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ABOUT ME Hi, I am AJ - vietnamese / desginer / amateur photographer / wanderer / visuals catcher / moment collector / story listener / rice lover. based in Saigon (HCMC), work on brand identity and communication graphic design. I am also in love with traditional printing and crafting techniques, which I believe that help touching the feeling of receivers with products. collect beautiful visuals and stories all over the place. I want to share more, hear more and meet more people.
Contact: (+84) 917 31 67 93 aj.nguyen93@gmail.com behance.net/ajnguyen
ABOUT ME
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VIÊN 圓 - FULLMOON FESTIVAL
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M2 CONCEPT ARCHITECTURE
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ORGAMART
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SÀIGÒN.saigon PUBLISHING
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SAMASA MATCHES
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SUSTAIN CONFERENCE
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FROOTEES BISCUITS
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EMBÉ APPLICATION
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ESAVING MARKETPLACE
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DAILY LIFE PHOTOGRAPHY
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VIÊN 圓 FULLMOON FESTIVAL
The Gathering Festival Starting from the agricultural origin, Full-moon Festival happens in the 16th of August (Lunar calendar), when the weather becomes comfortable, and people is looking for a bumper harvest season. It’s the time for everybody to put aside all the works, the worries and gather together to enjoy a cup of tea with moon-cakes, and watching the beautiful full moon. Until now, Full-moon Festival is still celebrated every year, is still an occasion for family reunion and sharing the most complete moment. That is why Full-moon Festival is also known as the Gathering Festival in East Asia culture. Naturally, Full-moon Festival and the circle has a tight bond. First is the image of the full moon, following is the baked cakes and lanterns which were made by round shapes, and condensing in the image of the round table, where the whole family gather to enjoy the meal. The circle not only visually describes Full-moon Festival, but also truly presents the spirit of it – wholeness, fullness and togetherness. The Circle in Vietnamese national language is Tròn, which has equal meaning with Viên 圓, a Vietnamese - Chinese word belongs to the term Đoàn Viên 團圓, means family gathering. Viên 圓 – beautiful and complete as the Fullmoon Festival that the East Asian is proud of.
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By using the circles to illustrate different moments of human life, especially the activities of Fullmoon festival on the moon-cake packaging, the packaging becomes a medium to confirm the existence of the circles around us and link them with the concept of togetherness. Therefore, every time people see a circle, that basic shape can remind them about the family, the reunion and the love among them all.
Each moment has a visual set to represent it, including a symbol, a pattern and a color palette. Four visual sets are applied to develop four unique looks of the moon cakes and their packs. The color scheme is picked out from the brilliant activities of Full-moon Festival; however, they are in low chrome to create the feeling of traditional printed colors.
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M2 CONCEPT ARCHITECTURE
Timeless Pieces M2 CONCEPT is an architectural company specialized in private business building and private house. As the name is M2 - an abbreviation of the meter square, the company provides design solutions to maximize customers’ experience in every meter square of the place. Based on the business idea, the branding concept is developed as Timeless Pieces - each meter square is a valuable piece, which will companion with the place owner on the way to build up a complete happy living space. The logo is the combination of the name M2 and Infinity symbol, illustrated by squares within a square.
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M2 CONCEPT covers 3 sub-areas: Architecture, Home Interior and Construction. Sub-areas are divided by colors, which represent different characteristics. Orange for Architecture - Enthusiasm Sky Blue for Home Interior - Calm Deep Blue for Construction - Trustworthy
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ORGAMART LOCAL STORE
Nurturing your health Orgamart is a Vietnamese supermarket specialized in supplying 100% organic food. With an idea is to bring safety and fresh food to every Vietnamese meals, all products are collected from trustworthy local farms with certifications. The logo is designed based on the circle shape, which brings the meaning of sufficiency, perfection and nourishment. All elements that form the logo represent for things that Orgamart wants to bring to you: qualified products, and also love and care
Semifinalist of Adobe Design Achievement Awards
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Green is chosen as the main color because it is the color of life, nature, and energy, and is associated with meanings of growth, harmony, freshness, safety, and environment.
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SÀI GÒN.saigon PUBLISING
Old v. New SÀI GÒN.saigon is a publishing house based in HCMC (Saigon) with a desire to spread out the beauty of this city. It’s publications are aimed to be mediums to transfer the look, the taste, the smell, the feeling and the pride of Saigon.
