feel the art. I think music is art. Art means the things that we can’t hold, but we can feel, so I tried to feel the music. Then I went to middle school, I realized that I wanted to draw - I loved to draw. I started to doodle in every school book, then I knew at that moment, I think I want to be an illustrator in the future. But how stupid I am because I’m not! When I came to high school, I realized that I really didn’t know how to illustrate what I imagined. When I joined the illustration community, I feel, “Oh my gosh! Everybody is really amazing”. They could draw the stories, what they’re really creating, but I can’t. I just know how to draw some little things, like a cat, a dog for fun. Then that’s the time I started tinkering around with the design program, and it made me feel worthy. When I draw, sometimes I feel I’m such a loser, but when I use the graphic program - because it’s kind of powerful - so I feel “Yeah, I could do this, I could make it done, I could complete this”, and I feel happy for that. That feeling led me to my biggest decision that I decide to be a graphic designer. After that, I tried my best to sign into graphic design major of Architecture University of Ho Chi Minh city. After four years, I graduated. I had the chance to meet a lot of great people working in great fields. Then, I officially become a graphic designer. That’s it really because it’s not like, I graduate and I am a graphic designer. No, I need to communicate more. And then at that moment, I say yeah, finally, I am a graphic designer. And more than that, in a deeper sense, I think I have great genes from my parents because my mom was a dancer - a ballet dancer. My father used to be in a, you know, “doan kich nói” (Vietnamese playgroup). I think that I have kind of a little bit lucky. I think that my journey is not difficult at all - or just a little bit. I sometimes have a little difficulty, but it’s okay. I move on. I walk through that, you see.

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

→ Tiep Suc Mua Thi Student Campaign 2018 (Ng, 2018)

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Interviews

N: That is such a nice story to hear. And I actually almost signed up to the University of Architecture in Ho Chi Minh City too. LA: Oh, really? N: Yeah, that was actually one of my goals back when I was in high school, I actually spent like one and a half years studying how to draw, you know, the decorative watercolor kind of thing that we need to do before applying to the university. It was a really long story of how I got to where I am now, instead of Ho Chi Minh city. But it’s always really nice to meet a person from University of Architecture for me, because I feel like I have a glimpse into what could have been my life, you know? LA: Yeah. N: What about your favorite project so far? I personally know about you through typography work. And I really like your typography work. LA: About my favorite design. Besides creating typography, I’m also focusing on branding - brand design. And one of the most favorite projects I’ve done is a student campaign called “Tiep Suc Mua Thi” since 2018. That is an annual campaign of my university. Architecture University. The main function of that campaign is to support students who are going to university. In that year, I had a chance to work with my talented friends. I really worked with my friends, because that’s a university project. So everybody is a friend. And it’s fun! Everything was so enthusiastic at that moment. That’s the reason why I loved that project. I love the process of that project because those friends are the ones who support me the most for four years. And more than that, it was the first time I tried my best to create a creative direction for the identity, which I didn’t do before. Before that, I was just a normal graphic designer, but now I have a chance to create a path of visions and missions for the project’s identity. It’s one of the biggest annual campaigns. It helped us to be closer together and understand each other. Yeah, me and the group, we really had a great time. And more than that, it made me believe that I am going the right way. I am on my way, and I will keep working on that way to reach my goal. It’s kind of a motivation for me every time. I’m a little bit emotional now.

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

N: Oh that was really great. In fact, I actually referenced your project - that project - as in my mood board for a university project last year, because I myself was also really interested in design education. Last term, I actually interviewed Huy Ta for an assignment. LA: Oh. My buddy. N: I actually watched the video that you guys talked together on his Youtube channel. Last term - last year to be exact - I had this project that related to design education and preparing the student who was about to enter design education, so I took a lot of inspiration from your project. LA: Such an honor. N: I think you should know that your work doesn’t just inspire yourself and your group, but it also reaches to people that you might not know, like me. I’m like all across the country and I still really like that. LA: Thank you. N: You’re welcome. As you can tell, you are one of my female designer role models, because I look up to you a lot. What about you? Do you have any role models or inspirations in design? LA: Yeah, yes, I have both. I have female role models and mentors and inspiration. N: Woah. LA: I always want to be an empathetic and sincere designer. After three years in the design industry, I see that building connections with people is a really great experience. When we have empathy and sincerity, our credibility could be updated and upgraded. So that’s one of my values. I focus when I’m working with clients. Always sincere. That value I learned from my boss, my colleagues, my designer friends, and some strangers designer on the Internet. Sometimes I read their comments and I really learn a lot. All of them are my mentors. I really admire the design community in Vietnam: everybody is nice and kind, and I’m happy about that. But yes, I have a female designer hero in my heart, that is my former creative director. She is one of the female designers that I really had a chance to work with. She is a little bit lowkey,

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Interviews

nobody knows her. It’s her work that puts it into reality. You know, My Kingdom, the brand My Kingdom. N: The toy brand? LA: Yeah. That logo and brand story are from my creative director but nobody knows. She creates an honest and open work environment. A healthy work environment. That is one of the main points the design community in Vietnam doesn’t have. They always say, “Go to the agency you will live in a toxic environment, a toxic workspace”. I hate that, I really hate that. That’s the reason why I felt safe when she was my mentor. She helped me realize my worth and nurture my potential. That’s the biggest, the greatest part that I need to thanks her a lot. Well yeah, that’s my creative director. N: She sounds like an amazing person! LA: And she’s pretty. Now we don’t have a chance to work together anymore but yeah we still keep contacting each other. More than that I truly admire any women who change the design business in the last 16 years, like Paula Scher. Heather Cooper, Jessica Walsh, Jessica Hische. You should search for Jessica Walsh and you will see the man who is Timothy Goodman. N: Jessica Walsh is the founder of Ladies, Wine & Design - the project that highly inspires this project. LA: Jessica Walsh is legendary! N: She absolutely is! LA: That’s those who helped pave the way for us. N: May I ask you a little bit more about your creative director’s ways of creating healthy workspace. What is the healthy workspace that you were talking about? LA: If I say that there is no stress, it will be such a lie. Because at work, of course, we will have stress but we can avoid it from the leader. The way she gives feedback and creates the path, the mission, and vision for us - it’s

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

↑ E Co Khi Nao? Typography & pun book (Ng, 2021)

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Interviews

clearly respectful. The keyword is that she doesn’t treat us like the staff. She treat us like colleagues. We don’t have staff. We don’t have a boss. We have partners. We are the partners. We helped her and she helped us - that’s the relationship between us. That’s why in this relationship there’s no room to be toxic like in other agencies. Sometimes, the graphic designer is a little bit scared of the creative directors. Here in this branding studio, we keep in mind that we are partners. As partners, we could be open to sharing everything with each other. That helps the projects become better. More than that, she cares about our mental health. That’s the one point I really appreciate. I really appreciate that she cares about our mental health. She shows us her mental issues experience. It was kind of brave for us to speak it out. N: As we can tell from your story, having a female creative director just differs so much from working in a normal agency with a male creative director. I don’t mean to assume that every male creative director are insensitive. No, we don’t assume like that, but there is a certain thing from your experience that is having a female creative director really is really different from the way we experience our workplace. Have you ever encounter like gender-related difficulties in the workplace or in school or when you work as a freelancer? LA: I’ve never seen being female as an obstacle. At least not one that I couldn’t overcome with hard work. Sometime I still have a rough time. I am so vulnerable to being a woman and to stand out there to prove to others that we are giving you a solution to your problem. It’s not really easy especially when I work full-time as a brand designer. I need to tell the client that “This is your problem and we need to fix it”. That’s not easy to do because sometimes they don’t care. They don’t listen to you. It’s minor but yes it happened. It’s like, you can just google the word “engineer” and find that a lot of engineers are men. Basically, it’s men’s role. This concept makes it hard for me to communicate with clients. When you do some creative projects, you need persuasion skills to complete the task. That’s why I say sometimes people don’t listen to you because you’re a female. You don’t have room to understand the whole picture and describe it to them. That’s why I don’t say that we can’t do that. But I am saying that we need to work harder to see what men see, to understand what they understand, and to feel what they think. Like me, I can’t talk about the government because I don’t like it. I can’t talk about football because I don’t

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

understand. I can literally even spend a day watching football but I’m not really interested in that. Well, in some situations, we just can’t feel it. I think that’s one of the lacks when we are women. N: The difficulty you wanted to mention is that how it is harder for us to communicate with our clients and with other designers, most of whom are male. It’s harder for us women to fit into the conversations, even though the conversations are not directly related to design. Basically, networking is harder for us because the common topics of networking among designers and clients are a little bit more men-related and men-centered. Us - women - find it harder to get in touch with what they are doing and what they are liking. It leads to other difficulties and that is such a shame to be honest because it is true. Have you thought of some ways to overcome these difficulties of networking? LA: Actually I have one more difficulty that I am struggling with. I’m very shy when talking to male designed because of gender shyness. I’m just shy because he’s a man and I am a woman. When we live in Asian culture, people talk about women taking initiative as a joke. When I want to actively talk to a male designer, I feel really uncomfortable. I try to talk to them like a buddy to make them more comfortable because I don’t want to hear people saying that I’m flirting with him. More than that I feel nervous. Partly because I have an anxiety disorder, and partly because I’m afraid they will judge me because this is a woman’s opinion, a woman’s point of view. In my childhood, I have heard things like a woman knows nothing. I certainly know that the males around me are really nice people, but I deeply fear that sometimes I don’t know what to say. It’s a potential scenario. I’m still struggling with those difficulties but that’s not an everyday problem. I still have a bright side to get over these difficulties. I try to join the creative community in real life and not behind the screen to see what people are thinking, what people are saying, what they are doing out there to understand. When you understand, you will feel relatable. You will see that actually they respect us in a way. When I came into workshops or talk shows, I’m really happy to see that a lot of females are working in creative fields like me, like you, like us. This kind of inspires me. Some of them are really successful, like my creative director. In conclusion, I’m still happy to be a female designer. Sometimes we need to turn the difficulties into motivation to become better people. That’s what I think we are doing. We try to do it and we know we need to do that.

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Interviews

When we live in an Asian culture, people talk about women taking initiative as a joke. — Lan Anh Ng

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

↑ E Co Khi Nao? Typography & pun book (Ng, 2021)

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT | Interviews

N: That is a really valuable takeaway. When we can’t change the context and difficulty, rather turn it into motivation. Push it forward, it will be better. LA: More than that, we should not always be troubled with these things because it’s not going to disappear. It happened, it is happening and it will happen in the future. Right now, I see a lot of female illustrators and artists. When you design, you need to think about the system. I think that’s the ultimate difficulty for women. Because when we are overwhelmed with feelings, we forget to systemize it. That’s the hard part. If you don’t system it, you’re not giving a solution to a system. Because of that, our people are a little bit afraid to do graphic design. That is my opinion. I’m not sure if it’s correct or not but yeah. N: It’s actually an interesting insight that as women, we rather feel than systemize, while graphic design is more about solving a solution systematically. I haven’t really thought of that yet because I personally am quite a systematic person as I plan things clearly, so I haven’t really thought about that a lot. It’s interesting that you point that out - it could actually happen to a lot of women. It could be one of the reasons why not so many girls are interested in or dare to choose Graphic Design. In order to conclude this interview, after all the difficulties and situations you have been through, do you have any advice for yourself - your younger self - when she started doing Graphic Design? Knowing what you know now, what would you say to that girl - Lan Anh - from like five years ago? LA: I would say that if things feel too difficult, be open to pausing. Listen to my own desire - what I really need in that time. In addition, when it doesn’t work, just try to collaborate with others in a spirit of curiosity. Maybe they will complete you - me in the past. Because in the past, I was kind of shy. Right now, I’m still shy and I’m afraid to collaborate with others because I’m afraid that they will judge me. I don’t know why I’m afraid. Even with a female designer, I am still scared to collaborate. But then I started to have a job, I started to have a colleague. I feel “It’s nothing! It’s fine to have a partner”. I deserve a partner. We deserve a partner - a good partner to make us a better person. N: You’re a little bit different for me at that point. As I have mentioned, I’m a perfectionist and a very detailed person. That’s why I really relate to Monica

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

(from Friends). I can relate to her being so nitpicking. That’s why when I work in groups, I also have difficulties because it’s not like I don’t trust others but sometimes people are not up to my point of detail. Also, it’s not like I judge them or anything, I don’t ask them to be what I am. I myself have to learn how to control my own perfectionism to collaborate better with other people. LA: That was me in the past. I used to be a perfectionist person. I think it’s a good thing you can hold to yourself because it helps you to move so far. However, in the future, you will be tired to be a perfectionist. I am right now. N: I am too. LA: You will see that even when things are not perfect, it’s okay. It’s not like anybody dies for perfectionism. Sometimes, you will even see that the imperfections are maybe better. They complete the whole picture. So just keep on being a perfectionist until you’re tired. N: Thank you for joining me today! I learned a lot. This is an interesting talk.

