Easy, Breezy

Tell us about yourself!
Hi, I’m Tuan Nghia, and I’m 25 this year. My name is quite hard to pronounce, so I prefer that my friends call me TN. I’m originally from Hanoi, Vietnam, but I moved to Singapore six years ago to study and now I’m working as a graphic designer.

How has living in Singapore been?
So far, so good I would say! I think to feel comfortable anywhere, the most important thing is the people. Lucky for me, I’ve met a lot of good people—some of them have become my good friends, and some even became my mentors. I’ll always appreciate all of them.

Although, the one thing I miss about Vietnam is the weather. I grew up in the Northern part of Vietnam, where we have all four seasons in a year. Since moving to Singapore, I miss the feeling of riding my scooter around the city during winter time and having a hot bowl of pho after. That’s really something that I cannot do here!

Let’s circle back to your job. Has it always been something that you wanted to pursue?
I actually never knew exactly what I wanted to do when I was younger. Growing up, I used to watch Cartoon Network after school and always tried to draw the characters or scenes from all my favourite shows as a hobby. I gradually started to realise that I want to do something related to art or be a creative in general. With the support from my parents, I got the chance to study here and become a graphic designer.

How would you describe your style as a designer?
That was a question I asked myself a lot when I was in college. After talking to many talented senior designers, artists, and people who have been in the creative field for many years, they told me that style is not just about the outer look of a design, but the thoughts and decisions behind it as well. So in that sense, I guess I’m still trying to find my own style!

How do you like to spend your weekends?
On the weekends, I always make sure that I spend some quality time with my girlfriend! We like to go window shopping, walking around malls or thrift stores, and sometimes we’ll go to IKEA just to look around and have a laugh.

Tell us one thing people might not know about you.
My friends always tell me that they can read me like a book, so I don’t think there’s anything weird about me that they don’t already know! Hmm, maybe the one thing is, that even though I studied French for 12 years, I can’t speak a word of the language now (laughs).