With their novel ideas and unique expression, two outstanding logo designs, by Le Hoang Kha Duy and Huynh Thanh Mai, currently Graphic Design students at DTU, received honorable mention at the 2023New Talent Awards in the USA.
The event was organized by the Graphis Magazine and graphic design institute in New York to promote and honor the most talented international artists in graphic design, advertising, photography, and illustration.
Le Hoang Kha Duy impressed everyone with his logo for Pizza ON!, based on the original concept of the widely loved pizza brand. In the logo, slices of pizza are linked together with cheese and suggest a figure jumping for joy. This immediately gives the impression of a novel and youthful pizza that impacts the viewer with a dish that “looks good, tastes good,” created using simple lines and harmonious colors.
Le Hoang Kha Duy
Le Hoang Kha Duy explained: “I designed the Pizza ON! logo as part of a series of designs for the final exam at the Brand Design Studio at DTU. “This event enables Graphic Design students to study the professional skills in depth and create designs that are harmonious and eye-catching, which, at the same time, have the soul to fully arouse the desires that the brand wishes to convey.
A perfect design requires much demanding work and we’re incredibly lucky to study with highly skilled, experienced and dedicated lecturers. In particular, Ms. Nguyen Phuong Mai, a visiting lecturer at the Brand Design Studio, has constantly shared her practical knowledge with us, refined our course-completion presentations and motivated us to reach for perfection.”
Another attractive design was created by DTU student Huynh Thanh Mai in preparation for a graphic design exhibition. Her logo portrays flower petals with a variety of moving colors, to represent the dynamism of generation-Z students. She used gradient coloring and free brush strokes to express the freshness, uniqueness, and modernity that symbolize DTU students’ endless creative energy.
Another award for Huynh Thanh Mai with her DTU Student Design Exhibition logo
To learn more about product branding, DTU Graphic Design students become acquainted with practical information about brand names, brand styles, brand strategies, brand cultures, brand colors, and brand slogans. Meanwhile, they are introduced to the practical skills required to create designs that strongly impress the minds of their prospective customers, through lines, colors, proportions, typography and so on.
Huynh Thanh Mai explained: “Class hours for us are more than just about absorbing knowledge and professional skills, our lecturers also there to inspire us to study and create art. Sometimes, all it takes only a few small suggestions, a meaningful story, or just one word from a lecturer to trigger unique design ideas in us.”
Ms. Nguyen Phuong Mai gives engaging lectures drawn from her practical experience in the field
Ms. Nguyen Phuong Mai, a visiting lecturer in Graphic Design at DTU, mentored the DTU students for the contest and has worked with young people at the university for many years. She said: “I share my personal experiences from my teaching career and my basic academic and highly theoretical knowledge, together with vital practical experience. In each topic, I guide my students in the creation of a design that, besides being highly aesthetic, must be applied absolutely effectively in everyday life to confront a particular challenge that a certain brand has encountered. In my lectures, I always do my best to equip my students with the appropriate methods and skills to successfully create and execute projects within the scope of the lesson.”
Ms. Phuong Mai has 25 years of experience in graphic design in the Advertising industry and participated in the operation, design and supervision of various forms of campaigns. She has served as Creative Director at a variety of companies, including Hanoi Marketing Design, Richard Moore Associates and GreenWay Communication. Recently she became Co-Founder and Creative Director at Red Onion Brand Consulting, in charge of image building for brands such as VTV6 and VTV3, VnStar Paint, Enco Vietnam Construction, Thainam Industrial Cleaning Service, Hichem Vietnam Chemicals, the Hoang Gia real estate group and the BA GPS trip monitoring group.
In addition, Ms. Phuong Mai also spends much time working independently in the UK and in Beijing, China, participating in social activities of the Vietnamese embassies, providing consultancy and designs for cultural exchange activities of the International Attaché Delegation and the Diplomatic Wives’ Club in Beijing and for the Beida University Vietnamese Student Association in China, and also teaching classes at several Vietnamese universities. Consequently, her in-person lectures to DTU students of Graphic Design are of the highest quality, full of engaging, lively stories from her practical experiences in the field.
For the past three years, DTU Graphic Design students have regularly participated in several prestigious international competitions and winning prizes, including:
- Eleven Graphic or Graphic New Talent Awards (US)
- Two American Graphic Design Awards (AGDA, US)
- Six International Design Awards (IDA, US),
- Three awards at the London International Creative Competition (LICC, UK)
The highly creative and aesthetic designs that DTU students submit to design competitions, particularly to the 2023 New Talent Awards, affirm the university’s dedication, orientation and professionalism in teaching, and its prompt recognition of the very latest social trends in Graphic Design internationally during their studies.
(Media Center)