Meet our designer: Ly Nguyen

Meet one of the people behind putting together the TLC Prospectus, and a big part of our marketing team - designer, Ly Nguyen.

Hi Ly - What’s your TLC story?

I have been a designer here for five years.

At the start, I was a sponge and absorbed everything I could and immersed myself into the culture at TLC. I met and spoke to everyone I could, getting to know some a little more and made many new friendships. I got involved in creative things like exhibitions, took classes, enrolled myself in the Certificate of Art and Creativity as a Distance Delivery student. I love all the classes. Some of the ones I really enjoy are ceramics, printmaking and knife-making. I firmly believe immersing myself in this way helps me with my creativity and, ultimately, my role here as a designer.

As part of the marketing team, we continue to fine tune TLC’s vision and visual style of communication, which is also informed by our students and staff. We explore and experiment with the many ways creativity takes form to best represent The Learning Connexion and its community.

How do you approach design jobs?

As a creative, I am influenced by my surroundings and my daily life. The world around me plays a factor in my creative findings and research.

When I start a project, I begin with researching, I then go on to brainstorming, experimenting, exploring and playing - essentially trial and error. Once you have a creative vibe going, ideas will start buzzing.

Once I am happy with an idea, I do a draft of the design. Often, I find that even if I like the idea, once it is drafted up, it may not communicate the message I had envisioned. It could be that it just needs a few changes, or it could mean changing it completely. When I am satisfied with my design, I’ll share a few options with my team or other creatives. Getting feedback is invaluable. 

What other creative influences energize your design practice?

I would say the natural world around me influences my creative decisions. I like to dabble in embroidery. I make wall-art embroideries, along with things like necklaces, rings and badges. I’ve also done ceramics and printmaking. These tend to be influenced by how I approach graphic design. I am not much of a drawer, but I do these silly funny doodles that I print out and make into cards, stickers and what not; I have fun making these. When I see others practising their own creativity, this inspires me to get going and do more creative stuff.

Designers are often busy multi-taskers. How do you manage your wellbeing?

When I am surrounded by nature it helps switch my mind off and just be. I like to go on short walks, get out in the sun, go swimming in the ocean or river, do some gardening, or go on a camping trip. Also, embroidering, doing personal creative projects and gaming. These all help to take my mind off things.

How has this prospectus been different to others? What are some challenges and highlights?

This year we played with the idea of doubling the size - it went from A5 to A4. We had a lot of positive response with the size change. I’ve also added in areas to show off TLC a bit more as I think we don’t always celebrate our achievements. There is a whole section celebrating the achievements of TLC students, staff and graduates with accompanying photographs.
Recently, we’ve had a team upgrade (gained more members) so we were able to put more focus and energy into the prospectus. Several of us took part in interviewing students and graduates, photographing them and their work which we showcased in the prospectus as ‘Student/Graduate profiles’.

We’ve included a lot more photographs this year, creating more than just a prospectus, but a beautiful book filled with stunning works of art. Next year we hope to keep improving and gain even fresher ideas.

Get our 2019-20 Prospectus here.