We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jaylyne Nguyen. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jaylyne below.
Jaylyne, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
The most meaningful project to me is the multi-page Studio Ghibli publication that I designed and curated back in the Fall of 2021. It was one of the first school projects where I got to pick my own topic of interest. The project parameter was only to design a 6 spread brochure, but because I was emotionally invested in the topic matter, I went above and beyond and ended up with a 63-page book. It is also the project where I learned the most throughout the whole process: organizing my tasks, facing procrastination head on, in-depth researching and curating the content by myself, drawing illustrations to push the content where photos could not. I also fell in love with grids and layouts, elegant typefaces and a sophisticated style of design through this book. It was also my first time picking out my own paper samples, and using that as another tool to communicate my concept. Working with a printer is also something that I haven’t done prior to this project. Additionally, my professor for this class allowed a lot of freedom for us students so, that helped with the confidence in my process and my decision making so much. In fact, because of that, I was not afraid to start over with 3 or 4 rounds of my layout sketches, until I got to a version where it felt right. All in all, even though this book might not be the best work that I’ve ever done in term of technicality, but it for sure ignited the foundation and paved the way for the mindset that I have now as a designer. And with that mindset, I was able to go on to create many other great projects afterwards.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Tenacious, introspective, and versatile. I’d say those three words describe me and my brand the most, as I am slowly transitioning out of college and into working full-time. I also consider myself to be a designer with integrity and a strong work ethic.
I was fortunate enough to learn from industry professionals about technical principles of graphic design, both in theory and with hands-on projects. Each branding project, website redesign, and logo is a communication problem and I am grateful to say that, at this point in my career, I can approach them with both empathetic and objective points of view. For example, there is much more to designing a logo and truthfully speaking, I don’t believe anyone can just waltz in and make one with no prior understanding of design principles. The process of researching, ideation, making sure that the idea solves the problem at hand, and executing it successfully is a long and arduous process to say the least. And every designer has their own process. However, professionally speaking, a statement that I live by is: “A dependable designer is a master of methodically adapting creative processes through unapologetic vulnerability and compassion.”
That being said, even with my freelance clients now outside of school, I am proud to offer creative solutions that communicate messages effectively and solve the problem, and not just designing something pretty just for the sake of being aesthetically pleasing.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I have recently done a lot of reflecting: back at where I first started, my journey thus far, and what I aspire to be in the near future; and the one thing that I had to take effort in unlearning is to not judge people too quickly. Growing up, there is this mindset of “saving face” in Asian culture, meaning constructing a public appearance of being “good”, “having it together”, and “successful” regardless of what’s actually happening on the inside. With this mindset instilled in me at such young age, I unconsciously place my self-worth in the hand of other people’s judgement. This also means that I gave myself permission to judge others based on the little things that I know about them, whether through social media or just through word of mouth. But, as I grow older, I learned that every pair of eyes that ever meets yours have a life of pain, fear, loss, hope, and love behind them. People have reasons to make whatever decisions they deem fit, based on their experience with this world. So, who am I to judge? I can never look at life the same way that someone else looks at life, and vice versa because we all have different lenses in which we see the world. This realization liberated me and grounded my self-worth back into my own experiences. It also changed the way I approach relationships with those around me and empathize with others more, thus, expand my design thinking process at the end of the day.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding aspect of being an artist/designer is to watch your work take form in the physical space. Every time I watch a poster I design being printed, or posted on social media, or see my logo on a piece of packaging, it brings me so much joy. I take my creative process really seriously, and I have conscious intention with every decision along the way. So it’s almost like I’m watching my baby being born whenever I’m at a print shop or production studio hahah
I also enjoy learning about the industry that I design for. My work requires me to learn about a certain subject in-depth just so we can understand our client’s brand better, in order to propose better design solutions for their problems. For example, I’m working on rebranding a tea and coffee company right now, and I’m learning all things tea: where they originated, what is considered “good tea”, cultural background, etc. And best of all, I get to taste test all of this rare and expensive tea that I would never know of otherwise. To be frank, I’m proud and take pride in all the random knowledge I got from working with different clients across different industries. And I meet the coolest people through my line of work all the time! That makes me feel like I’m cool at times too hahah
Contact Info:
- Website: behance.net/jaylynenguyen
- Instagram: instagram.com/jaylyne.design
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/jaylyne-nguyen