About

Full Name: Vi Ngoc-Thuy Tran
Bachelor of Fine Arts – Applied Design and Visual Arts
University of Houston – Clear Lake
Date of Birth: April 19, 1990

Biography

I was born in Vietnam, where art and design played a small part in our culture. I discovered my passion for design while growing up in the United States. At the age of 14, I started putting together layouts for my online blog. The few design and publishing classes in high school seemed to interest me more than any other subjects. I began to explore the functionalities of Adobe Photoshop and Macromedia Flash on my own time. At the same time, I was still creating my blog layouts and formatting HTML codes to use these layouts effectively online. Soon after, I found myself pursuing college education at San Jacinto College with concentration in art. Determined to turn my passion into my career, I continued my higher education at the University of Houston – Clear Lake from January 2009; and I am now a graduate with the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. I am proud to say that UH-Clear Lake has not only taught me many things about design in its principle, but has also nurtured me through the experience I get working as a student worker. Being employed by the Intercultural and International Student Services office, I was able to practice my design skill with numerous newsletters, brochures, flyers, posters and banners. I am now looking forward to the years ahead, with everyday gaining new knowledge and experience, and every minute of the day living with my passion.

Design Philosophy

As an artist, I find my inspiration in everyday activities, ordinary people, and beauty of nature. Besides graphic design, I love photography – it is life through the camera lens. The subject matter that interests me most with photography is capturing the moment, with movements and change of light. Scenery at special times of the day especially grabs my attention since it is wonderful to see how the mood of the photo changes as the light changes. Movement of water is also interesting to capture in photographs as it reflects the elegant beauty of nature.

As a designer, I love simplicity in forms, text, and composition. Colors, on the other hand, should not be too simple. Every element in a design is important, but colors specifically should be carefully chosen. My love for simplicity in forms and composition comes from my admiration of modernism – do more with less. With text, I am very fond of and still in process of exploring the endless possibilities of typography. In my past works, I have incorporated several elements of typography that I obtained through research. I am heading in the direction of learning more about typography and how to use it effectively.

Contact me here!