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↑ E Co Khi Nao? Typography & pun book (Ng, 2021) ← E Co Khi Nao? Metal pins of the Typography & pun book (Ng, 2021)

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“Run, Run, Run” - Hansel & Gretal illustration Illustration commission for Heritage Magazine (Nguyen, 2020)

HANOI, VIETNAM

cam anh nguyen

Cam Anh is a Hanoi-based professional independent artist since 2015. She focuses on illustration and has cooperated with different organizations, publishers, and projects such as Animals Asia Foundation, Vietnam Airlines Heritage, Kim Dong Publishing House,… and the most recent project is with To He Viet. She loves illustrating nature and aims for optimism.

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS

Thao Ngoc (N): Thank you so much for agreeing to join me today for this little conversation. A little bit introduction first. My name is Thao Ngoc and I’m the host of the project “Her Design Stories”, which is a feminist project that aims to support and empower female designers in Vietnam. I’m very honoured that you agreed to join me today for a conversation about your experience as a creative illustrator in Viet Nam. Cam Anh (CA): Thank you! I think your project is nice and when I hear the titles and what do you want to do I’m really interested. N: A little information for everyone to know we are now currently here in miss Cam Anh studio-slash-room. Yeah it looks really cute as you can see there are a lot of decorations and some of her paintings - we will get to that later. Let’s talk a bit about you first. CA: Hi everyone, my name is Cam Anh and I am a freelancer illustrator based in Hanoi. N: Let’s talk about yourself in three words. CA: This is hard because I talk a lot but now you have to reduce it to just three words. They are “talkative”, “friendly”, and “colourful”. N: That’s an art-related word. How about your creative journey? I have followed you for quite a while, like three years. I know your brother and then I found out he has a sister who is an illustrator with a You Tube channel. I have been following your channel for three years with a lot of content. I also bought some of your artwork, like postcard from some craft fairs. I’m really interested in how you get to do all the things you have been doing. Let’s talk about the beginning of your interest in art and why do you decided to choose illustration as a profession. CA: My mom had always wanted to have an artsy kid. She always wanted me to study some kind of Arts. At first she wanted me to try piano but it

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didn’t work. Then we tried painting and I realized that this was fun. I think from the beginning, a lot of people encouraged me. They said “This is good” or “You’re awesome” which kept me going. When I was in secondary school, my mother asked me if I wanted to choose this as a career. She knew that if I wanted to go to college then I should have started training since I was little to prepare for the school. Also, each school has its own kind of style so I really need to prepare. I wasn’t really a good student but when my mom gave me a choice, I took it. We choose the Hanoi Industry and Fine Art university. When I went there, I was majoring in jewelry design. Jewelry design was really hard because it’s not just about the shape and the design. I had to know about the materials. I had to actually make things from silver and gold. At the time I finally realize that I didn’t really like making jewelry that much. I try to look for something else because I still wanted to draw. That’s when I found illustration. I was looking for artists that I liked on the Internet. And then I had to persuade my parents that illustration was a thing. Back then, like 10 years ago, people didn’t have a concept of illustrators. There was painters and designers, but illustrator was a very new profession. I had to persuade my parents that I wanted the job and explained to them what it was. My mom and dad were really easy. They understand and give me freedom. They said that, “We trust you and as long as you follow this path to the end, we will support you”. N: That’s so great of any parent to allow their children the freedom to pursue whatever they like. Not everybody gets that privilege. CA: I know. It was privilege and also pressure for me. When people give you freedom, you have to do something with it. N: That’s really relatable to me too because I’m also a person with supportive parents. They were very supportive when I choose designed as my career, but a lot of time I also feel pressured. What if I let them down? Because they get me the freedom but I don’t do well enough. Anyway let’s talk about something fun. You said that about 10 years ago,

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I guess I’m not burning out Personal work (Nguyen, 2020)

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your career started, right? What is your favourite artwork or project so far? CA: I do a lot of commercial work but the thing that I really like is my personal work. This one is my favourite painting. I made it last year. You know that last year was also the first year of Covid-19. Everybody was affected by the pandemic. This painting portraits my confused and stressed state at that time. I still did a lot of commercial work but I also wanted to do my thing. Between all the confusion, I didn’t know who I was. “Am I an animal or human, flower or anything else? I don’t know”. Even in hard time, I still get in the mood of painting. N: During the first 10 years of your career, do you have any female mentors or role models or idols that you look up to a lot? As you said, you learn from a lot of artists, and you picked 10 artists to learn from them first. Are any of them is a woman? CA: I think half of them are women. I always consider my style very feminine - flowers, animals, nature, so half of my idols are women. My teachers also, some of them. I don’t think they are that famous but one of them is Dinh Thi Tham Poong - a female artist that specialize in painting watercolour on do paper. She has been featured in Europe’s galleries and museums. She’s really humble and every time we met, she always encouraged me to follow my path. I remember at one time she reminded me to be confident because I was good. I thought to myself, “OK I will be confident for you”. From someone that big, that’s really kind of her and I still have goosebumps thinking about that experience. N: Have you been a role model to anyone else? CA: I think my YouTube channel helps because a lot of people comment and send me emails and inbox. They watch my video and feel they’re not alone. Like on this path, there is an older sister. N: I feel the same because I can’t buy a lot of YouTube channel from illustrators, let alone a female illustrator. It’s really comforting to know that there is someone out there doing their stuff and showing the process. That’s what I’m looking for from my project: representatives, especially female representatives. It would be encouraging for girls in this field to know that there are also people doing what they are doing. That’s my motivation.

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What about being a female illustrator? Do you think it is different from being a male illustrator? What you like and don’t like about being a female illustrator? CA: I think for my job, it is not that different because we usually work at home and alone. As for the publisher, they really don’t care about your gender. It’s hard to see the difference but I think that after marriage and kids, your career path will be very narrow. Maybe it’s a Vietnamese traditional rule that the men always have the chance to follow their dream even after marriage. For women, I think it’s very difficult. I have been told that I should focus more on the “husband and” matter and maybe reduce my dream a little. I’ve been told that by my family and ex-boyfriend. I think that at the beginning, people want support you because they realize you have talent. At the same time they will remind you that your talent is not everything. N: I think that’s kind of unfair because when you are in a marriage, you are told to reduce your dream because you are a woman, while the men don’t get to listen to those things. CA: Also maybe two for six years into marriage, they will say that “I promise to reduce mine too and share everything with you”. But when you’re actually in a marriage with kids, the man will still follow their dream and let you have all the job. I don’t know maybe because I have trust issues. But I don’t think that all men are like that. N: Yes we are not blaming it all on the men but it’s just a social situation I guess. I mean it’s hard to talk about these things without getting people saying that, “you’re blaming it all on the men”. It’s difficult to raise our voice about our problems as a woman without being criticized that we are overreacting our problems and without hearing that men have their difficulties as well. I just want to say that just because we have our problems doesn’t mean we ignore your problems. We just want you to know that this is our problem and we want you to be more aware of that so you can support us in some kinds of way. That’s why feminism is a sensitive topic. If you get into that situation, what do you think you would do? CA: I have just escaped from a situation like that. My choice is still my career. Maybe just for me but I think I want to do things that nobody else can do, which is painting and drawing. Now that I have developed some kind of skill

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set I’m very proud of, I don’t want to give that up. I look for a partner whom I can trust and he trusts me. Or her. We don’t know yet. We can walk together to the future. We both support each other. Working and living together. N: That’s a lot in 10 years, like the issues and everything. What would you say to yourself when you first started after all those years? Looking back at Cam Anh back then, what would you say? CA: Maybe focus. From the beginning, I tried painting, filming, and also 3D concept art. Back then I didn’t know what I really liked. If you enter the concept art and gaming industry, you make a lot of money because of the demand is always high. I spent two years on that path. I’m not saying that is not cool. It’s really interesting and hard but maybe it’s not for me. From the beginning, if I focused on finding what I really really liked and “click”, maybe I could save a lot of time to focus on what I’m really passionate about.

I look for a partner whom I can trust and he/she trusts me. We can walk together to the future. — Cam Anh Nguyen

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↑ Red Is Luck First Prize, Welfare of animals used in festivals, Animals Asia Vietnam. (Nguyen, 2019)

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N: This is just my opinion after hearing your story: I think that experimenting is actually good because only after we have experimented with so many things can we only find that “click”. CA: Maybe because I have experienced a lot so I could realize what I love. Actually after what I have been through, it adds on to my skills. Not just a watercolour artist but I have a background in many areas that support me a lot. N: It’s actually good because I myself am quite scared of experimenting. I’m more like a safe person. I have this friend who is so good at experimenting. He could do so many experiments with many things without being bored or scared. I am really scared of getting out of my comfort creative zone. Do you have any advice for that? CA: I am a safe person when it comes to a lot of weird stuffs. For example, I will never change my hair on my coffee but I will go right out of my comfort zone for big things. I’m just that type of person. Getting out of your comfort zone will challenge you a lot and push you to some new limits. When I was doing some projects that I thought were too big for me, I cried while painting. Last year, I even had stomachache because of stress. It was the next limit after the crying. But after that, you gain new power. You know that and you can feel that you become bigger. That’s because you take chances. I think everyone has their own strategy to survive. It’s not like you have to get out of your comfort zone because a lot of my “safer” friends are still doing well. They have other targets. N: It depends on each person and their goal. It’s not like getting out of your comfort zone is a must. CA: I think your generation now have a lot of access to more information. I think you guys are more aware of the surrounding while 10 years ago the Internet was still very new. We all went to the library. Now you have a lot of information to compare what is good for you. N: Thank you for your advice. That concludes our interview today which was a really informative one. I really hope to see you again someday.

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HANOI, VIETNAM

tra nhu

Working as an Illustrator for the rising media platform Vietcetera, Tra crafts lively editorial illustrations on diverse topics, notably wellbeing, mental health, personal development, and equality. Collaborating with many young Vietnamese illustrators, Tra aims to provide our audiences with visual narratives that are insightful, inclusive, and positive. Aside from editorial illustration, Tra also creates witty spot illustrations on @muonbietdoichut, and writes quite an amount of articles on Vietcetera, on the subjects of creativity and wellbeing.

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↑ The ‘Close Reading’ Method Editorial Illustration, Vietcetera (Nhu, 2021) ↓ New Vietnam Perspectives Campaign Key Visual, Vietcetera (Nhu, 2021)

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS

Thao Ngoc (N): Hi Tra Nhu (T): Hello N: Thank you so much for agreeing to join the *Her Design Stories* project. I just want to introduce myself a little bit. My name is Thao Ngoc and I’m a senior student majoring in Graphic Design at British University Vietnam. I’m very grateful and honored that you agreed to join my project today to talk about your experience as a female designer. T: Hi everyone, hi Thao Ngoc, I’m Tra. People also call me Mel. I’m working as an illustrator and a manager to our freelancers at Vietcetera. We are a news media company based in Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi. We cater mostly to millennials and Gen Z. Contents about work, life, and basically everything to introduce Vietnam to the world and the world to Vietnam.

