MY WORKPLAYCE: ANTHONY NGUYEN
Name: Anthony Nguyen
Location: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Affiliation: Tango & Sons, 10.Deep Alum
Background: Anthony and I used to work together at 10.Deep. He was actually the one who “put me on.” Anthony did it all there, he designed graphics, spec’d tee’s, produced photoshoots, stuffed gift bags, took out trash, and provided the office with decent music and entertaining youtube links. Since his days at 10.Deep, he is still doing graphic design for his freelance company Tango & Sons. Amongst his many talents and skills, Anthony is also a world traveler, he recently moved out to Vietnam to hang out and here’s what he’s up to.
What’s on his desk: 1. 17″ Macbook Pro 2. Klean kanteen 3. Shit ton of fisherman’s friend 4. Handkerchief 5. Cookie Monster Bookmark 6. Business Cards 7. Bottles of Nutrabiotic 8. Moleskine 9. Casio G-shock Watch 10. Wallet 11. Backpack on floor 12. More business cards 13. Cup Noodles
Q1. How long have you been in Vietnam? What made you go?
AN: I’ve been in Vietnam for about 6 months now. Living, studying, working, playing. The original plan after leaving 10.Deep was to take some time off to travel, but after a couple months of that, I realized I didn’t have the energy to live out of my backpack sharing dorm beds with kids on their gap year. So, I decided to relocate to Vietnam and learn the language, with the consideration that it’d work as a pretty good base from which to explore the rest of Southeast Asia.
Q2. Was it hard to adapt to? Did it take long for you to feel at home?
AN: It’s definitely been an interesting past couple months. Nothing has really panned out according to the vague plan I originally had in my head; for one, my Vietnamese is still pretty much at an infant’s level, and I’ve only left the country twice since my initial arrival. So, there’s that. As far as adapting– once you can get over the fact that Vietnam’s dirty, congested, polluted, smelly, loud, and generally pretty abrasive, it’s not that difficult to manage here. So much has changed since the last time I was out, and in a lot of respects, it’s a pretty Western environment (Saigon, anyway). The interesting thing about the ex-pat population here is that there are tons of Viet Kieu (overseas Vietnamese) who have moved back to Saigon, and amongst the ones coming from the States, it’s a pretty tight-knit community. I’m originally from Santa Ana, CA, and ended up reuniting with folks I hadn’t seen since I was in elementary school and junior high. And then there’s also a growing population of Vietnamese-Americans in New York who have pretty strong ties to Saigon. It’s an interesting time to be here, especially if you work as a creative; everyone knows each other, there’s a lot of opportunity, and there’s a fair amount of support from within the community. In that sense, I feel very comfortable and ‘at-home’ here. On the other hand, there’s a lot about the burgeoning economy and opportunity that creates this weird aura of fantasy-land and fosters a bit of a take-take-take mentality that can be somewhat off-setting. Not to mention the population can be pretty transient; you’re constantly welcoming new people in the same week you’re throwing a good-bye party, and that gets to feeling like Summer camp after a while.
Q3. What’s the biggest difference from living there than here?
AN: Quality of life. Day-to-day living here (for an ex-pat) can make you feel pretty spoiled. Also there are more hookers. Also bidets.
Q4. You flew half way around the world to eat Cup O’Noodles? Fill me in on the good eats over there.
AN: Those were a gift from a visiting cousin. I live in a house that entertains a lot of incoming travelers, and because we don’t really charge for lodging, we usually just try to score some goods that we can’t acquire out here. We’ve got a cabinet full of contraband that we only open for special occasions, and it’s pretty much just stocked with junk: Red Vines, sacks of M & M’s, Rolos, Hanover Honey Mustard pretzels, Haribo Gummi Bears, that Pacific-something Beef Jerky you buy at Costco, etc. I have no idea why my cousin brought Cup Noodles, but he was kind enough to leave them on my desk, where they’ll probably remain until I move out of this room. As for eats– I don’t even know where to begin. Vietnamese cuisine is vast and marvelous and cheap. There’s restaurants, food stalls, holes-in-the-wall, street vendors– the amount of options is insane, and one of the major crises of the day usually involves deciding on what you feel like eating. Um… here’s a pretty good blog I usually direct friends to when they visit: gastronomyblog.com
Q5. Did you get to travel outside of Vietnam? What was your favorite spot?
AN: I’ve been a little disappointed with how little travel I’ve done outside the country– one of my top destinations to hit was Angkor Wat, and it looks like that won’t be happening this time around. Ah well– another excuse to come back, I suppose. Anyway, of the limited travel I’ve gotten to do out here, my favorite spot by far was Lombok, Indonesia. Good surf, good crab, very green.
