I first appreciated art in kindergarten.
It comforted me on my first day of school when everything else was scary and new.
Coloring and drawing was the only thing familiar to me.
It was also during that time when I realized art didn’t have to be a specific way.
We were learning about firefighters while coloring in a firetruck. As I started drawing in my light rays to indicate that the light was flashing my teacher got impatient with me. She took it upon herself and drew in dots. I remember being a bit annoyed that I couldn’t do it the way I wanted to but looking at her dots I thought it looked quite nice. It never occurred to me to use dots instead of lines.
Since then…
I drew whatever I thought was visually appealing which were mostly my favorite TV shows and movies.
I took Graphic Arts in high school.
Graphic Arts was my favorite class in high school. This was the first time I used Adobe Creative Suite programs. I followed mostly Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator tutorials and learned new skills and techniques. I was so excited to showcase my newfound skills through my projects. I made sure to always add bright and bold colors to my work. I felt like that was my signature style.
I took my bright colors with me to college.
As I’m sure a lot of college students can relate, I was lost. I wasn’t sure I could have a successful career in graphic design so I decided it was safer to major in Business with a concentration in Interactive Media. I was happy that I found a program that incorporated both of my interests, business & graphic design.
Through my program, aside from business, I gained new knowledge and skills such as 3D Design & Animation, Video Editing, Videography, Photography, Typography, Coding, and more in-depth tutorials on Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
Demo eCommerce websites for college business projects.
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Nail Fetish Salon
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UT Catering
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Cake Pop Shop
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College Must Haves HU
Currently…
Aside from my visual design projects for work, I have other hobbies and interests that combine two things that I love, food and aesthetics.
I have my own food diary on Instagram where I post pictures and videos of foods that I’ve cooked or went out to go eat. With each post I always find ways to improve the next. I like to experiement with recipes, food styling, angles, lighting, shadows, photo editing, copywriting, and dinnerware arrangements.
I also help my mom follow her dreams to become a Youtube chef where she specializes in vegetarian Vietnamese dishes. I plan, edit, and post her content as well as manage her Youtube and Instagram accounts. She does most of the filming, photography, and food styling herself with the minimal assistance from my dad. She lives in Florida while I live in Pennsylvania so there are times when I wish I was there to help film and direct as she’s not very great in either. Like mother like daughter, she’s always finding ways to improve her content. We are both pacing ourselves with this project to make it work to fit our lifestyles. For how far we’ve come I think we’re doing a phenomenal job.
I wouldn’t consider video editing my strongest skill but through these projects I realize I do very much enjoy editing videos for YouTube along with Youtube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and TikTok. Learning each platform’s usability and functionality is exciting to me. It’s also a fun challenge to try to fit everything or prioritize content for videos that are under one minute.
@nv_eat
@utthanhcooking