N: Thank you so much for your introductions. To start the interview, I would like to learn a little bit more about you as a designer, and also as a female designer. If you had to choose three design-related words to describe yourself, what would those be? T: The first one would be references. I work a lot on references because I’m a self-taught designer and illustrator. Without the influence of others or the understanding of how people normally consume media, it’d be really hard for me to come up with ideas on my own. The second would be lines because as an illustrator, I work mostly with lines. The third one would be feedback because we (designers) cannot work without it. It is a feedback-related industry, anyway.

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

N: That’s a really interesting way of choosing the words so they reflect yourself as an illustrator. What about your creative journey? How did you get to where you are now at Vietcetera? T: My story is a bit unconventional because I did not graduate in graphic design or any design-related studies. I actually studied Professional Communication major in Advertising at RMIT in Vietnam. While doing my bachelor’s degree in Communication, I realized that I’m much more of a visual person rather than of strategies or communication. So I did a little bit of design here and there. I did some freelancing. I try to make most of my projects at RMIT more design-related rather than communication. After three and a half years there, I graduated and interned at Vietcetera. That’s my first full-time job out of uni. The story of how I started Vietcetera is quite fun. We had to have an internship as the final project for our bachelor’s degree. I sent my resume here and there. I had a strong resume in terms of studying as I participate in a lot of awards when I was in uni. But at that point, I felt like the place that I would want to work in the most would be Vietcetera because it’s a blend of Communication and Media. Also, there’s space there for me to work in video or graphic design. I applied to Vietcetera, but they didn’t have a job opening for graphic design or illustration. So I just apply to be an intern. For a week, I didn’t get any response. Then there was a portfolio review event in Saigon. There were a lot of different studios, media companies, and advertising agencies there. The creative directors will see our portfolio and give feedback on them. It’s mostly for first-year creatives. I met Hao Tran, our CEO there, and some other creative directors from The Lab or Rice. They gave a lot of feedback on my portfolio. Hao said, come to the company, be our intern. I said, yeah, I just send you an email a week ago! I started two years ago as an intern. Then after three months, I got on probation and become a full-time (employee). I have been working here for two years now. When I started, there was no job description for being an illustrator. I actually interned for the video team. I helped them with collages and the graphic design of their video. While I was working, the editorial team realized that they need someone to illustrate their content. So I started illustrating those content. And that’s sort of how it went. N: It means you must have done a really good job that they keep you there. T: Thank you. We are lucky. We are very grateful that even though the COVID situation got very drastic in the past year and a half, we still managed to stay quite strong.

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N: I agree with you. Vietcetera just launched its app, right? I haven’t gotten the chance to try it out. But I must say that I follow Vietcetera a lot. I read almost every day because I follow your Instagram. I really really like your podcast, a big fan of the podcast. Just a fun little question. Have you ever met podcast guests? T: Right now no because I’m in Hanoi, but yes back when I was in an openplan office. Whenever the guest comes, we will meet them right there. I have probably met most of the first 10 guests on Have a Sip. I’ve seen them at the office. I also met some of the guests of M.A.D postcast, that anh Tuan Le hosts as well.

↓ 54 Ethnic Groups Of Vietnam And Their Languages Editorial Illustration, Vietcetera (Nhu, 2021)

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N: That’s so cool. I just watched an episode on M.A.D about Ms. Ha Do. She’s also a female creative director of Dep Magazine. I really want to talk to her. She’s really famous and probably very busy. It’s one of my goals for this project is to one day got the chance to talk to her about this topic. T: Hopefully you can meet her and some other soon. N: I really wish to do that. What’s your favorite project you have ever worked on? I’ve seen through your Behance and there’s a lot of editorials projects, illustration projects. One that I was really into was the Mental health issue. It was very beautifully illustrated. T: Thank you. Actually, it’s really hard to pick a project I like because I illustrate every day. Every week, there will be two, three articles that I’ve worked on. Right now I cannot make sense of how many illustration sets I have made. There was one project that is not released yet for a book. This is a nonprofit project that I collaborated with some other designers and illustrators. I really like it. The content is about cancer patients. Breast cancer patients in Vietnam told their stories of how they overcome their cancers, how they face death, or how they found communities in each other. That was a project I really like even though I only have three illustrations in that book. The first thing I love is the stories. Additionally, each time that you work on something that is not your full-time job, something that is more of yourself, it’s really a chance to explore your skills. N: Do you know when it will be released? T: I’m not so sure. To make an example, I made a book cover 10 months ago, and it hasn’t come out yet. In publishing, it could be like that. So I’m not so sure about it when it will come out. N: That’s really cool to hear that you have other outside projects, personal projects alongside your work too because that is also a way that I try to do with this project. I really want to continue this even after my graduation and work on it side by side with my design from work. This could be a chance for me, as you said, to learn more about my skill and my design style. Let’s talk a little bit about inspirations. Do you have any female mentors or role models or inspirations in design?

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↑ Higher Education in Vietnam: How To Make The Best Experiences Editorial Illustration, Vietcetera (Nhu, 2021)

T: Most of the people that I follow throughout the years are very strong female creatives. In terms of graphic design, I have always love Paula Scher or Louise Fili and many other female illustrators as well. In Vietnam, I follow chi Thuy Com, for example, and have some friends like Sieu Tran or Trang Pham, aka Tranglearntoart. There’s a lot of other illustrators that are my peers but I saw them as mentors to myself, mostly because I am a selftaught artist, and the others have received formal art education. We learn from each other in that sort of way. At work, I have a mentor that is my director. She’s Tam Pham. She’s an Art Director at Vietcetera. Even though our work doesn’t include each other much because she is more on the graphic design side and I work mostly on editorial illustrations, sometimes it’s just a sense of friendship, having someone there in the team that also shares your sensibilities.

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N: I personally don’t have a lot of female friends in design, because I am studying at BUV which is a school that just launched the creative department three years ago. Our students are not that few but I don’t think it’s as many compared to other universities and also in the workplace. I really hope that when I entered the work field, I could have more peers like you. What about being a female designer? Have you ever encounter any difficulties related to genders? T: I’m a pretty privileged case because I was in an international university and my workplace is very progressive. Most of my direct supervisors are females and are very young. Most of them are only two, three years older than me. We are very progressive, that’s one thing, but it’s also that we are very decent. In

↓ 7 Types of Attraction, Editorial Illustration, Vietcetera (Nhu, 2021)

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my case, I don’t really sense discrimination, at least when I was studying and also when I was working full-time. From my friends in illustrations, we don’t really have that much discrimination, mostly because we are freelancing. Our clients choose us because of our portfolio without other information in terms of our personal life. In illustration, it’s not a bad situation for other female creative. However, I do hear some from my female friends who are working in graphic design in agencies, studios, corporate environments. The situation can differ from place to place. It really depends on management if you’re working in a company. In terms of freelancing, I’m not so sure, because not many of my friends are freelancers. So I cannot talk on that side. The kind of discrimination can differ from place to place. Some places can say that the female creatives are too sensible, or too sensitive. Or it could be the wage gap. Female creatives can be paid much lower than their male counterparts, especially if they are expats male workers. Those are some of the problems that do exist. N: That’s a really interesting point. When preparing for this project, I did a lot of researches on the situations of gender difficulties for female designers. We haven’t had a lot of researches on the situation in Vietnam, particularly. In the world, or the US and UK, there’s a lot of cases like the pay gap and difficulties in networking because sometimes women find it hard to communicate with men due to gender differences and gender shyness. I personally am very glad to hear that you haven’t encountered those difficulties, that you are working well, and your illustrations are being appreciated by the quality of it, not because you are a female designer or a male designer or anything. That is actually a goal for the design community in general in terms of gender equality. T: It’s really hard (for me) to know whether or not there are symptoms of gender inequalities in our industry because I’m not that much of a senior worker and I only have my work experience in one company and some other projects. One thing that I do notice is that there is a lack of female representation in the big names in design in Vietnam. If you notice, there are actually more seniors designers, art directors, creative directors that are males than females in our industry. It’s something that we see on the surface. It’s really hard to know why there are so many more male directors, senior designers out there rather than females. I hope that if you have the chance to talk to more senior workers, you can get a better understanding of why there’s such an occurrence.

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There is a lack of female representation in the big names in design in Vietnam. — Tra Nhu

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N: That is arguably one of my goals for this project to find more female representatives in the design industry to get to share the stories of lots of amazing and inspirational female creatives. That is also a way to motivate the young girls who are interested in design and to motivate them to start learning and choose this career. What do you love about being a female designer? T: In my case, when I work as an illustrator for a media company, it’s really fun to see myself as the audience. I work mostly on illustration for our lifestyle content, such as well-being, psychology-related content, or content about relationships and love or finance management. We have a lot of females readers on that. When I work on that, I try to include a more diverse representation of what does it look like to be a female in Vietnam. We include women of all sizes, of different ethnicities. When we work on articles about relationships, it doesn’t have to be a heterosexual relationship. It could be a lesbian or gay relationship, or it could be ambiguous. It’s fun to mix it up a little bit here and there, represent everyone, be more diverse. It’s sending an indirect message to our audience out there that if you look like this, we feature you as well. N: Diversity seems to be a really key point in your work and as well as your life. T: It’s obvious for me that I do have to include everyone and be diverse. It’s not a message that I have to consciously push out. It’s more of something that is always there in the back of my mind and always in the back of our mind as a team as well. N: I personally really like editorial work, media, or communication work because I believe that storytelling is a very important key point of the design. That’s why I really enjoy reading Vietcetera and its Gen Z’s take on the news. I really wish that you could develop more and more to reach other generations too, not just us Gen Z, but to our parents, to older audiences. So they can have a view on what we believe. T: We do have a lot of privilege to work with some contributors that have senior standings, KOLs that are not millennials or Gen Z, but of Gen X generation. They can speak from their perspective and their own audience are also older as well. For example, chu Giang Dang or chi Nguyen Phuong Mai,

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and their audience is more senior. N: Do you know chi Nguyen Phuong Mai? T: I don’t work personally with her but we have collaborated with her for some articles. N: I idolized her so much. I idolized her as a feminist. I read every article about her. I read her two books too. Big fan right here. T: Yes, big fan, too. We really hope that COVID will pass and maybe someday she can be on our Have a Sip podcast because it will be amazing to hear her and Chi Thuy Minh speak together. N: Oh my God, imagine that conversation! It’s got to be legendary! Speaking of Chi Thuy Minh, she’s also a really interesting woman that I follow on the internet. She has a lot of interesting take on life too. Do you have a lot of chances to talk to her and work with her? T: I don’t have much chance to work one on one with her but she’s just amazing. She steers our team in good directions and she gave us the freedom to try so many new things, especially on my part as an illustrator. I never have a problem with working with the team because they always let me and my freelancers try everything, experiment with whatever possibilities are out there. It has been great to have a boss like her. N: Even though she’s not a designer, I really hope that we will have more female creative directors like her in the future. We’re really close to the end of our interview. The final question is: After all of those experiences that you had, all the things you’ve learned on the way, what would you say to your younger self, to the girl who’s about to be an illustrator back then? What would you advise her? T: Personally speaking, I still don’t know what I’m doing right now. I guess that is something that you will hear a lot of with others creatives as well. They don’t know what they are doing right now because, in general, the creative industry, and also graphic design, is relatively young in Vietnam. There is no proper pathway of how to become a senior designer or how to become an art director. Everything that we learn is on the job. Creative education is still lacking in many aspects because our industry is still young. It’s very hard for

