We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Haze Nguyen. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Haze below.

Alright, Haze thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s jump back to the first dollar you earned as a creative? What can you share with us about how it happened?

My family has always been pretty crafty and passed that down to my early on. I have memories of my family gardening, collecting and drying seeds which we normally give to extended family and family friends. Since there was so much extra I created little envelope seed packages with cute custom designs and walked around the neighborhood selling our gardens seeds. There are little entrepreneurial meets art moments for me all throughout elementary, middle and high school. I remember when duct tape was a huge trend, I would create bows, bracelets and bags and sell them to classmates. It started off with bows, and everyone started doing their own, I wanted something new, and was learning tto braid at the time as well. I would tear vertical strips and weave them into a stiff bracelet. I started with my own and realized it softens up after wearing for a while and after some requests I decided to distribute them. In school it’s hard to come by cash except for birthdays and holidays, so it was super motivating to be selling and earning by doing something I enjoyed.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am motion graphics artist and just started a full-time role at For Marsh as a Junior Digital Art Director! Originally, I started animating over dance video in the second half of high school because I loved seeing the effects in music videos and took basic digital classes that introduced me to new software and techniques that I was curious about. I have been a huge fan of Disney and Cartoon Network and have always been an animation fan so I was interested in pursuing something in the creative field. Currently, projects that come through my work focus on campaigns for social change and health awareness. There’s animation, static and web work and that I am really excited to touch on. Honestly, I have always had many varying interests like drawing, sewing, ceramics, printmaking, etc. I feel that I’m quite well-rounded and suited for a role where I can be creating different assets, or work on different elements of a campaign. I do like to maintain a fun and loose art side, and try to work on simple drawings and original characters on my own time. My personal work always contains humor and I love working with color.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Encouraging and sharing the work is vital to maintaining an artistic community, and while there is a large business side of art now having a supportive community is key. Collectively, society realizing the value and worth that artist bring will really make all communities thrive. Art is connected to many parts of daily human life through architecture and education etc, it’s important to see it in a respectful way.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

One of the most rewarding parts of being an artist/designer is being able to look back and see my growth. While I know `I’ve improved technically, going back and looking at an old project and realizing how much I’ve improved is so satisfying. Sometimes in the depths of working and slumming through a project it can feel really tough and not gratifying. Life of a creative can be hot and cold and I don’t think I’ll ever stop craving it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.hazenguyen.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jelly.hai/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haze-nguyen/

Image Credits

Isabelle Winarto