Interviews with My Linh Mac

I have been an artist my whole life and a visual designer for almost 7 years now. I received my art education from places all over the world, I have a bachelor degree in Fine Art and Digital Media from Valparaiso University and a master degree on Art Education from one of the best art school in the world- School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

I was fortunate to find my calling and passion for the art at a very young age and have my family's support to pursue art education in different countries such as Singapore, South Australia and the United State. Until when I attended university, I was inspired and warmly welcomed to the design community and found my new passion for design. It was challenging to balance both professional fields at first and still now but at the same time, it feels rewarding to be where I am at today.

My 3 main principles of design are aesthetic, functionality and characteristic. It's quite similar with my artist principle as a artist but with more creative freedom. I usually started with sketches, the majority of the process was rely adobe software. I occasionally use 3D render software in between mock up to have the best presentation for the final designs.

For me, the first steps are usually the most challenging part, once you grasp the idea, things get more interesting and fun from there. I took pleasure from stretching all possibilities with the designs elements within certain design concepts.

Yes, my background as an artist has major influence on my creative practice as designer. My other non-creative skills such as event planner, teaching and learning different languages and world traveling also shape me as visual designer as well.

My future plan is to start up my design firm that contribute to the local communities such as promoting environmental sustainability while continued teaching art and design classes at college levels. My on-going plan is to become a well-established artist with institutional exhibitions around the world.

I want to share some useful design tips for young designers out there. My tips are: 1) Pre-plan a schedule and give yourself deadlines for each design/production stages to stay on track. 2) Allow yourself as much time possible to review, revise your design at it final stages. 3) If possible, allow yourself to have a few daybreaks between final editing, this way, you can review your works in a fresher set of minds. 4) It is always helpful to have constructive criticism 5) Communication is key. It takes time and efforts to establish self-discipline and pick up ethical habits such as time management but in the long run, you would have more time and room to improve, explore more possibilities of your craftsmanship rather than wasting time fixing errors that could have been easily avoid.

To my fellow designers out there, no matter what your experience level are, your mistakes are your best teacher, be sure to make the best out of these blessing in disguise. Most important, stay consistent with learning new things with positive attitudes and open-mind.

I usually plan ahead, for each weeks, set 2 to 3 big goals and many mini goals for each days as steps to achieve those big goals by the end of the week. My work hours and paces are different everyday but I make sure to make time to de-process and relax by exercises, this help not only with physical wellness but also give designer to have a clearer view after taking a few steps back to see the bigger picture. On slow days, I invest more time to research on ideas and making sure I spent my time efficiently.

Marta Veludo, Ben Grandgenett, Jessica Walsh and Lauren Hom are my recent top favorite. I did not get a chance to meet them yet.

I currently based in Chicago- United State, before that, I grew up in Australia, Singapore and Vietnam. There are pros and cons for growing up in 3 different continents of course, they enrich my knowledge and experience with other cultures. Unfortunately, at the same, being abroad for so long somehow ‘thin out’ my bond with my true root and heritage as Vietnamese.

I work solo and occasionally as a team. My ideal designer partner is someone who are opening minded and transparent. I know that having a partner could be challenging sometime when it comes to creative differences and communication but when designers with positive attitude and share the same value of delivering high-quality of bodyworks, partnerships are window of opportunity for peer learning and personal growth for any creative individuals.

In my humble opinion, my contribution to the design world are though my role as art educator. By inspiring and showing the future designer the humanitarian projects, I think we can better the world as a community in a long run.

It really a great learning experience for me, it opened my mind and inspire me to push myself even further as a designer. Secondly, as one of the winners of this year, I am very grateful for the institutional/professional recognition, it the best kind of motivation that any designer could ever ask for. I am thrilled about being on your featured designers.

My main inspiration for Co Ba Coffee project is from my cultural heritage and my client's vision for her company- which is to introduce the uniqueness of Vietnamese coffee culture to the world.

My main focus was to create strong identity for the brand that stood out among other Vietnamese coffee brand out there. My secondary focus was to share inspiring story about the company's founder- who is a extraordinary women came from humble background and work tirelessly to achieve her dream with her coffee company. I believe by knowing more about the company, the brand would be more marketable and appealing to the consumers.