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↑ How To Work Without Losing Your Wellbeing As A Young Creative Editorial Illustration, Vietcetera (Nhu, 2020) the students to know how to direct themselves after they graduate. In my case, if I have to say something with my younger self, four to five years ago, I would say just two things. I was very scared to try new things when I was back in uni. Even right now in my daily jobs, it’s very hard for me to try new things like new techniques, or new ways of storytelling. If there’s something that I regret, it’d be not trying many different things before I entered the work market and the industry. Right now, it’s very hard for a full-time creative to carve out some time to do things. That’s one, just do different things: make collages, make a new typeface, illustrate everything’s in traditional mediums. Do whatever it could be that your time allows. That’s the first thing. Second, it’d be making more friends. That’s something that I really do regret didn’t try my best to maintain the relationship that I had before. Right now, as I work full-time, and I move between cities, it’s really hard to make new friends or maintain our relationships. Friends are probably the biggest source of learning for me right now. I learned a lot on the job but most of the tricks, and most

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of the motivations that I received are from my friends. If I have a struggling day at work, I will say something on my Instagram and my illustration friends will come in. We talk about it a little bit, and then we try to find what is the reason. Most of the time, that kind of feedback from friends in the industry helps the most. When I talk to my coworkers, it is more work-related, but when we talk with someone who is in the industry, they know our personal struggles as well as our career struggles. It makes a good blend of friendships and mentorships. That’s two things, make more friends. N: Is that also why you say you have a lot of female mentors that are also your friends? T: Not that much. If I push myself a little bit more, maybe I will make more friends, but I’m too introverted for that. So just a little bit but the quality is more important. As long as you have really cool friends, it will be very helpful. Working as a freelance creative or working in the creative industry, in general, could be very lonely sometimes whether you are a male or female or not. You always have the sense that you have to pump out new work all the time and you feel like your work and your identities are always blended into one another. Your identity is a creative person and you have to make works in order to affirm that identity. You just need to have friends or else you will just feel like life is just about making illustrations. It will be very gruesome if you will think all your life’s worth is just making stuff. N: It is true. Thank you for the advice. I will take that. T: I think it’s an advice for everyone out there because I experienced it firsthand. I think too much about work and I need to stop thinking about work sometimes. People, make friends! N: I think it’s kind of gen Z about deadlines and work, and thinking about work and working. Hustle culture in general. It’s like a gen Z thing. Sometimes you need to slow down, stop the hustle and make friends. T: Differentiate between your work and your life. Make a clear line between your own identity as a person and your identities as a creative. It makes things more balanced. N: Thank you so much for all the good advice and interesting stories that you just shared. And thank you very very much for agreeing to join the project.

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Your identity is a creative person and you have to make works in order to affirm that identity. — Tra Nhu

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Coffee and Tee Mighty Mono typeface in use (Ha, 2020)

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

thy ha

Thy Ha is a Vietnamese designer, born and raised in Sài Gòn (Ho Chi Minh City), and currently based in Melbourne, Australia. In 2019, she received her MA in Communication Design at RMIT University. Thy works as a digital designer for start-ups during the day and becomes a type designer at night. She is also a member of the Vietnamese typography collective Luu Chu. Currently, Thy is researching Vietnamese typographic history and exploring font engineering. Seeing how type design is still perceived as a ‘Western-centric’ discipline, she hopes to minimise the dissimilarity gap between the markets in the future.

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS

Thao Ngoc (N): Welcome to Her Design Stories. Thank you so much for agreeing to join my project today. Let me introduce myself. My name is Thao Ngoc and I’m currently a senior student, majoring in Contemporary Creative Practice, Graphic Design at British University Vietnam. Her Design Stories is my graduation project which focuses on supporting Vietnamese female graphic designers. I’m very honored that you agreed to join me today and talk about your experience as a woman in graphic design. To begin, can you start by introducing yourself a little bit? Thy Ha (T): During the daytime, I do digital design work but during the nighttime, I work as a type designer. It’s like pixels by day and vectors by night. I was born in Saigon - Ho Chi Minh City. So, a lot of my work is inspired by my roots, if you already see my work from typography and more. I’m also currently a member of Luu Chu, a Vietnamese typography collective. I work as a content coordinator, meaning I work with another team member on writing social media posts and blogs, but not too much recently because I’m too busy. N: Are you in Australia to study for your master’s degree? T: I already finished my master’s. I’m doing the post-graduate Visa so I can work here. N: So your future plan is to work in Australia long-term? T: I’m not sure if I want to stay here or go back home yet because there are a lot of things to do with Luu Chu which I just joined last year. I’ll figure it out someday. Luu Chu started as the Lost Type Vietnam. It’s a community project where young people take photos of the shop signage and post them on Instagram through the hashtag. It started with the founders. Later on, the founders wanted to expand the group to do more type design projects. That’s why we become a big group right now. It’s not too big, but it’s more people. N: It’s actually really interesting because at BUV, we got to study typography

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from a cultural context. We got a chance to travel around Hanoi and have field trips to take photography of typography everywhere. Then, we design a typeface based on those. It was my assignment back in year two, and I made a typeface called Tiep Quan that has a whole story behind it. Hence, I’m really interested in Luu Chu because it’s similar to my assignment. Maybe someday, I would want to contribute to it. Though, I’m not very confident with my type since I’m not a typeface designer. I’m not that knowledgeable about typefaces yet. T: There’s not a lot of people in our group who are really knowledgeable about type design so it’s okay. N: What’s your design journey? How did you get to where you are now? How did you get to Australia? T: It might be luck because when I was in high school, my parents, like many Asian parents, wanted me to become a doctor. I majored in chemistry or biology so that I can study further to become a doctor. But I didn’t like it and felt like I wasn’t good enough. Then my uncle introduced me to design at RMIT Vietnam. So I got to study there. Then I exchanged for one year in RMIT Melbourne campus. Staying there, I got to know a lot of teachers and good designers which made me decide to stay back for my master’s degree. That led me to do more research about typography when I did my master’s. N: How long did you do your master’s? T: It’s two years. I did my last year of bachelor’s in Melbourne and I took two more years for my master’s. N: That was my original plan for BUV too because we are also connected to universities in the UK. I really want to go because I also want to do a master’s degree there. Then COVID happened. How is COVID in Australia, though? Is it bad? Does it affect your work a lot as a designer?

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↑ Up? Down? Left? Right? - Experiencing Vietnamese diacritics in the type design process Artefact from Thy Ha’s Master Research project (Ha, 2019)

T: Yes and no. No, because being designers, we are lucky. We can work on computers, stay home and do whatever we want. We are also connected to a lot of different countries as well. Yes, because last year was a roller coaster. It was my first year of graduation so I only have two years left to stay and work. But because COVID happened, there’s no job advertised. Even if they have jobs, it’s hard because I’m not a citizen. It was a bit tough but now it’s fine. N: I find it very relatable because I’m also working on my graduation project. We plan to have an exhibition. But COVID happened and everything is very uncertain. I have a lot of plans of actually meeting female designers to have face-to-face interviews with them. However, this is also an opportunity for me to reach out to people who are outside of Hanoi and Vietnam, like you.

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↑ Coffee and Tee Mighty Mono typeface in use (Ha, 2020)

N: What’s your favorite design project so far? I’m going to take a guess, is it your master’s research? T: Yes, I quite like it. I have to develop it soon. It was a bit challenging when I first started. Not many people did type design like me and not all my teachers know much about typography. It’s more diverse and we did more research. However, I got a lot of helpful feedback so it’s not too bad. I want to transfer it to a website someday, but I’m not sure when it is. N: I think it’s a little bit challenging to work on Vietnamese typography with foreign teachers because Vietnamese has diacritics. Foreign teachers are not familiar with that. It’s quite challenging for type designers or students to work on Vietnamese typography because our teachers are not experienced with diacritics and we have to figure it out all by ourselves a lot. It was also the

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case during my assignment. T: It’s not only about the design, they also need to know about the Vietnamese alphabet. Though, there’re a lot of aspects that they can give feedbacks on as well. For example, one of my teachers pointed out that Vietnamese words are really short, around four to five letters per word. English words are much longer. Will that affect the Vietnamese type design or not? N: Talking about your teachers, are any of them women? Do you have any female role models, mentors, or inspirations in design? T: Do you know the Malee Scholarship from Sharp Type? They are a scholarship for women of color in type. From that, I started to know more typography designers that I never knew before. If I have to choose one person, it would be my friend who is three years older than me. I know about her journey before as well. Her name is Uyen Nguyen. If you can find her, she’s Uyenkulele - she also sings. She’s my friend’s sister. I studied with her brother during high school. She is the one that inspired me to choose Design as my major. N: I didn’t know that she’s a designer. T: She studied Design at RMIT Vietnam. She’s really talented. N: I followed her for quite a while but I didn’t know that she is a designer. I really like her songs, though. T: She’s also in Melbourne right now for RMIT Melbourne but we studied different things. Uyen studied at RMIT Vietnam then came here to study animation. N: What do you love about being a female designer? T: It’s a bit weird but it’s nice being surrounded by a lot of male designers. In Luu Chu, I am the only girl. The other members treat me really well. It’s not because I’m a girl but because being a female designer, I look into details when they don’t really do. N: What about the difficulties?

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Up? Down? Left? Right? - Experiencing Vietnamese diacritics in the type design process Artefact from Thy Ha’s Master Research project (Ha, 2019)

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T: There’s not much difficulty when I’m at Luu Chu because they are really nice and because we share the same passion. Something did happen to me before, though. It’s not a bad thing and more of a stereotype. During a project with a team, I was the designer, and someone else was the developer for the project. When I pointed out a problem from the developer team because I know how to code, my manager said: “You know how to code? It’s surprising because not many female designers can code.” I said: “No, it’s not. This is just a stereotype.” N: Yes, it’s quite unfair to assume. How did you react? T: I said: “Why not? It’s just design and coding, we can learn anything.” It’s not that the way they said it was that bad. It’s just a stereotype that people always think. N: I think it’s a bit sad how someone thinks like that. We know that sometimes they don’t mean anything bad and it’s not that serious. However, sometimes we think about the implications or the underlying ideas of stereotype, it’s a bit discouraging for us, girls. T: I think it’s not really discouraging. You can take that as an advantage to prove that they are wrong. N: I’m really glad to hear that you don’t seem to encounter a lot of genderrelated difficulties. That’s one of the goals for me when I do this project, as I hope that through this project, talking to people, I will find out that they actually don’t have a lot of problems, like I am afraid. When I prepared for this project, I did a lot of research about how female designers are a little disadvantaged compared to male designers such as there not being as many creative directors. I really want to do interviews to talk to female designers in the field in Vietnam to see if there is actually a problem here. There are apparantly, because I’ve talked to some others and they have had some difficulties related to their gender. However, it’s nice to hear that you don’t have a lot. Even though you still have that case of stereotype, it seems like your friends are really nice and you don’t have a lot of problems related to your being a woman. Let’s wrap this up by speaking about some advice for the past and some of the plans for the future. What would you say to your younger self as a

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↑ Mighty Mono typeface (Ha, 2021)

↑ toi viet (tieng Viet) | i write (in Vietnamese) book & exhibition Mighty Mono typeface in use (Nha, 2021)

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Do whatever you like, or choose one of your most favorite subjects, or hobbies in design and develop it, or your passion in design and be good at it. — Thy Ha

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female designer who is about to enter the design industry in Vietnam? T: I’ve never actually been in the industry in Vietnam. If I have any advice for my younger self, it’s to do whatever you like, or choose one of your most favorite subjects, or hobbies in design and develop it, or your passion in design and be good at it. I know a lot of friends in design that they look at as a normal nine-to-five job. They also have to do a lot of multimedia design but they forgot about the reason why they start with design, which is that they love creativity. I think when someone or a female designer, just starts her first career or just enters the industry, she can just be herself and do whatever she likes and be creative. N: Even though designing is something we love, because we do it as a job, it’s hard to find the love for it. We have to follow briefs and have a lot of things to deal with. However, it’s really necessary to look back and think of the reason why we start it. What about the future? Do you have any plans in mind? T: I found what I want to do in design which is type design, but it is currently not an option that I can do full-time. I hope I can someday. For now, I work as a full-time digital designer to earn salary money to actually help my type design for later on. If I have advice for my future self, it’d be to keep doing what I’m doing right now - doing a nine-to-five design job but still maintain a focus on my typography passion. N: Do you have any typefaces in store that we should look forward to? T: I’m planning to publish one from my research project but I’m not sure what the plan is. Everything is ready. I’m just not comfortable putting it out there yet. Maybe just some marketing work is needed to be done. N: I really hope I could use your typeface one day. Thank you so much for agreeing to join the interview today. I really hope the best for your work and your typography work. I really admire people who work with typography and who designed typography because the level of details and attention to details is mind-blowing. I really hope your typeface will be popular everywhere one day. Thank you very much again for joining my project.

