Ha-Giang ~ Writer

I make stories for multiple media. That includes writing scripts for picture books and animations, drawing comics and illustrations. If you need a narrative for a project or a creative brief, I'd love to hear from you. My email is [email protected]

[firprofile]

I had this idea of making animation for a while. Many while’s. Then I saw Don Hertzfeldt’s work and thought: ‘ok, no excuse. I have to do it, otherwise I’ll never know.’ So off I went.

Should start simple right? So I thought of doing a loop and some gleaming light on and off.

Quite doable. I could already imagine how to do it. Then my mind said: ‘maybe too easy. Isn’t it better to tell a story?’ Hmm, ok. I went back to the note I took nearly 1 year ago and found this.

Hmm I quite like the first idea. I want to make something with it. Something like this.

Then something like this.

See? Things get escalated pretty quickly. What else could I do except for sitting down and grinding it out? 

Here is the result.

I just had a vague idea to begin with. It kept me going. It encouraged me to experiment, add, subtract, adjust, anything that spiced up the momentum. Most of the interesting effects (bouncing, drifting, dripping, etc.) were invent by the seat of my pants. I didn’t plan all of that out. 

By the way, if you haven’t noticed, the two P’s are meant to pay tribute to Present Plus studio.

[firprofile]

More creative wrappings!

The first one is a wok disguising as a bunch of flowers.

The second one is a set of game cards disguising as a cat.

I really love this. Making wonderful combinations with kraft paper and markers.

[firprofile]

Woohoo! At last I finish the croissant alphabet in colors. Some of them is quite stylized, while some is really realistic. The F (flamingo) and W (wasp) are two examples that made me lose the sense of time and end up portraying them as lifelike paintings!

You can support me (and every croissants out there) by buying the alphabet as postcards here.

[firprofile]

A birthday card for Jaap. There are all kinds of vegetables and fruits in his garden. And here they form the word 'Jaap'.

[firprofile]

Remind little goldfish!

I wrote this story about a forgetful little goldfish for Room to Read Vietnam in 2013.

Realizing it's absentmindedness, little goldfish came up with many plans to overcome that. 

Then little goldfish went to a fish parade. What an exciting parade it was!

Little goldfish did a great dance and received the crown from the Great Flowerhorn! 

Little goldfish was so happy! What could possibly go wrong?

[firprofile]

A birthday card for Lars. There is the word "Lars".

[firprofile]

I co-wrote the script of this great little animated video for Kuvva.

For this one, the process went the other way around: storyboard first and script later. So it took some iteration to come to this final version.

[firprofile]

53 portraits of the creatives featured in the ongoing series One Minute Wonder by Present Plus.

Each took me about one minute. It's a nice exercise.

[firprofile]

Birthday card for Elly. There is a bird and the number 60.

[firprofile]

Graduation card for Mirwais. It says "Mirwais".

[firprofile]

Birthday card for Lex. It says "Lex".

[firprofile]

Birthday card for Emma. It says "Emma".

[firprofile]

Thank-you card for Bas

[firprofile]

I first know Kuvva a few years ago when it just started making weekly sets of artistic wallpapers for both Mac and Windows and I was living in Vietnam. I liked the idea much and used it till the day it stopped supporting Windows. It was nice. I didn't think that there would be a day when I could work for Kuvva.

Well, it has happened. Kuvva is now at a new stage of development. And I'm very happy to be part of it. I mainly blog for blog.kuvva.com, do copywriting, chat with nerds, and look for ways to refine the whole product everyday. I love doing all that. At some point, it feels almost like an indulgence with terms and conditions :)

[firprofile]

Never before have I seen my name in the same category with the amazing people who made What Design Can Do 2014 come true. All of the talks are available on the website and are highly recommended to watch :)

[firprofile]

These three are all birthday presents wrapped and drawn by me. The one looks like a cat actually has a pair of shoes inside it. The middle one is a set of oil colors. The card has the name ‘Emma’ drawn in forms of foliage and birds.

I had lots of fun making these presents. Especially the cat wrapping turned out to be much better than I thought. I didn’t wrap any shoes without boxes before, so somehow I made those two pointy corners after taping the paper in places. It looked a bit weirdly blank, that’s why I picked up the marker pen and drew on it. Then voila! A cat was born. (Emma was very happy to receive it)

[firprofile]

The Age of Wonder festival was a very cool event that I was lucky to participate in. There was a master class organized by Arne Hendriks and Rachel Armstrong about the ecological human being in the 21st century. It was so cool, informative and eye-opening that I felt like being soaked in a master program in just three days. You can read my first record about the master class here.