Age: 39
Hails from: Vietnam
What brought him to Minneapolis: The appreciation of art and design in Minneapolis; seeing that a lot of the designers I admired were working in Minneapolis; the appeal of having seasons. I wanted to move somewhere completely new when I was young, because I knew it would be harder when I was older.
On designing for Target (he worked on a campaign that created a series of Target gift cards that doubled as rubber ducks, bubble wands and garden kits): It’s pretty cool working for a client like Target. They really “get” design. How many clients ask to be challenged with new ideas all the time? They are constantly moving, and as a designer, I still get new challenges every day.
Design versus art: Being a designer makes it harder for me to be an artist. I struggle with the need to always have a problem to solve. Sometimes I have to force myself to just start drawing, without a purpose or idea ahead of time.
Tips for teaching art to kids: I like to compliment my kids on the colors, textures or compositions of their work versus how well they actually drew something. I don’t want them to lose the joy of just creating. I am really jealous of a lot of their compositions; they usually have very strong and simple pieces that blow away the stuff that takes me hours to figure out.
Why he doesn't title and sign his work: I usually don’t sign my work because I am not used to that idea. In design, all of your work is anonymous. It's pretty rare for a designer to take credit for his work. Plus, I think my signature looks weird.
Notes: For this story, I wanted to profile a designer in advertising, because I think a lot of people don't even notice how jam-packed with impressive design the ads they see every day are. I called Little & Co. because they do a lot of the Target design, and they told me Viet Do was their up-and-comer. When he came into the studio, Do was very humble. He brought a set of watercolor brush-simulating black markers and drew on the background while I interviewed him. At the end, he didn't want to sign his name, which I thought was a refreshing lack of self-absorption for an artist.