Q6. I heard you worked a bit out there, what did you exactly do?
AN: Ahhh… yeah, it’s kinda funny. The impetus for this trip was to not work for a while, and somehow, I ended up getting sucked back into the fold when I got out here. Certainly wasn’t intentional, but I dunno… I figured that if I picked up a couple jobs here and there that could sustain my stay here as well as fund some holidays, then what was the harm, right? It’s all been freelance design projects– most recently, I’ve been bouncing around some ad agencies as a design mercenary. That ranges anywhere from project work like logos and corporate identity to just coming in as an extra hand to help prepare for pitches. So far, though, the work I’ve been most proud of is designing the graphics for L’usine, a shop that’s sort of Saigon’s equivalent to colette or Il Corso Como. There was a lot of time, energy, and money spent to make that space feel ‘right,’ and I’m pretty pleased with how the final execution turned out.
Q7. Did you get to work on any art? Sketching? Painting? Photography?
AN: Yeeeeahh… that was another thing on my to-do list that sort of fell by the wayside. I’ve certainly met a handful of interesting and inspiring artists out here, but as for working on my own stuff– no dice. Both of my cameras broke immediately upon arrival, and so, if anything, I’ve gotten really, really good at iPhone photos. I still doodle regularly, but I dunno… everything still feels so new for me here that it’s really difficult to actually focus on anything. I’ve learned to weave in and out of traffic masterfully, how’s that?
Q8. Have you been updating chinochohino.cc? I still check it once in a while, what’s the purpose behind your site?
AN: Shit, now I’m just starting to feel bad. chinocochino.cc has been sporadically updated since I’ve been out here, but only enough to make me feel that I haven’t wholly neglected and left it to die. The site really just started as a personal art dump for me, a place where I could deposit all these half-cooked, unfinished visual ideas I had floating in my head or on pieces of scratch paper; it felt really nice to be able to upload images somewhere without having to really frame or explain them. Just be like ‘this shit is kinda funny,’ or ‘I had bronchitis when I made this’ or ‘I have OCD and I just finished a 19-hour cross-hatching marathon.’ Around the same time, I realized I’d been sitting on thousands of photos I’d taken since moving to New York, and they were all just sitting in drawers, monopolizing whatever free space I had in my room. I think at a certain point I actually calculated how much money I’d spent on printing and developing, and it just seemed stupid to keep amassing photos and not doing anything with them. So, these days, chinocochino is a pretty good way for me to actually sit with these flicks and filter out the sometimes-okay from the mostly-crap. I don’t think anyone really looks at the site besides me, but that’s quite alright. I’ll update once I can get my hands on a scanner.
Q9. I see lots of medicine on the desk, you didn’t drink the water did you?
AN: Listen. It’s just a fact of life that you’re going to eat something here that’ll make you sick. Every orifice kind of sick. Linda Blair in the Exorcist sick. If you don’t want to be constantly bombing your system with Cipro and Immodium, I recommend the natural route. Grapefruit seed extract. Bong bong. Don’t let yourself become another victim. Eat everything, take your Nutribiotic, and cross your fingers.
Q10. Fisherman’s Friends??? WTF is that? Were you hanging out by the docks? Or is that more medication?
AN: Another fact of life here: you’re constantly shuffling from extreme humidity and heat to air-conditioned interiors. It wreaks havoc on your sinuses, and if you’re not waking up with a bloody nose, you’re waking up with a sore throat. That’s why I use Fisherman’s Friend, strong menthol lozenges produced in Fleetwood, Lancashire, England, and originally developed by a young pharmacist named James Lofthouse in 1865 to relieve various respiratory problems suffered by fishermen working in the extreme conditions of the Icelandic deep-sea fishing grounds. The lozenges still come in their famous paper packets, although these are now foil-lined and sometimes packaged inside a cardboard carton. They are available in over a hundred countries, in a variety of flavours. Ricola can suck it. Also I work for Lofthouse now.
Q11. What kinds of business cards have you been collecting? Any good connects out there?
AN: Business card culture is intense in Asia. I don’t really get it, but everyone has one, and there’s a whole song-and-dance associated with exchanging them. Anyway, they do end up being pretty helpful when it comes to locating all the sort of word-of-mouth and secret spots in the city. There are so many gems here that aren’t necessarily exclusive for exclusivity’s sake– it’s more like they’re tucked away in the back of someone’s house in a weird, obscured alley. And because there’s no real system like yelp or citysearch here, you always pick up a handful of cards from these establishments to pass onto friends, direct taxi drivers with, etc. The ones currently sitting on my desk are for a couple of cafes and a furniture manufacturer.
Peep his work here: Tango&Sons