I hope my design will receive positive recognition and my successful story would inspire young designers out there, including my dear students.

It took me approximately over 2 months to complete the main concepts from consultations, sketches, design, adjustment to final design.

I decided to pursuit a new inspiration as I get to know my client better. I was very fortunately to have such inspiring clients who share the same aesthetic mindset and challenge me to move forward in the most positive way. Half way through the project, I decided to make a bold choice of incorporate her illustration into the final design and made major changes to the original design. The final design was beyond our expectations.

No. My client authorized me all ownership of the design.

Packaging and branding design has always been my focus areas as a designer.

For this project, no.

My main target customer/consumers are young adult such as college students, office employees who consume coffee on daily basis. The brand and products are for everyone regardless on their age, occupations and culture backgrounds.

I personally think having portrait with strong cultural representation on coffee packaging is a very rare yet catchy concept. I am positive that it would standout and attract many consumers.

We used “Co Ba” a Vietnamese term for the second aunt in a Vietnamese family, as our brand name to symbolize the nostalgia of family bonds, cultural and community cohesion.

Adobe suite was my main design tools.

1) Strong cultural representation, 2) Refreshing, 3) Appealing

This a solo project.

Technology plays major role in this project, not just for the production process but also for communication as well, since my client is in Hoi An, Vietnam, I am based in Chicago on different time zone.

No. However I did my research on other coffee brand design as well as history of Vietnamese coffee to find 'niche' for this brand. It was a long but very rewarding process.

The biggest challenge is communication with my client through different time zone and explaining technical design and software terms to my client because she is not from creative background.

I intentions was to satisfy my curiosity, testing the water of international design competition. I was recommended by a expert designer who believe in my works as well.

I have learn many things from the process, and one of them is to trust your instinct and be adventurous as a designer, as well as pay careful attention on details consistantly.

None. Thank you

I was fortunate to find my calling and passion for the art at a very young age and have my family's support to pursue art education in different countries such as Singapore, South Australia and the United State. I have a bachelor’s degree in art from Valparaiso University and a master’s degree in art education at School of Art Institute of Chicago. I can summarize that I have been an artist my whole life with over 7 years of experience as designer.

Until when I attended university, I was inspired and warmly welcomed to the design community in the United States and found my new passion for design. It was challenging to balance both professional fields as artist and designer but at the same time, very rewarding to be where I am at today.

I can say that the design world attracted me and I chose it.

Branding and packaging design are my main interest and focus.

Stay consistent on learning new things with open mind.

Great learning mentality and self-discipline, knowing your voice, positive attitude and open minded.

There are many components that make a good design. In my humble opinion, aesthetic, functionalities, storytelling components, personality/characters are the keys.

[Refer to previous answer] To me, design is a language of its own, this language ‘translates’ creative ideas to reality, hence, good design delivers the message/translate ideas more vividly.

I am particularly interest in branding design campaign that support start-up business and established business that related to the art, as well as projects that promote and raise awareness about environmental sustainability.

My dream project would be collaborating with big name companies. I think any designers out there can related to this.

Stay organize, stay consistent on learning new things with open mind.

Marta Veludo, Ben Grandgenett, Jessica Walsh and Lauren Hom are the first few names pop up first, there are so many talented designers that I admire as well.

[Refer to previous answer] I like how their works are simple, yet sophisticated, playful and catchy.

[Too broad to answer] I think designing packaging for Japanese cosmetic brand is my best work by far.

In my opinion, no matter of what professional level you are at, time management and communication are ‘easy to say than do’ skills and tasks to tackle. It takes time and efforts to improve these self-disciplinary areas, once you establish good self-discipline, you have more time and room to improve, explore more possibilities of your craftsmanship rather than wasting time fixing errors that could have been easily avoid by good habits.

Anything that involve creativity and inspiring others. My wilder thought would be a fitness instructor and business owner.

To me, design is a language of its own, this language ‘translates and transform’ creative ideas to reality.

My family, adviser and colleagues play major roles in my success as my emotional support.

My past flaws and mistakes are blessing in disguise and taught me many valuable lessons. In my culture, 'your mistakes are your best teacher' and think it's very true.