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HUE, VIETNAM

dong giang

Dong Giang is a dreamy amateur. Self-taught graphic design has been her favorite habit since secondary school. She first labeled herself J.thejourney as a pseudonym to be cool but never used it because her clients love her real name. She has been struggling to figure out her own design style but her friends could easily identify her artworks among the others. She still cannot understand why. Her strength seems to be 2D graphic print and publishing design. She is not into 3D graphics and does not know how to practice it either. With a bunch of insecurities about herself, she utilizes them to shape her design mindset, in which her works will never be the final ones. Last but not least, she longs to stably and lastingly work in Hue, her hometown, after experiencing Saigon “enough”.

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Thien Quang Hau Mac Quoc Hoc Hue - High school Traditional Musical project (Le, 2019)

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INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS

Thao Ngoc (N): Long time no see! Dong Giang (G): Long time no see you too! N: Thank you so much for agreeing to join me today. How are you? G: I’m good. It’s not easy to answer this question every time people ask but yeah I’m good, in general. N: I see. You’re in Hue right now, right? G: Yeah, for summer vacation. N: Oh, I totally forgot about that since the schedule at my school is different [A: Yeah, I know] There’s no summer for me at all. G: Poor you. N: Right, so let’s get this conversation started. Can you introduce yourself a little bit to our audience? G: I am a Leo [laughs] and I love to teach myself about graphic design. I first labelled myself as G the Journey but until now I’ve never used it. My client would like to call me “Dong Giang” so I still use my real name for my works. If people ask me about my personal style, I won’t be able to answer them since I’m still struggling with it. I’m not into doing 3D graphics at all. I have a lot of insecurities and I usually utilized them to shape my mindset – No work is the final/the best one. I plan to settle down and work in Hue once I feel like I’ve experienced enough in Saigon. N: That’s nice – not a lot of graphic designers I know would like to stay in Hue. G: Yeah, that’s the reason why I long for it.

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↑ Chuyen Rang Thinh Suy's single (Le, 2020)

N: Great to know that whenever I come back home, I could always have a fellow designer to hang out with. G: Hope so [laughs] N: I have high hopes, don’t worry. What’s your design journey? I have seen your works for indies artists like Thinh Suy, so how did you get to that? G: At the very beginning, I would like to mention the platform that brought Photoshop to me – ZingMe. I want to say thank you to everyone who diligently posted weekly Photoshop tutorials there and introduced me to Graphic Design. Regarding my journey, I don’t have the habit of reflecting and writing in my diary so it is hard for me to recount everything. I just sit in front of the screen day by day and when I looked back, I’ve already been doing a lot of work. Now I’m here and I literally have no idea why I got to collaborate with artists like Thinh Suy, Pay, Bang Kieu or Thanh Ha.

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↑ The Inner You Dot grid notebook, Third Prize in FPT Edu Color Up 2019 (Individually). (Le, 2019)

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N: The good thing is that it actually happened and you did it. G: Everything happens for a reason. I just caught the opportunities – people connect with me through friends’ recommendations. It wasn’t something too special or unique. N: But isn’t that how we usually get our jobs and the inquiries? You and I, we are both at the at the beginning point of our careers and word-of-mouth is actually a reliable source. G: I really appreciate all of the recommendations that I got. People always speak nicely about me, like “She’s really good, you can contact her” – whether it’s a personal brand or a product. It shows that they trust me and I’m very thankful. N: Out of your projects, both personal and commercial, which one are you most proud of? G: My favourite one is probably the project that got me my first Graphic Design prize – The book The Inner You (previously called “Inside Daddy, Inside You”). This was the first work I submitted to a competition for Graphic Design students. It’s a dot-grid notebook – you can sketch, take notes or do bullet journals – but designed differently compared to the ones in the market. The first part tells a story about my father and how he pushed his interest aside when he was still young and passionate. The narrative was in Vietnamese and users could either read or skip it. The second part includes interactive dot-grid pages with five stages and five different looks, corresponding to five modes that the user has undergone throughout their lives. I believe that every user should be the protagonist of their own lives, hence this personalized design. My initial purpose was to express the love for my father and satisfy my thirst for design, but then I also wanted to connect to my other emotions to some extend. That’s when The Inner You was brought into life. N: Do you have a copy of this? G: No, unfortunately. Printing dot-grid notebook is costly so I only had one, which I have sent to the organizers of the competition. N: Printing price is such a huge problem for design students.

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G: Yeah. N: See, I told you – I’ve always known that you’re really potential [G: Aww]. Actually, my favourite work of yours would be Thien Quang Hau Mac, the branding project. I guess as I have graduated from high school then and have always been interested in the design community at Quoc Hoc Hue, where we began, as an alumni I’m just really proud to see younger designers doing such a good job with Graphic Design. G: Oh my God, I’m so happy to hear that. I also really like the project too, but I think when we do something for the first time, it always feels insignificant. The Inner You is the first project that I won a prize with, too, that’s why I went with it.

↓ Thien Quang Hau Mac Quoc Hoc Hue - High school Traditional Musical project (Le, 2019)

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N: Let’s talk about inspiration. Throughout your ways of studying Graphic Design, do you have any role models or inspirations? G: There is no specific person, since I tend to get fascinated by one’s artwork in a short period of time rather than by who they are. I don’t like to stick to someone as an inspiration – I’m easily influenced and it’s not good when I’m still searching for my own style. I would still like to mention some amazing creators that I really admire: La Yen Nhi – a young & multifunctional person who is talented at art, design and even photography with a really good taste, Huy Ta – a mentor figure, I’ve learned a lot from his videos about Graphic Design and Jessica Kobeissi and Banh Cam – two female photographers who inspired my collage editing. N: I was about to comment that Huy Ta is actually not a woman. G: I know, but I just really want to mention him for inspiring me. Like I said, I focus on who they are, not gender. N: Fun fact: I actually got to interview Huy Ta for my project last term and in this series, I also worked with Lan Anh Ng., who’s also a friend of his – she has some very interesting insights and inputs. It’s really cool how the community come together at some point. I also find it interesting that you mentioned caring more about the person, not their gender. That’s the goal of equality/equity – when it comes to the point that you look at an individual beyond their sex. G: I tend to focus more on their work, not their looks or background information. N: So the quality of their work [G: Nods] But do you think gender, which is a part of a designer’s identity, will influence one’s work? G: Maybe yes, maybe no. I’m not sure – The study about gender or feminism is not my main concentration. But I believe that one’s personality, characteristics and how they look at the world are the things that would directly determine the final artwork. For example, Huy Ta or La Yen Nhi are opposite in terms of gender, but it is their substantial belief that affects how their works turn out.

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N: I was about to ask about the differences of being a female designer, but I take a guess that you wouldn’t think about it that way. G: Yeah, I think I would share about being a designer – rather than a female designer – because to me they are the same. As a designer, it’s interesting that I am able to brainstorm the whole process of a random design on the road – whenever I come across one, I would start figuring in my head about how it was created. Another thing is that I can call out the name of a typeface when I see one. Those are two realistic things that I can think of. N: It’s actually funny because the questions that I’ve prepared are a little gender-related, since I wish to learn if there were differences in female designers’ experiences comparing to male designers. But as you don’t think of gender as a difference, is it safe to assume that you don’t go through difficulties related to your gender? G: Maybe I was lucky not to suffer, undergo or face any discrimination, hatred or disrespect – maybe any other gender-related hassles. I have worked with many male clients and designers and they all have been kind to me – maybe because I’m a girl and it’s their job to be nice as partners or co-workers. We have to compromise, like a win-win relationship, so both sides can have equal rights. They respect me as a human being, I guess? Therefore, I don’t feel the need to emphasize my gender while working with them and all my attention goes to the quality of the work. N: Yes! I’m really glad to hear that you have yet to experience anything bad. I intended to ask about stories of you being in disadvantage, but it’s so great that you went through none of that and I wish it would maintain that way as your career goes. Let’s talk about the past, and also the future. Looking back to Dong Giang and your high school self, do you have any advice? G: I think a word I’d like to send to my past self would be clarification. I need to define my direction as a “tho thiet ke” (design workman) or “nha thiet ke” (designer) – I don’t mean to criticize anyone but they are two different things. Back then, I should decide which path would be suitable for me. I also need to be clear about my understanding and adaptability in this field. We have vector-based and pixel-based, right?

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↑ Chuyen Rang Thinh Suy's single (Le, 2020)

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I see our knowledge as pixel-based – it is never enough and difficult to transform – if we don’t wish to see low-quality artwork, we have to find a way to constantly scale up our understanding. My knowledge about Graphic Design can be represented by a raster image – if displayed in the proper size, people could see it in high-quality; but if it was immediately expanded to accomplish certain tasks, the links would be easily broken. It could be fixed right away but you need time to get along with it. I would tell my younger self to have a vector-based adaptability. Vector-based shape can be scaled without losing its clarity and printed at any size, catering to our needs & purposes. I hope I could be more empathic to my clients – get an idea of their preferences, intentions and what they want from the product. I also want to be more open to new design trends like blur and grained background, hologram, monochrome or bigger like abstract minimalism, etc. Those are two terms that I wish to carry with me all the time. N: You came up with the imagery yourself? G: Yes, I composed that myself. N: Nice! That [the terms] has the potential to become an inspirational talk for designers. That was very clever of you to combined elements that every designer is familiar with your intentions to always learn and adapt. I will steal that to advise my younger self too [laughs] So, what about the future? G: I’m not the type of person to plan for the future. Living for the present, right? I have no big plans, but I want to be someone that’s multi-facet. I want to try a lot of things, like branding design, UX/UI, advertising design, etc. so I want to know as much as possible, but with an in-depth understanding. Graphic Design in Vietnam is very competitive and if you just know an aspect of it, you can never survive and have a broad idea about the market, so I wish to expand myself. You know – vector-based and pixel-based. I will expand my knowledge gradually and properly. N: I wish you all the best of luck.

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I see our knowledge as pixel-based — if we don’t wish to see low quality work, we have to find a way to constantly scale up our understanding. I would tell my younger self to have a vector‑based adaptability. — Dong Giang

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Innovation Factory - InFact Coffee Branding & Visual Identity (Hai&Ikigai, 2019)

HANOI, VIETNAM

uyen ngoc

Following her education at Karelia University (Finland) and Ewha Woman's University (Korea), Uyen set herself well up for a career in design through her tenure at Pentagon Design, one of Helsinki’s most prestigious design agencies, where she worked with many of Finland’s home-grown multinationals, such as Karl Fazer, KONE, Fiskars, and Kesko Oyj. In 2017, Uyen came back to Vietnam and took on the role of Senior Designer at Richard Moore Associates, spearheading the design aspect of branding projects for Vietnamese corporate clients including Vietjet Air, Sunhouse, Nguyen Kim, and among many others. Recognizing a gap between design and her home culture, Uyen founded Hai&Ikigai Design Studio with her colleague Van Tran in 2018, setting out to make design practice more accessible and relevant to everyday life, to everyday people.

HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS

SECTION 1 Thao Ngoc (N): Can you introduce a little bit about yourself? Uyen Ngoc (U): I’m Uyen. I’m a designer, founder and creative director of a design studio in Hanoi called Hai&Ikigai. That’s a vast introduction that I can give about myself. N: Describe yourself in 3 design-related words. U: Strategic, because that’s what we use daily. Relevant, because that’s what my team and I are doing every day – providing relevant design solutions. Inspiring, because that’s what design should do in life. N: Speaking of “inspiring”, can you spot the poster in the background? U: Yes! It’s the Hangry Woof (one) [laughs]. [The design] is quite recent, where did you get that? N: I got the flyer from InFact Coffee. U: Oh so you’ve been to InFact! We had a workshop there and got some leftover leaflets. They are not official – it was only for the event – but it is good that you have it. N: Yeah, I am a huge fan of your work, as well as Hai&Ikigai’s. Personally speaking, I find your designs very relatable – the strategies, the stories and everything. Since I’m also aiming for branding design, storytelling is something I took interest in. Fun fact: I actually am thinking about applying for Hai&Ikigai after my graduation. Is it weird that I am telling you this? U: [Laughs] It’s okay. Actually, the way we do in our studio goes like this: If I see someone who’s curious about strategic design and wanting to have a

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chat with me or my team, I would just ask them out for a coffee! It’s good to introduce young Vietnamese designers to strategic design, as there aren’t many educational institutes in the industry that can provide such knowledge. I met a lot of my team members this way too. I prefer casual talks to formal interviews – we are more interested in your personality and the way you perceive design than your CV. N: I love how your recruitment style is more organic – how you’d like to learn more about one’s personality and style. U: Probably just because we [the company] are still small. You are allowed to do that as a small studio. N: Just a pop-up question: Do you think that your recruitment style stems from the nature of being a female designer?

↓ The Hangry WoofTM - Pet Supplements Branding & Visual Identity (Hai&Ikigai, 2020)

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↑ Innovation Factory - InFact Coffee Branding & Visual Identity (Hai&Ikigai, 2019)

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U: I never thought about it too much. It’s not really related to gender – more like my past experience working in Finland. My first interview as a young designer at Pentagon Designs was so laid-back – the questions were meant to figure me out as a person, rather than a designer. I was so impressed that Finland people prioritize humanity over profession, that’s why I naturally adopted the style. N: I see. Thank you for clarifying. You mentioned Finland – I have done my research and found out that you studied there before coming back to Vietnam. What was your journey to design like – from studying overseas to going back and starting Hai&Ikigai? U: I got into design, or Creatives, in high school and had no intentions to become an artist. Back in 2012, creative school in Vietnam was yet to be a thing – there were only art schools, so I didn’t have many options. It was my dad who gave me the guidelines – he suggested going to schools in Nordic countries, even mentioned names like IKEA, and handed me the application form. I started working on my first hand-made portfolio, sent it to Finland and got in. I was too young to understand what design is, so I didn’t do any research about Finnish design [industry]. When I got there, everything was brand new. I studied industrial design for a year then switched to graphic design after joining a course, deciding that this was my passion. The journey was shaped in Finland, of course, but it was also partially influenced by my study exchange in Seoul (South Korea) – I took inspirations from the designing style as it is also Asian culture. When I had my first job in Pentagon Designs at 21 years old, that was when I first heard about strategic design. At that time, I only cared about creating nice graphics but the experience gave me the knowledge. Design is not just about graphics or communication, it’s also about the way people use it in life. After going back to Vietnam, I started working on branding – a very common aim for Vietnamese designers. Working with big corporation is nice and I have learned a lot but I didn’t really “design” – as in creating an impact on everyday life. That’s why I opened up my own studio, where every project is my playground to test my strategic design methods. It’s been about eight years since I started being a designer. N: Wow. So how long has it been since you founded Hai&Ikigai? U: Three years, I think? From 2018, around this time. I remembered promising

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not to do a start-up or set up an office in summertime. A tip for those who are about to open an office: Don’t do it in summer. N: Thank you [laughs]. In the process of founding Hai&Ikigai, did you encounter any difficulties as a female creative director? U: Yes. Every day, we would face unknown obstacles as I have never been a creative director before. I don’t consider them as difficulties but rather challenges that we need to find solutions to. I couldn’t recount all of the struggles but I and my team always try to pull through together. N: What is your favorite project of Hai&Ikigai so far? My personal favourite is InFact coffee – it’s a pity that I live far away from this location but I try to visit it whenever I have the chance to. I really love that place. U: Why do you love that place? N: I am a coffeeholic – not about the drinks but more about the ambience. I think it’s a Gen Z thing nowadays – going to coffee shops to study or work. There are not so many coffee shops that are designed specifically for this purpose, but InFact even has a focus zone for working. I also love the subtle details – how the table is big enough for laptops and books, how seats are placed with proper distance and especially the design of the socket. If there’s one feedback, though: The table on the side [of the socket] is not very convenient for group work – I figured later on that it might be a personal space. But overall, I love it a lot and I love the coffee too, even though I am not really big on that. U: How did you learn about InFact? N: My boyfriend introduced me to it. He saw the pictures on Instagram and said that the place seemed interesting. I knew about you and InFact separately, then I found out that Hai&Ikigai was responsible for the branding design of the coffee shop. U: So you know about the behind-the-scene stories. N: Yes! I read through the case study on Behance. U: Yes, since you asked about my favourite project: We actually have a lot

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↑ The Hangry WoofTM - Pet Supplements Branding & Visual Identity (Hai&Ikigai, 2020)

of projects, but we don’t often publish our work as we always have other ongoing ones to take care of. There are some I could share but it would be interesting to talk about InFact, as it is closer to Millennials and Gen Z – our target audience. A bit of service design is involved, plus the concept does not stop at design and brand identity – we also work on community engagement and customer experience. N: On the topic of community, I heard that InFact also hosts workshops, right? U: Yes but because of the pandemic, this activity is currently being postponed. It’s sad because everyone was so excited – they intended to use the 2nd floor as an open space for workshops and wanted to invite a lot of speakers. InFact started their business at the end of 2019 and since then had to close down temporarily four times, but they are a resilient business – their design base is also helping them quite a lot. N: I really want to attend one of the workshops someday – as I have mentioned, I live quite far away so it’s hard to travel all the way to Hanoi. Once the situation is better, I would love to visit InFact, maybe invite you for a cup of coffee [laughs] and invite you to our exhibition as well.

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↑ Innovation Factory - InFact Coffee Branding & Visual Identity (Hai&Ikigai, 2019)

SECTION 2 N: In the first section, you talked about your experience at Pentagon. Did you have any female role models or mentors back then? Or just in general. U: Yes, a lot actually. Half of Pentagon’s staff were female and were all senior designers. I don’t think Vietnamese designers are aware of them since Finns are not good at bragging and their images are usually in teams instead of as individuals. I admire all of them as they are very independent and don’t frame themselves as “female designers” – just “designer” is fine, which I find very cool. Finland is a country that respects freedom and equality – they have no hierarchical approach – and I found myself not thinking much about my gender. I was very lucky to be working in that environment and got to look deeper into my characteristics.

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When I came back to Vietnam, though, it’s a different story. I started to experience incidents because I’m, well, a woman. N: Your story in Finland is the ultimate goal for designers, as well as for my project. I believe that equality is when you don’t need to care about the differences, gender in this case, and everyone is treated based on their ability – designers wouldn’t need to be labelled as “male” or “female”. I really hope that we could come to that point one day. You mentioned that compared to your experience overseas, Vietnam was different. Can you elaborate on that? U: The difference lies in stereotypes, not just about gender or age. So many times I went to the bank and got asked if I was really the founder of a business/enterprise or I was helping someone else. That a young woman cannot have her own company is a weird viewpoint – people shouldn’t care about it, let alone triple check that fact or come to false conclusions. Walking out, I always thought to myself: “Why did I have to experience that kind of thing at a bank?” – I don’t blame it on the one who asked the question, but more like the society and its old-school perception. There were a lot of other things but they don’t bother me anymore. I alone cannot fix it – we just have to wait for the society to move forward and become more equal. It’s just a matter of time. N: But those behaviours, for me personally, were always so elusive to the point that it’d be weird to call them out. People would consider that overreacting, but when tit-bits combined it doesn’t seem to be that small and subtle anymore. U: It’s not and I often talked about it, but instead of getting concerned or angry, I seek solutions. [Referring to the aforementioned incident] I would start talking in a way that gets my point across – I might look and act easy but I still demand respect – so that at least the next lady boss coming into the room will not be interrogated. She [the one with the question] will naturally get used to it. N: So the one at the bank was a woman too? U: Yeah.

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We say no to clients if they cannot see our values. We don’t work for money, so we just skip the ones we found uncomfortable with. HER DESIGN STORIES | A Feminist Design Project

— Uyen Ngoc

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N: How ironic. U: As you can see – It’s not about gender in Vietnam. It would be very unfair to assume things – a lot of my male friends are actually very equal. I am surrounded by good people, so I don’t have to deal with these situations on a daily basis. Acquaintance, though, even female, might not share or embrace the same idea. To me, that’s quite bad. I don’t go out of my way and convince people, but I always remind them that they [women] have more power than they let on. Then again, it’s just hard – unfortunately, they are not being empowered by society and have no room for growth. Nobody can blame them. N: That’s such a designer way of thinking – approaching the problem with a solution. U: Why, thank you. N: It speaks very strongly about a designer’s mindset – we come up with a game plan instead of complaints. U: I tried to put myself into their shoes – they didn’t go to Finland and have lived in this society for all their lives – so I cannot ask them to treat me equally. You need to have empathy – that’s the first step. N: I was meaning to ask about your community of designers too. You said you have a lot of friends, male included, that are aware of equality. However, have you ever had difficulties related to your gender with clients or other stakeholders? U: Yes, but as woman leadership is becoming more common these days, the concerns were more often about age. People don’t seem to believe that young people can do strategies. Especially with traditional enterprises in Vietnam, as they are established and have already reached a certain level of success, they would usually look down on younger people, which they opted as “inexperienced”. To me, that’s not a good thing, but I just accepted that we’re not each other’s cup of tea. We say no to clients if they cannot see our values. We don’t work for money, so we just skip the ones we found uncomfortable with. I also don’t want my team to go through that experience – in an inclusive team like ours, we treat each other as equal humans.

