Kenya Hara

This is the layout for a magazine that i created this semester. The main colors that i used are black and white. Generally, the layout looks quite classic and simple. However, personally, i think those characteristics made my work look elegant ^^.
Because this article is about a Japanese designer who is Kenya Hara. Simplicity is his style to design things. White appears nearly in all of his works. Hara considered that white has become the skeleton of his design process.

Have a look at my design, you can feel that i'm trying to bring you into the Japanese world. The font of the title, the way i arranged the text vertically, the little details that i used to decorated my layout such as the bamboo or the bird standing on a branch. All of those elements are actually Japanese.

Recently, i have found out that black and white is the everlasting colors and they are the solution for most design processs. I dont mean that other colors are bad. When i went to the library, between the many many colorfull books, i found a book called "Designing Design" written by Kenya Hara, and i fall in love with it! :)) The cover of this book is white, the background as well as the text are in white, just different levels of white so you can read them all. Inside the books, you can see many works of Kara. Most of them are in white also. However, i did not feel bored to read this book but i got exciting. Between so many talented designers, Kenya Hara has chosen his own and special way to make him different.

lovely T-shirt ^^

These are the back and the front of the T-shirt that i designed for my friend and her classmates at the Banking University. I got an idea to use the big as the symbol of a bank because of Vietnamese perception, big is represented for wealthy. Besides that, when i was a little girl, my mom and dad always brought me a big made by clay every year, so i could keep my money in it.

At the front of the T-shirt, i made a slogan also, "Your money will be safe in our hands." Therefore, when my friend and her classmates wear it, people might impress. As you can see, i added a label which contained the class name, NH123_KT32, on the ear of the big like the farmer mark their bigs.
At the back of the T-shirt, i drew the back of the big with little tail. This big is thinking of $$$

Personally, i love my works a lot. I think the shirt looks very cute and suitable for students. HOWEVER, my friend's classmates did not accept that, they think that it is better for the little children. Oh My God, my heart seemed to be broken =(( . They asked my to design another T-shirt for them but i was so angry to do so.

Once more time, i realize what is the biggest problem of a designer. It is how to satisfy your customers. Even when you have a great idea or you work looks very nice, but it is not what the customers want, you have to start over again. If you can not do so, your customers will tell you a simple sentence "You can keep it and you get no money from us. That's not what we want" :(( :(( . For me, it is like a mother abandon her beloved kids. I think i have to get used to it now. So sad :(

NOKIA 6300 poster

This light between two girls seems to be connecting them and the NOKIA cellphones are the connectors. Nokia 6300 has 2 colors which are black and red but they are still in the 6300 generation. Similarly, 2 girls, but one person, just another version ^^

Carhartt

This is the brochure for carthartt that our lecturer required us to make. Besides the text, i drew a very simple car because i saw "Car" in "Car-thartt". Moreover, there are some lines on this brochure that looked like the streets. The car is moving on the street ^^. The title is quite unique because it is the combination of some basic shapes like square and rectangle.

*Bonus: These are 2 other brochure that i created. One looks very gentle with light colors and the other looks elegant with dark colors!

Fashion show poster

This is the work which was applied some technique in Illustrator that my teacher showed us in the last class. I think those are quite simple but very useful. Now, i can use them to create very interesting things like the "content" or the "inside" of the text. Before the lecture, i just can create text and fill them with the basic colors or the gradient. However, have a look at my work, you guys can see the text in it is very colorful as well as unique ^^

I myself don't like colorful things but this work i created can be considered as some thing used for fashion purpose such as the cover of a CD containing the styles in 2008. Therefore, it should be looked impressive and attractive. However, you can see there are only 5 colors that i used and Black is the main one. As you know, Black is presented for Elegance.

The background is the combination of 3 images and i designed it in Photoshop. Then, i made the text in Illustrator.

There are two things in my work that i like a lot.
-The first one is the position of the number "2008". Viewers might easily recognize that it looks like a necklace of the model in the background.
-The second one is the lips represented as the letter "O" in the word "fashion". Its colors suit the background perfectly, doesn't it?

*I did some other versions of the poster but i like this one most because for me, it looks quite "art" and "strange", and i didn't break my style in design: SIMPLE is perfect!

Magic Box

In my opinion, "graphic design" is very, very wide. I did some research and find out that "Graphic design" are various methods being used to create and combine symbols, images and/or words to create a visual representation of ideas and messages. A graphic designer may use typography, visual arts and page layout techniques to produce the final result. Graphic design often refers to both the process (designing) by which the communication is created and the products (designs) which are generated.

I imagine that graphic design is like a box. You never know what is inside in until you open it. And, when you open that box, you may see many amazing things. However, the problem is that you dare to open the that box or not.

Everyone has their own ways to evaluate, see and do things. However, there are not many people can do and say what they want. Obviously, one of the reason for this barrier is that people are afraid of doing something different from other people. Particularly, they might be afraid of being called "crazy". I think, designers are different from other people such as accountants or bankers or business men because they can go over these kind of barrier. As can be seen that every famous designers are brave enough to do STRANGE and UNIQUE works. This job help them to be well-known. For example, unlike other people using the scanner to scan paper, John Meada use this device to scan fish and chips. As a result, his work became super impressive and beautiful.

Everything above explains why do i choose a "Magic Box" to present "Graphic design". Personally, i consider that "Design" field is like magic, it changes all the time and unpredictable and "Graphic" is sharp and simple as box. I prefer Simplicity and Complexity. "Less is more", "Less is more", "Less is more"... ^^