Creative differences and communication with people who are not from creative background are big obstacles to me but I find it very benefitial in the long run from overcoming those obstacles.

Depends on what kind of design projects. “Less is More” is always a good choice.

I am looking forward to my new position as Jury for Creative Communication Award (C2A) in California this summer. I enjoy creative projects with different themes and concepts from fun/playful to high-end and sophisticated style; so my hope for future projects is to have more room for creative freedom and more opportunities to travel and see the world.

[ Refer to previous answer] From macro perspective, my goal as a designer is to receive recognitions for my works and from there, bringing in more positive influences to the society. From micro perspective, my goal is to have recognitions for my works and to be a great role model for younger designers, including my art/graphic design students.

I am not sure about how to define the term ‘esteemed designer’, I think people would expect professional designers to have collaboration opportunities with big brands/ companies.

To me, design is a language of its own, this language ‘translates’ creative ideas into blueprint to creating new reality.

I am currently working on a branding project for a start-up art gallery in Chicago. I am also working new art projects in between participating in creative competitions and teaching.

I have satisfaction with most of my branding and packaging design projects that has authentic, niche and strong identity. For example my project on design packaging for a Japanese cosmetic brand this year.

I would like to see the design industry to value environment sustainability more than ever in the very near future.

In my humble opinion, minimalism and eco-friendly is still en route

It is depending on the project size, members involved and requirements, small projects usually take me 1-3 weeks to complete with client’s approval, while big branding projects can take up to 6 months.

Again, it depends on many factors. Generally, with me, new project start every trimester, sometime I take in fewer design projects to make sure I balance my time on my other professional practices as artist and art educator.

‘Find your own voice’

I'll go with a bold answer here, in my personal opinion, good designers predict and catch the trends, best designers create and set the trends.

Technology expanded my horizon in many ways. I work with adobe software and Maya Autodesk, with these software alone, I can be my own production team from printing, design, editing, filming/recording and render 2D & 3D designs. I am also planning to learn more software outside of the adobe suit. At the same time, I also appreciate traditional craftmanship (by hand) and would love to incorporate both platform into my future works.

I work with 9 different adobe software and Maya AutoDesk, on both Window and Mac.

I think those designs elements are crucially important in design composition as they are practically essential cells of a organic mechanism.

My inspirations and how I overcome obstacles during production stage of the project.

I usually either find out more about the artist behind the works or sketch down new idea almost immediately for future references. I even call my sketchbook: my “idea bank” with a rich ‘saving accounts where I ‘deposit’ visual notes.

My ideal designer partner is someone who are opening minded, transparent and challenge me to be better designer. I know that having a partner could be challenging sometime when it comes to creative differences and communication but when designers with positive attitude and share the same value of delivering high-quality of bodyworks, partnerships are great window of opportunity for peer learning and personal growth for any creative individuals.

Visual artists and fellows creative individuals that I interacted with are usually influenced my works.

Beside taking classes and training workshops, I also invested time to learn from my peers, self-taught new technique through ‘master copy’ exercises. I also get to revise old knowledge and incorporate new ones by teaching software that I commonly work it. The dynamic of students and teacher learning from each other really push me far forward.

NA [Unclear Question]

I am humble and grateful to have institutional recognition for your works. I feel very fortunate for not having any negative experiences related to those recognitions so far. I am enjoying the ride but I would not consider myself as famous.

As an artist by heart, I adore strong vibrance colors and love being at inspiring places like coffee shops, open-space studios with many windows and natural sunlight.

My very first attempt to create a poster design digitally with Paint by Window during my first year as an undergrad and it was before I learned any design software as well. It felt like I reached a new milestone back then when nobody knows it was created by Paint and the best part was, know body know what software I used back then.

My perfect day as a designer is when my clients were in awe and said the delivered works were beyond their expectation.

I don’t recall that part but I remembered this part of my childhood when I really wanted to be a fashion designer and really enjoyed playing dress up.

