ART
DIRECTION
REPORT

CLASS
GDH0703
LECTURER
BÙI HOA HẠ
A REPORT BY
LƯƠNG ANH ĐỨC - GDH18550

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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
CONCEPTUALIZATION
PROGRESS
FINALIZATION

03
05
09
12

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INTRODUCTION
This is the report detailing our creation of
visual elements for a magazine interview and

a talkshow involving a young Vietnamese
artist, including the preparation, conceptualization, progress, the final results and the
lessons we learned during the course.

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PREPARATION
We started with a team of five
people. With our teacher’s
guidance, we quickly assigned
each member’s role in the
team for better teamwork.
Our copywriter is Đức for
his skillful use of English,
whilst Hải Đăng became the
graphic designer due to his
mastery of computer tools.
Kiên and Dũng were pointed
as the stylists thanks to their
experience in photography.
Finally, Hưng was elected as
the Art Director.
To prepare for the forthcoming
interview, we tried to
researched as much as
possible, including an in-depth
report on each roles. We also
tried to gather information
about five different famous

photographers to inspire and
prepare ourselves on what
to come when we do the
interview on the person.

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CONCEPTUALIZATION
Each member of the team
chose one young artist and
one magazine that they
want to write for, and pitched
those ideas to our teacher.
After some discussions and
adjustments, we decided to
interview Đào Quang Huy, a
comic illustrator living in Hanoi
for a mockup physical version
of iDesign.vn, an online design-focused newspaper.
Our copywriter is a big fan
of the artist, so he contacted
him via social media asking
for a interview appointment.
The team then went on to
interact more with the artist,
having talked to him through
messages and phone calls.
We understood that, from our
personal interaction and the

comics he drew, that Quang
Huy’s style would be a combination of retro and wackiness.

palette and the typo. At first
we would choose the sidewalk refreshment booth as
the location, but upon reconsideration and Quang Huy’s
own request, we decided to
change it to his favorite coffee
shop, and also made the color
palette warmer.

tells the narrative that we
want to show to the reader. It
would be the story of finding
out what made Đào Quang
Huy who he is today, what
challanged him and the
success of his own work.

The team then proceeded
to developed a storyboard,
a list of interview questions
and a shotlist that together

From this point, we brainstormed other crucial elements such as the location
for the photoshoot, the color
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Typography


SVN-FFF Tusj
Helvetica
Storyboard

Color palette

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Question list

1. First question, do you mind telling me when did you start to develop an interest in Art?

We created a list of questions
that we wanted to ask him.
Quang Huy was sent this
list prior to the interview,
and asked to remove any
questions that were too
personal. We respected
his request and decided to
remake the list.

2. So for you studying Art major, was it a family tradition or just simply a decision of your
own?

The questions presented here
are the final version. In the
actual interview, however,

minor adjustments had been
made in order to reduce the
tension between the parties.

5. During your time on the job, were there any specific events that you can’t forget?

3. When it comes to Art, where did your inspiration come from?
4. In my opinion, I can tell there are a fair amount of personal jokes that you put into your
comics. And I have a feeling about these stories is that they were drawn to aim at the
readers who have the same sense of humor as you. Is it true or you just make them because you like to?

6. Have you ever think of doing something different?
7. Have you ever have any objection from anyone like families, friends or acquaintances
for studying Art major?
8. Were you inspired by someone to do this?
9. Have you ever fallen into the “endless trails”? I notice that you mentioned it in one of
your comics and I’d like to know if you’ve ever encountered such situation.
10. Did your study at University of Industrial Fine Arts (UIA) affected a lots on you?
11. If you were not able to study Art, what’d be your plan B?
12.“Đào Quang Huy’s ultra-short comics” was a success project of yours. Do you intend
to keep on making similar works or something else totally different?

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We also created some possible page layouts to use during
the production of the magazine. Hardly any initial layout
were kept though, because
they do not work well with the
materials that we had.


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PROGRESS
We went to scout the possible
locations for the photoshoot,
including both fancy coffee
spots and cheap refreshment
booth on the sidewalks. But
somehow they all seem to be
too crowded, stiff designed
or simply lack enough light
sources.
So we ended up considering
Quang Huy’s own suggestion of a coffee shop near
his place. It turned out pretty
well as the decorations of the
place suited greatly to the
color palette that we were
aiming. We proceeded to take
a dozens of prototype pictures to visualize the actual
shots planned for the interview. It was fun and helpful,
for it contributed greatly to
our efficiency during the real
appointment.

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The actual photoshoot went
quite smoothly, for we had
prepared quite extensively
beforehand, with a list of
necessary equipment readied.
It was also because Quang
Huy was so professional to
the point that he could pose
immediately without having to
make any adjustment to his
posture. or facial expressions.
The interview turned out to be
just as well. Our interviewer/
copywriter Đức proved to be
a really big fan of Quang Huy,
which made it easier for them
to exchange words. The artist
also gave his answers in a
clear and to-the-point way,
which helped made the whole
appointment less tense. All
in all, we considered this a
success, for we were able
to wrap things up just in one
morning.

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FINALIZATION
Physical Copy
These are a couple of pages
of the physical edition of the
interview that we made.

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These nine pages were designed with the intention of informing
the readers with Quang Huy’s work, as well as to maintain his
artistic uniqueness through the retro-focused format

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Online Copy
This is the online edition
of the same interview. This
version follows the same
format of the iDesign.vn main
website for posts.

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Brochure - A5 (14,8x21cm)

The Talkshow

Standee - 80x180cm

Poster - A3 (29,7x42cm)

We were also tasked with creating a marketing campaign
for a talkshow featuring the
artist. So we decided to take
things a little bit differently, going full on with pop-art design
to fully cover Quang Huy’s
comical aesthetic.
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Mockups

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Banner - 820x312px

Avatar - 170x170px

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Ad - 700x300px

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EVALUATION AND
CONCLUSION
During the course, we have
learned many valuable
lessons, ranging from time
management to design management. The general idea of
what Art Direction is is clearer
now.
We thought that we did a
good job at preparing and
executing the photoshoot, as
well as the interview. Things
went well and the final result
matched with our initial layout
and color palette. Designing
the magazine article, moreover, was another challange
that we had to overcome,
and we thought that we did
well enough. The retro-driven
theme of the artist was blended well with his style of comic,
and the overall presentation
was not too terrible.
The talkshow required a lot
more work, but we did our
best. We pursued a comic-book concept for this event,

and most of the time it went
well. The only problem was
looking for the right specs of

different visual elements, as
source trustworthiness can be
questionable.
Overall, we think that we did
good as a team with a clear
vision of art direction. We
would not have achieved this
without any member and the
guidance of our teacher.

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End of Report

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