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N: Indeed, it’s really good that you create an environment where every team player is just a fellow human. U: I consider our studio as a small hub. I try to protect my team from any kind of toxicity. We have been through a lot, but then we’d just move on. N: Dealing with and removing stereotypes is a long-term matter that can take generations to solve. As a mere human being, we could only try to deal with it, I suppose. U: Yeah. N: There’s an interesting thing I wish to bring up when you mentioned clients thinking of you as “too young” as a founder and creative director. This is an example of intersectionality. Have you ever heard of this term? U: Kind of, but can you clarify the question? N: No, it’s not actually a question – I was just making a point. This is a theory in feminism, stating that each person would expect a different set of problems. For example, if you are a female graphic designer in Vietnam and you’re young, you will have to deal with sexism and ageism. If you’re working in an international workplace and they are unfriendly, you could also face racism. You alone have already experienced three types of difficulties related to your unique identity of being a young female Vietnamese designer. That brings us back to inclusivity – where we care for women, for female designers and everyone with all kinds of problems that they have, not just for a specific group of women. It’s not nice to know about your story of being too young, but being aware of intersectionality could raise the audience’s awareness about this situation. U: I already shared my tip, but if a small incident happens to you – don’t fight back, not as in “ignoring your rights” but rather “going through it with grace” and just focus on doing what you’re good at. If you don’t take a problem as a problem and not being pressured by the gendered implications behind it, that itself is already a solution. That’s the way that the people around me are dealing with it – you cannot push people who haven’t been treated equally

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to practice it. It’s like Buddhism, you cannot expect people who were treated badly to become a good person and you have to give them love so they could feel it too. N: Your advice really comes in handy, because the conclusive question for our interview is about giving a word to the young female designers, like myself, and also to the young you who just started her journey. U: So I’ve said it already [laughs] I’ve read through your list of questions and gave some thoughts to it. I have no advice for my young self – not to be overconfident but I like the whole journey very much, even with the difficult times and challenges. I think I survived and I like being challenged. There was a time when I was confused about my true identity because the two environments I’ve lived through were different and I had never thought of opening my own studio at the earlier stages of my career. I wasn’t always this nice – I would judge the designs or the people but then when reality hit me in Vietnam, I started to embrace myself more. It’s more about attitude. My piece of advice would probably be to look at yourself and improve yourself. Learn something new every day. Don’t look at other people’s journeys at all. N: Thank you so much for your advice and for agreeing to join the interview. It was such an insightful conversation and I’ve learned a lot from it. I hope that the audience can learn from it too.

In an inclusive team like ours,we treat each other as equal humans. — Uyen Ngoc

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gydient

Gydient (Tra Giang Nguyen) is a multidisciplinary designer based in Hamburg who is also co-founder of Fustic.Studio. Gydient produces contemporary, simple, and efficient digital solutions. Her work conducts brand identity along with typeface and kinetic animation. For the last year, she has been involved in projects related to typography and type design such as Viaoda Libre (Published on Google Fonts), Agent Orange, Gatheround Display, NTJ Sans, NTJ Display, etc. Tra Giang’s work has been recognized and published by Art Director Club, Communication Arts, Creative Boom, and Typeone Magazine.

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INTERVIEW ANSWERS Note: Gydient’s interview was conducted after the submission deadline, so I did not have enough time to work on the interview transcript. Instead, here is her written answers for the question list.

WOMEN WHO DESIGN Question (Q): Introduce yourself in 3 design-related words. Answer (A): Dynamic, diverse & punchy. Q: Summarize your design journey as a designer: how did you get to where you are now? A: Well, I think I had some luck. As I was a kid, I just enjoyed drawing. My first client was my teacher who asked me to design a newspaper for a design competition between classes in our school. During this experience, I had the chance to work with various titles, texts, layouts, colors, and illustrations. And luckily, we won the competition this year. I carried the idea of becoming an artist till I started hoovering on the internet and knew about the term “graphic design”. In 2017, I attended an art class in Vietnam and met our team members, who also are co-founders of Fustic studio now. The collaborative team has 5 people: Hai Doan, Nam Le, Trung Bao, Hieu Vu, and me. From there, we decided to create a virtual place, where we can learn, share, and explore the world of visual design. Thankfully after three years together, we grew a studio and have worked with several international artists & clients like Billie Eilish, Facebook, Adobe, Adidas, Uniqlo, etc… In 2019, I started my first semester at Hamburg’s design department, where I got the opportunity to take a typography class. I fell deeply in love with designing letters and kinetic typography from there. Q: What is your favorite design/ project that you’ve worked on so far, and why?

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A: I have been working on Hako - a hangul typeface since last year and still exploring the new world of Hangul script. Based on the fact that Korean is not my mother tongue, designing the components and vowels was a really challenging task for a non native speaker like me. But it was also the biggest win for 2020 since I stepped out of my comfort zone - Latin alphabet. Beside that, I also had a chance to work on the rebranding of Gatheround, including a new custom typeface for the brand. It set a foundation for my profession in type design with an international client under constructive conditions. ↓ Hako - Hangul Typeface Personal Project (Nguyen, 2020)

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WOMEN WHO INSPIRE Q: Do you have any female role models, mentors or inspirations in design? A: Before wanting to be a graphic designer, I dreamed about being a manga artist. My Anh Nguyen, a talented Vietnamese illustrator, was a big inspiration to me. Her earnest and hard-working spirit is something that has affected me until now. To talk about some specific female graphic designers in Vietnam, I don’t really have a role model to follow. Because this field is still young and new in Vietnam when I started learning graphic design. However, nowadays, thanks to social media, the local creative community is growing rapidly and it’s much easier to follow up on other’s work. Q: What do you love about being a female designer? A: I don’t really care about the term “female designer”. The only difference between male and female designers is the idea or social value or expectation of the society/workplace, which he/she is working in and was put on her/ him. The more inclusive and equal the work environment is, the smaller the gap between them will be. The goal of a dream workplace should be no gap between male & female designers. There is nothing I love about being a female designer (as I explained that I see no differences between male or female), but of course, there are still things I appreciate. It sounds a bit ironic but being a female designer, for now, makes me work with the pressure of success. I also need to plan my career path more carefully because I have the decision to make between career and motherhood. Both seem important to me. However, it might be very interesting but also challenging to switch between those two roles. Prioritizing different things in different parts of my life leads me to unexpected experiences in life, not only as a designer but also as a person.

← Adobe Max Co-Create Campaign Client Project (Nguyen, 2020)

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WOMEN WHO CONFIDE Q: Being a female designer, have you ever encountered any genderrelated difficulties (when in school, when working in-house, when freelancing)? How did you get over those difficulties? A: I have worked as an in-house designer, and designer in various scales of business, from a big design agency with more than 300 employees to the start-up with a team of less than 10 people. Choosing a good place with an inclusive culture is my first priority, after that is the agency’s portfolio and salary offer. Personally, being young & working in an inclusive and equal working environment gives me many opportunities. I understand that I’m in a very good or even privileged position, where I can be myself, give my best, and be evaluated with no gender - or any type of discrimination. I don’t take those good experiences for granted since I have read and witnessed other women’s difficulties at work just because they need to balance their career and family.

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— Gydient

← Move the System - Kinetic Poster Personal Project (Nguyen, 2020)

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← ↑ Agent Orange Personal Project (Nguyen, 2019)

WOMEN WHO ADVISE Q: Do you have any advice for your younger self as a female designer about to enter the design industry in Vietnam? A: Always move forward and try to forget what you’ve achieved. The magic of being creative is always experimenting and creating new things. Besides, ask yourself what you are good at? I think it’s easy to learn skills like typography, kinetic animation, etc, but learning to develop your true self will be more challenging. It could give you the origin in the way you design and solve the problem. After all, be nice and be kind.

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Her Design Stories started as a Graduation project, but is planned to continue and develop in the future.

Project Evaluation Future Plan

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Project Evaluation After seemingly endless nine months of researching, planning, experimenting, and executing the Final Major Project, I have been through so many ups and downs, highs and lows with this project. Somehow, it is unreal to think that I am now writing the reflective report for Her Design Stories because sometimes I felt like this day would never arrive. Her Design Stories is the most important, the most professional, and also the most long-term project that I have ever worked on; thus, I am very delighted and pleased that the outcomes could be considered worthy of all my effort. Challenging as it is, working on this project has taught me many valuable lessons about project planning and management, networking, expectation management, as well as my personal endurance.

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1. RESEARCH AND DEFINE THE BRIEF The research phase of this project lasted for almost five months, which is half of the project duration, and it was still ongoing and constantly updated during the project implementation. I think I could maintain the research process for so long because I am interested in my project's topic - Feminism in Design. I am sometimes a little pressured with educating myself about feminism as much as possible because I want to prove to my audience that I am credible enough to host the first feminist design project in Vietnam. Looking back, I would choose the project redefining stage as my favorite part of the research phase, even though at the time I would not feel so. The decision of redefining and renaming the project is my favorite part because it was not an absurd idea from out of nowhere; instead, it is considered very carefully and supported by thorough secondary and primary research. However, the most challenging aspect of conducting such a heavy-researched project to me is to record and document the research and the thinking process. I tried to manage this task with an online process journal, the Notion application, and a handwritten notebook. Nevertheless, I think the number of notes and journals I submitted could not compare to my actual thinking process, as I'm a fast thinker who usually continues working with the flow without stopping and documenting the process.

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2. PROJECT PLANNING & MANAGEMENT One of my biggest strengths is the ability to set up a detailed action plan to tackle a goal, which has assisted me so much in managing this largescale project all on my own. However, this advantage sometimes backfires because sometimes I plan so ambitiously that I cannot keep up with my own schedule. Therefore, at the beginning of this term, I reevaluated my action plan, reconsidered the external and internal factors to adjust the plan's feasibility. Due to the shortage of human resources for the project, I reduced the scale of the project so it would be more manageable for my ability. Until now, I have finished all of the goals that I set out in the Week 1 of the semester, except for the Augmented Reality posters. It is such a shame that I could not further develop this skill I learned in Semester 1, because apart from working on my Final Major Project, I was also in charge of leading the class to plan and organize our Graduation exhibition.

3. PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION: DESIGN OUTCOMES At the beginning of the term, I had a meeting with Richard in which we discussed my performance in the Practical Contemporary Practices module. He commented that my visual approach at that time was a little predictable, so he suggested me experimenting and playing more with the graphic for the project. After this term, I would evaluate that I did step out of my comfort zone a little, but still not as much as I should. I am aware of my anxiety when trying new design skills and effects; therefore, I need to work more on that after my graduation. Nevertheless, I am still satisfied with the overall design outcomes of this module. The highlight of my design outcomes this term is the project's website. The website reflects one of my newly-earned skills throughout this year: web design, since my first interaction with web design last term. Before planning and building this website, I have built four process journal websites and a personal website on Cargo, and a blog WordPress website for a freelance client. My experience of designing and building websites throughout Year 3 has made me realize my new passion for web design. Thus, I've decided to learn coding, UI/ UX basics, and Figma application after my graduation to further develop my web design skills.

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4. PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION: INTERVIEWS WITH FEMALE DESIGNERS Last term, I planned to reach out to female designers in Hanoi first so I can invite them to the photography studio at BUV Campus and make use of the university's equipment to film professional and high-quality interview videos. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 situation wrecked all my intentions and made me search for an alternative method: online interviews via Riverside.fm. However, I am now actually glad that I have chosen the online interview method instead of strictly offline because it allows me to have conversations with female designers in other cities and even abroad. The interviews with female designers also offer me such a priceless networking opportunity: I have reached out to seven amazing female designers, some of whom are my design idols, and kept contact with them even after the interviews. The public reactions to the project also attract many new networks for me, which is so beneficial for my professional career later on.

5. PROJECT IMPACTS: PUBLIC REACTIONS Since its publication on social media in the middle of June 2021, Her Design Stories has received 429 followers on Instagram and 18 subscribers on YouTube (data updated: July 6th, 2021). The Instagram account of Her Design Stories is followed by some big names in the creative industry, like Trung Bao (co-founder of Fustic.Studio), Nhat Minh Nguyen (founder of Design101), Huy Ta (founder of Design Anthropology School), Soi An Chay (copywriter and book author), etc. After the first video is published, many people have texted me to tell me that they really like the project idea and they look forward to the other interviews. I am extremely touched that my project is currently very well-received by the design community. It was just published recently so I cannot calculate the project's impact on the community yet, but the situation is positive so far.

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Future Plan Her Design Stories started as my Final Major Project, but I see the enormous potential in this project in the ways it could benefit both the design community and my professional practice. Therefore, I consider the last nine months as Phase 1 of the project, and I plan to continue this project even after my graduation.