The logotype is inspired from old drawing signbroads around SÀI GÒN, together combine with a new minimal & modern look of the nowadays to create an logotype with two parts: The red Sài Gòn represents the old, while the blue saigon stands for the new.
For Categories name or Position name, the logotype is broken down into 2 parts. While the old part “SÀI GÒN.” is kept the same, the new “saigon” will be changed depending on the Categories name or Position name. By doing this, the brand can create a strong impact to audience; and also to convey that all of these new things and people are belonged to Sài Gòn.
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The main publication of SÀI GÒN.saigon is the same name magazine SÀI GÒN.saigon, published every two months. SÀI GÒN.saigon contains all stories about the community, the people, the places, the activities and the old times of Sài Gòn. It will share the pride of Sài Gòn to everybody, inspire Saigonese to move on and make Sài Gòn a more beautiful place, and also remind them about an old honorable time. The theme of the 001 Issue: “Sài gòn” tại Sài Gòn (means “Sài Gòn” at Sài Gòn”).
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SAMASA MATCHES
Bringing back Samasa Samasa is an old-time often-seen matchbox brand with an iconic dragon illustration. The images on Vietnamese matchbox covers before 1975 varied from the traditional – drawings of zodiac animals, to the modern – brand advertising and popular singers of the day. However, the brand had disappeared. The aim of this project is to bring back Samasa, with new identity and package series, make it once again the coolest matches brand. The brand had an unique brand image with an iconic dragon symbol and customized signature. The re-branding process is suggested to help the brand keep pace with the modern world.
The very first edition of the new matchbox designs is Vietnam Ethic Groups. On each match box, there will be images of one of 55 Vietnamese Ethnic Groups.
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SUSTAIN CONFERENCE
Creating a Sustainable Community SustaiN Conference consists of professionals who are aware of the social responsibility to achieve a sustainable future for Human Security. Using the hexagon as the main visual because it represents balance and union. It is also the symbol of truth, harmony, equality, reliability and perfection. Moreover, hexagon also exists in nature as the image of honeycomb, which on the other hand represents the bee’s society – a sustainable and stable structure. Infinity symbol brings the meaning of sustainability.
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FROOTEES BISCUITS
A tornado of flavors Frootees is a signature products of REPUBLIC BISCUIT CORPORATION (Rebisco). It is favrited thank to the harmony in tastes between the biscuits and the honey with fruit flavors filling. In Vietnam, there are two varients in the market: Chocolate biscuits with honey + orange filling and Vanilla biscuits with honey + mango filling.
The design is adapted on vertical and horizontal side of the box, and on primary pack.
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EMBÉ MOBILE APPLICATION
A personal assistant for parents Embé is a mobile application created to help parents take care of their babies. The application provides you with features that not only help you keep track of your babies’ growing process or record their lovely moments, but also make you closer to your children. In other words, “Embé” does not tell you what you need to do, but it encourages you to do the best things for your children.
Silver Award Interactive Design ot RMIT Design Showcase 2014
The application uses colors to navigate users through each features. Bright colors are chosen to bring happy and playful mood.
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ESAVING MARKETPLACE
Easy as 1 2 3 eSaving is a US Gift-card Marketplace founded in 2015. With the concept of ‘Saving’, people can save their money and time by finding the best discounted gift cards and selling their unwanted gifts for cash easily as 1 2 3.
The icon set is developed from curve lines to create the clean and friendly feeling, together with the interfaces to help the brand building its characteristics.
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DAILY LIFE PHOTOGRAPHY
Capture the stories Whenever I have time or go travel, I always wander around to capture daily life moments. Every single street, alley, market, residential area has its own story that no one can tell you more beautifully than the local people. Sometimes the stories were verbally told in a quick chat with the street vendorer, sometimes you can see the stories through the locals’ habits and belongings, sometimes you can smell them in the air, taste them in your mouth or feel them in your hands. So I use my camera to capture all of that. Every time I review my photos, my five senses also are awaken to rewind the story.
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Film Photography I choose the analog to go against the digital. Film photography keeps me slow on this fast and hightect world. Film photography also matches with my journeys, which is no rush at all. After every careful push on the shutter release button is the suspense for the result of film developed process. I rarely feel disappointed about my photos because they bring stories with them, which recall all the memmories about the trips, the place and the people. That is what I treasured most.
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