NA [Unclear question]

I want to share some useful design tips for young designers out there. My tips are: 1) Pre-plan a schedule and give yourself deadlines for each design/production stages to stay on track. 2) Allow yourself as much time possible to review, revise your design at it final stages. 3) If possible, allow yourself to have a few daybreaks between final editing, this way, you can review your works in a fresher set of minds. 4) It is always helpful to have constructive criticism 5) Communication is key. It takes time and efforts to establish self-discipline and pick up ethical habits such as time management but in the long run, you would have more time and room to improve, explore more possibilities of your craftsmanship rather than wasting time fixing errors that could have been easily avoid.

I was fortunate to find my calling and passion for the art at a very young age and have my family's support to pursue art education in different countries such as Singapore, South Australia and Midwest USA. Until when I attended university, I was inspired and warmly welcomed to the design community and found my new passion for design. It was challenging to balance both professional fields at first and still now but at the same time, it feels rewarding to be where I am at today.

NA, I represent myself for this competition but it one of my ambitious career goals to run my own reasonable- size design company in the near future.

To me, design is a language of its own, this language ‘translates and transform’ creative ideas to reality.

Branding and packaging design are my main interest and focus, but I am open-minded about trying new design media/platforms.

I found myself drawn into design that has personality besides high quality presentation and functionalities.

NA, I worked with private clients and educational institutions so far.

It’s a tricky question, I value both traditional aspect of hand-made and the latest technology has to offer.

Open space studio during daytime with a lot of natural lighting, I really enjoy positive energy from spaces like local coffee shops too.

All the details that regard functionalities, storytelling components and personality/characters.

It’s a big mix of all emotions and excitement stood out the most, I'm doing what make me happy afterall.

I feel accomplished, joy and grateful when my creative receives positive recognition.

In my humble opinion: Functionalities, Storytelling components and Personality/characters.

I would go with functionalities and presentation first.

It’s varied from project to project, some projects have more or less creative freedom. With projects that give me more creative freedom, I personally prefer to invested more time on strategizing how to deliver more positive messages (more in humanity aspect rather than political aspects) through my designs.

Constantly evolving with many surprise elements inspired by cultural diversity.

My last exhibition was in Chicago and Mission Viejo California earlier this Spring and my next exhibition will be at Czong Institute of Contemporary Art Museum in Gimpo-South Korea this Fall.

My inspirations come from many places, countries I traveled to, cultural values and other creatives individuals/experts that I looked up to from around the world.

I would word my design style as ‘catchy, refreshing, sophisticate and conceptually artistic’

I currently based in Chicago- USA, before that, I grew up in Australia, Singapore and Vietnam. There are pros and cons for growing up in 3 different continents of course, they enrich my knowledge and experience with other cultures. Unfortunately, at the same, being abroad for so long somehow ‘thin out’ my bond with my true root and heritage as Vietnamese, but then because of that it make me treasure my childhood memories and my family in Vietnam more.

NA, I work with creative institutions, agencies and clients.

I can sum it up that it's a long process which involve resilient, patience with brainstorming, testing, trials, evaluation, adjustment, problem solving to get your works reaching its best stage/form.

My e-pen, tablet, sketchbook, pencil and computer

NA [Unclear question]

Stay organize, stay consistent on learning new things with open mind.

Coming from creative background as artist, there are less room for creative freedom with being a designer, but I don't see it as a negative thing at all.

Stay consistent on learning new things with open mind

Communication, organization, open-minded

I work with 9 different adobe software and Maya AutoDesk, I aim to learn more software outside of the adobe suite to expand my horizon.

My tips are: 1) Pre-plan a schedule and give yourself deadlines for each design/production stages to stay on track. 2) Allow yourself as much time possible to review, revise your design at it final stages. 3) If possible, allow yourself to have a few daybreaks between final editing, this way, you can review your works in a fresher set of minds. 4) It is always helpful to have constructive criticism 5) Communication is key.

It is depending on the project size, members involved and requirements, small projects usually take me 1-3 weeks to complete with client’s approval, while big branding projects can take up to 6 months.

“What can we do to take it to the next level?” is my favorite question.

On site observation and getting advices from the experts helped me grow tragically

NA [Need permission of clients before reveal]

I enjoy work that have fun/playful theme and concepts that provide rooms for creative freedom.

I have many plans and international collaborations is the most immediate one right now.

For this award, I submitted my solo works.

I am currently working on a branding project for a start-up art gallery in Chicago.

Through my website and direct recommendations.

None. Thank you