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SHORT-TERM GOALS • • • • •

Continue publishing the other interviews Recruit a team for the project Exhibit the project in the re:orient - Graduation Project of 1810CCP, BUV Publish the project's case study on Behance Switch interview and marketing language to Vietnamese to reach more Vietnamese audience • Continue reaching out to other female designers for interviews

TEAM RECRUITMENT For Phase 2 of the project (and beyond), I will recruit a team to assist me on tasks I am not specialized in, such as copywriting, marketing management, transcribing interviews, translating interviews to Vietnamese, etc. Once the team is up and running, I would work as the project's Creative Director and leader, who is in charge of the visions, missions, visuals, and plans of Her Design Stories.

LONG-TERM GOALS • Organize online workshops for female designers in Vietnam • Organize offline design showcases and talks for female designers in Vietnam • Contact other feminist design projects, such as Ladies, Wine & Design, Girlsclub Asia, etc. for collaboration

← One of the first project plans Personal drawing

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6. bibliography

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REFERENCE LIST Adichie, C., (2014). We Should All Be Feminists. [video] Available at: https:// www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_we_should_ all_be_ feminists?language=en AIGA Eye on Design (2020). The 2019 AIGA Design Census. [online] Available at: https://designcensus.org. Anon (2020). Intersectional feminism: what it means and why it matters right now. [Online]. 2020. UN Women. Available from: https://www.unwomen.org/ en/news/stories/2020/6/explainer-intersectional-feminism-what-it-means-andwhy-it-matters. Coaston, J. (2019). The intersectionality wars. [Online]. 2019. Vox. Available from: https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/5/20/18542843/ intersectionality-conservatism-law-race-gender-discrimination. Crenshaw, K., (2018). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A Black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory, and antiracist politics [1989] (pp. 57-80). Routledge. Denzin, N.K. (1989), The Research Art, 3rd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: PrenticeHall. Design Council (2018). The Design Economy 2018 - The State Of Design In The UK. [online] Available at: https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/sites/default/files/ asset/document/Design_Economy_2018.pdf. Dinh, N. & Duong, H. (2018). Lip Xinh - a feminist art project. Edmonds, W. and Kennedy, T., (2012). An Applied Guide to Research Designs: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Methods. 2nd ed. Fairs, M., (2018). UK design has “shocking gender imbalance” ac- cording to Design Museum research. [online] Dezeen. Available at: https://www.dezeen. com/2018/12/05/design-museum-research-women-design-uk

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Goldberg, P. A., Gottesdiener, M., & Abramson, P. R. (1975). “Another putdown of women? Perceived attractiveness as a function of support for the feminist movement” Gross, R. M. (2003) ‘What Went Wrong? Feminism and Freedom from the Prison of Gender Roles’, CrossCurrents, 53(1), p. 8. Available at: http://search. ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&d- b=a9h&AN=9868315&site=ehostlive Ha, T. (2019). Up? Down? Left? Right? - Experiencing Vietnamese diacritics in the type design process. [Online]. 2019. Available from: https://rmitmastercommdesign-research.info/projects/Thy-Ha. Ha, T. (2020). Coffee and Tee. [Online]. 2020. Available at: https://thy-ha.com/ projects/python. Ha, T. (2021). Mighty Mono. [Online]. 2019. Available from: https://thy-ha.com/ typefaces/mightymono. Hai&Ikigai (2019). Innovation Factory - InFact Coffee. [Online]. 2019. Available from: https://www.behance.net/gallery/95289503/Innovation-Factory. Hai&Ikigai (2020). The Hangry WoofTM - Pet Supplements. [Online]. 2020. Available from: https://www.behance.net/gallery/114490249/The-HangryWoof. Hannam, J. (2016). Feminism. Abingdon: Routledge. Hoskin, R.A., Jenson, K.E. & Blair, K.L. (2017), “Is our feminism bullshit? The importance of intersectionality in adopting a feminist identity” Ladies, Wine & Design. (2015). Ladies, Wine & Design. [online] Available at: https://ladieswinedesign.com/ Le, G. (2019). The Inner You. Le, G. (2019). Thien Quang Hau Mac. Le, G. (2020). Chuyen Rang - Thinh Suy’s single.

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Ng, L., 2018. Students campaign - Tiep Suc Mua Thi 2018. [online] Available at: https://www.behance.net/gallery/68660713/Students-campaign-Tiep-Suc-MuaThi-2018. Ng, L., 2021. E Co Khi Nao?. [Typography Graphic Design]. Nguyen, C. (2019). Red is Luck. Nguyen, C. (2020). I guess I’m not burning out. Nguyen, C. (2020). “Run, run, run” - Hansel & Gretel illustration. Nguyen, G. (2019). Agent Orange — gydient. [Online]. 2019. Available from: https://gydient.com/Agent-Orange. Nguyen, G. (2020). Adobe MAX: CoCreate 2020 — gydient. [Online]. 2020. Available from: https://gydient.com/Adobe-MAX-CoCreate-2020. Nguyen, G. (2020). Hako - Hangul Typeface. Nguyen, G. (2020). Move The System — gydient. [Online]. 2020. Available from: https://gydient.com/Move-The-System. Nguyen, G. (2020). Viaoda Typeface (Libre). [Online]. 2020. Available from: https://www.behance.net/gallery/100857509/Viaoda-Typeface-%28Libre%29Free-on-Google-Fonts. Nha, T. et al. (2021). toi viet (tieng Viet) | i write (in Vietnamese). Hanoi. Nhu, T. (2021). 54 Ethnic Groups Of Vietnam And Their Languages. Vietcetera. Nhu, T. (2021). 7 Types of Attraction. Vietcetera. Nhu, T. (2021). Higher Education in Vietnam: How To Make The Best Experiences. Vietcetera. Nhu, T. (2021). How To Work Without Losing Your Wellbeing As A Young Creative. Vietcetera. Nhu, T. (2021). New Vietnam Perspectives. Vietcetera.

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Nhu, T. (2021). The ‘Close Reading’ Method. Vietcetera. Notamuse, (2017). notamuse. [online] Available at: http://notamuse.de Readymag (2020) Designing Women. [online] Available at: https:// designingwomen.readymag.com. Sarkar, S., (2019). Female Artists Challenge Vietnam’s Gender Stereotypes. [online] OZY. Available at: https://www.ozy.com/around- the-world/femaleartists-challenge-vietnams-gender-stereotypes/92670 Tran, N. (2021), Surveys about Women in Design - a Poster series. Tran, N. (2021), Vietnamese designers’ interpretations and responses/ reactions to the concept of “Feminism”. Viction:ary (2019). DESIGN{H}ERS: A celebration of women in design today. [Online]. 2019. Available from: https://www.behance.net/gallery/76436397/ DESIGNHERS-A-celebration-of-women-in-design-today?tracking_ source=search_projects_recommended%7Cdesign%7Bh%7Ders. Vietnam Insider. (2020). Normalising Gender Equality Across Vietnam One Female Artist at a Time - Vietnam Insider. [online] Available at: https:// vietnaminsider.vn/normalising-gender-equality-across-vietnam-one-femaleartist-at-a-time/

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LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. The seniority of designers by gender in UK (2016) (Design Council, 2018) Figure 2. US Design Workforce by Gender (AIGA Eye on Design, 2020) Figure 3. Data Collection Model (Tran, 2021)

LIST OF TABLES Table 1. HE qualifications obtained by subject area (Creative arts & design) and sex (academic years from 2014/15 to 2018/19) (High Education Statistics Authority, 2018) Table 2. Design occupations by gender, 2016 (Design Council, 2018) Table 3. Data Analysis process (Tran, 2021)

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Emails to female designers FEATURE INVITATION EMAIL Dear Ms./Mrs. ..., My name is Tran Phuong Thao Ngoc and I am a senior student majoring in Contemporary Creative Practice: Graphic Design at British University Vietnam. Currently, I am working on my Graduation Project called Her Design Stories - a feminist design project that aims to support and empower the female designers in Vietnam. I have admired your creative work and persona for a long time; therefore, I would love to invite you to be featured on my project and share about your story and experience as a Vietnamese female designer, as well as your amazing creative work. It would mean so much to me if you could spare some of your time for an informal conversation with me. If you are interested, please read through the Feature kit with the question list, as attached in this email. If you wish to this project, here are the 2 interview methods for you to consider: 1. Video Interview with the host (more recommended!) • Duration: about 30 - 45 minutes. • Location: Riverside.fm - a remote video and audio platform that records high quality video & audio for online interviews. • Interview language: English. • Interview questions: Please refer to the attached question list. • Time: If you are willing to participate, please pick a date & time that suits you in the Calendly link here: https://calendly.com/her-design-stories/interviewsphase-1 2. Written Interview If you could not make time for an interview but are still interested to get featured, you could write down the answers for the questions in the question list

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and send them back! However, I personally would be so excited if we could have a chat together! If you have any question and concern about any aspect of this project, don't hesitate to contact me at hello@herdesignstories.me. Again, thank you so much for your time. I look forward to hearing from and speaking to you soon! Stay safe, and have a nice day! Best regards, Tran Phuong Thao Ngoc - Host of Her Design Stories.

HER DESIGN STORIES - VIDEO INTERVIEW CONFIRMATION Dear Ms. ..., Thank you very much for agreeing to join Her Design Stories project as a featured designer. About the Video Interview I would like to confirm with you some information of our interview: • Method: Video Interview • Date & Time: <date & time> • Location: Riverside.fm - 15 minutes before the interview, an email with the Riverside link will be sent to you. Click here to walk through Riverside and • Duration: The interview will take approximately 30 - 45 minutes. You can read through the attached question list before our conversation. Please note that the question list is rather a guideline for the interview, so they are not required to be strictly followed. Since this is an informal interview, the conversation could go in any direction that suits you and your stories. About the Feature elements Apart from your interview, your feature will include: • Your portrait photo: it is recommended that you send in a high-quality photo with white/ neutral background • Your best creative work that you want to be featured: you could upload photos of the design directly to the Drive folder, or leave the links to the

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project in the Google Doc. • A short bio about you as a designer (about 100 - 150 words) Please upload all of these elements on this Drive folder: ... before 3:00PM, Thursday, June 10th, 2021 (1 day after our interview). If you have any question and concern about any aspect of this project, don't hesitate to contact me at hello@herdesignstories.me. Again, thank you so much for your time. I look forward to hearing from and speaking to you soon! Stay safe, and have a nice day! Best regards, Tran Phuong Thao Ngoc - Host of Her Design Stories.

THANK YOU EMAIL Dear Ms. ..., Thank you so much for sparing some of your time to join the interview with me! I have had such a great time talking to you and the conversation was really insightful. I hope that this conversation could be helpful to someone out there. Don't forget to upload your photo, bio and some of your creative work in here before <time>! It would be great if you could upload the work that you have mentioned in our conversation. Since the project is my Graduation Final Major project, your contributions will be displayed in the British University Vietnam 1st Creative Graduation exhibition - "re:orient" (which is expected to take place from July 19 to 23, 2021). You are also invited to be a VIP guest to the exhibition. I really hope that we could meet someday in the future for a cup of coffee Thank you so much again, please stay safe and have a nice day! Best regards, Tran Phuong Thao Ngoc - Host of Her Design Stories.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Tran Phuong Thao Ngoc is a Vietnamese graphic designer with an open mind for new ideas and a keen eye for details. Her main focuses are Branding & Web design. She is interested in Design Education, Feminism in Design & Typography. Born and raised in Hue, Vietnam, Thao Ngoc soon expressed a huge passion for creative arts & design from an early age, which helped her achieve the prestigious 100% scholarship to pursue UK Design education at BUV. In July 2021, she will graduate from British University Vietnam (BUV) with a Bachelor (Honors) degree in Contemporary Creative Practice: Graphic Design.

July, 2021 Hanoi, Vietnam