An expat Vietnamese architect- designer, whose bilingual travel book is Vietnam’s first to nab a U.S. design prize, talks about his experience in the field and the challenges designers face in today’s world.

Nguyen Tri Phuong Dong is the principal author of a travel book titled “Saigon Zoom In,” which was named the winner of the book design category of the 2014 American Graphic Design Awards on December 16, 2014.

The awards, given away for over five decades by Graphic Design USA which is a news magazine for graphic designers and other creative professionals, honor outstanding new works of all kinds: print, packaging, point-of-purchase, Internet, interactive, and motion graphics, according to its website.

Joining Dong were his young colleagues at Dai Viet Hoan Cau Co., a local company based in Ho Chi Minh City.

The book boasts around 400 photos of Ho Chi Minh City which were taken by almost 100 local and international photographers.

Written in Vietnamese and English, “Saigon Zoom In” is highly acclaimed for its outstanding, professional design with vivid paintings, maps and diagrams, as well as the bountiful information on where to go and what to do in the city.

Designed as a bookazine – a publication that combines elements of books and magazines – “Saigon Zoom In” is now available in print and an electronic format.

Dai Viet Hoan Cau has sold the book on amazon.com for US$10 since July 2014.

The book is the first installment of the 11-part series “Vietnam Visual Travel Guide,” a travel guide showcasing scenic destinations and cultural experiences in major Vietnamese cities and provinces.

Dong and his colleagues are working on the series’ next installment, “Nha Trang Zoom in,” which will also be written in Russian, as Nha Trang City, located in central Vietnam, is packed with Russian tourists.

Unitary outlooks necessary

Dong established his name in Vietnam’s advertising and communications industry between 1990 and 2005.

Though he moved to the U.S. around 10 years ago, he has remained connected to the design circle back home by joining a number of design and communications projects and holding online classes in the area.

Dong has also tried his hand at motion graphics design, which he has been doing for the U.S. television industry in recent times.

In a late December, 2014 interview with Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, the veteran architect acknowledged the immense role the Internet has played in the global design industry.

“Needless to say, the Internet is of huge use to designers, and it also serves as a strict gauge on if one’s idea is new or not. For example, we sometimes find out to our surprise that there’re some thousand ideas available on the Internet which are similar to the one we have just conceived,” Dong explained.

“Nothing is perfectly new in this Internet age. As a result, as soon as I conceive a new idea, I have to search thoroughly on the web to make sure it has no exact predecessors. Designers in the U.S. are also advised to do so to avoid copyright hassles later,” he elaborated.

Dong also pointed to the professional challenges most designers now face.

“Today’s tech-savvy world has posed notably more challenges than dozens of years ago, as professional benchmarks have been raised markedly. To make it clearer, half of what Pelé [a Brazilian soccer legend] had to offer back in the 1960s and 1970s is now most footballers’ basics,” he elaborated.

The expat designer also raised concerns that young designers are not properly trained in the ability to convey messages, which deprives them of insightful perspectives and fails to inspire them to create works with communally significant messages.

“Though countries vary considerably in historical, cultural and geographical conditions, I observe Vietnam adopts models from different countries inharmoniously. Vietnam also lacks a macro, unitary esthetic perspective, which is clearly manifest in haphazard street decorations during festivities and urban development, for instance,” Dong noted.

The designer also commented on the disparity between Vietnam’s urban development and heritage preservation, such as Ho Chi Minh City authorities’ recent felling of dozens of century-old trees in the downtown area to facilitate an urban construction project.  

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