Duy Dao: The hottest designer right now after Thai Cong, the road to the 2024 Grammy nomination

Duy Dao is the creative director and designer behind Vietnam's first Grammy nomination in the "Special Publication Design" category. This is a work that he art directed and designed the album. He is the first Vietnamese to receive this honor.

Duy Dao's real name is Dao Duc Duy, born and raised in Hanoi. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Art Center College of Design - a private university in California (USA). Currently working in parallel in both the US and Vietnam. For many people, Duy Dao may not be a familiar name, but he is a famous person in the field of design and creativity. Duy Dao has worked with many prestigious global brands, from large, long-standing companies in the Fortune 500, to ambitious individuals and organizations (Google, Apple, Facebook, Pinterest, Oppo, Walmart, Louis Vuitton , etc.).

Duy Dao's works have been published and received many world-prestigious awards in the field of design, including: 3 times winner of the Art Director Club (Art Association), 2 times winner of the International Design Award (Design Award). Global International), 4-time winner of the Type Director Club (Typography Design Association), and 2-time winner of the Adobe Achievement Award,...

In November 2023, the 2024 Grammy organizing committee announced the list of nominated categories. Duy Dao's name attracted the attention of domestic media as well as became a search keyword on the internet when appearing in the category. Special publication design section (Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package) for the album Soo by the band 9X - Ngot.

"The morning before I heard the news, I sat in a daze, thinking about what had happened and what would happen. Then I looked at the wall with tears in my eyes."

That was Duy Dao's feeling before learning that he was nominated for the 2024 Grammy in the category Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package (Special publication design of the year) for the album Soothe by the band Ngot.

On social networks, people began to like and share the results, expressing their pride and arrogance at having the first Vietnamese representative to be nominated for a Grammy, and also the first Southeast Asian in the category for solve this design.

Recalling the opportunity to cooperate with the Ngot group, Duy said that he and Thang and Nam Anh - the founding members of the band - grew up on the same street. However, it took more than 20 years for the three to meet.

For the first time, Duy accidentally helped Ngot design the title for the music video Sometimes . After that, Nam Anh introduced Duy to the band members to make the album Soo. From the moment he first listened to the early recordings Ngot sent him to get inspiration for writing, Duy Dao felt moved.

Sharing about the design idea, Duy Dao said Ngot's 4th album "is sealed in a 'time box'. Contrary to the simple appearance, inside is a festival, where emotions made tangible, where messages are sent to the future. It is also a portal to invite listeners to interesting things in Ngot's "Sowing" world, where colors, music and emotions The psychedelic emotions of previous decades are recreated."

Different from the traditional design, the boxset of "Sowing" includes many components, such as posters, lyric cards, CDs, photobooks, notes, stickers, seeds, foam for sowing..., with The album concept is like a box that we will bury in the ground to communicate with the future many years from now. This is an idea that feels unrealistic but is conveyed through the concept of intimacy through words, materials and design. Ngot also revealed that Duy Dao was the one who named this album.

Before being nominated for a Grammy , Duy Dao was the leader behind the design of Vinamilk's new identity after nearly 5 decades, which "caused a fever" in July 2023.

The logo was changed from an emblem to a wordmark, with the line "EST 1976" below the white word "Vinamilk" standing out on a blue background. This design even covered social networks as soon as it was released, creating a trend among young people.

This is a project that Duy took on when he just returned to Vietnam after 10 years of living and working in the US.

The work is the result of 12 long months of design with 55 experts from more than 10 countries, including many Vietnamese, in which Duy plays the role of creative director and main designer, as well as a bridge between the Vietnamese team. South and international.

He is confident that the creative design industry in Vietnam as well as the region is developing. "Creative energy in Vietnam and the region is very strong. I hope that we will know how to catch that wave in the process of integrating with the world."

Duy Dao does not hide the fact that he is a "family member". However, Duy said that, although he claims to be a "designer and art director", he is not the best at those jobs in his family.

"The better person is my grandfather - People's Artist Dao Duc - the first and outstanding art director/design artist of a Vietnamese film studio. I am also a bit of an artist, but I am not an "artistic" person. "My father - famous artist Dao Hai Phong - will always be more "artistic", he shared.

Only admitting that he is fortunate to have inherited many values and is trying to preserve his family's traditions, to be like his grandfather and father, helping to develop and pass down the culture and creativity of the Vietnamese people.

That is also the motivation for Duy, after 10 years of living and working in the US, to return to Vietnam to open a creative studio with standards and intelligence on par with the best teams/groups in the world.

Thai Cong delivered the goods by taxi, Doan Di Bang received the goods without believing his eyes! Keng17:43:16 13/01/2024Even though it was only launched a few days ago, furniture designer Thai Cong's online store immediately caused a storm when it sold luxury products at sky-high prices, many of which cost up to hundreds of dollars. million dong.