“Nét Chữ Nết Người" is my senior thesis featuring exploration of 5 display typefaces based on my family’s handwriting,their personalities and my relationship with them.

Installation is color coded to their favorite colors.

Installation has 3 main parts 

1. “Their Handwriting” 
2. “Them” 
3. “Our family dinner”

Senior Thesis

Thesis Advisor: Aki Nurosi
Special Thanks to: Richard Lipton, Kelsey Elder, Ed Brown

Project Skills: Type Design, Interactive Installation, Sculpture making, Editorial Design, Vinyl Cut, Laser Cut/Raster, Hand-stitching, RISO Printing, Spiral Binding, Photography

Installation Location: Design Center 501

A 4-foot typographic chandelier that showcases the process of designing typefaces through explorations, handwriting samples, and color paper. The frame is constructed using various types of wire, including fishing wire.

This handmade sculpture visually represents the stages involved in designing and analyzing the handwriting of my family members, which serves as the foundation for developing full typefaces.

Additionally, the chandelier features hand-drawn typeface drafts, complete alphabets, names, and vibrant color paper, creating an immersive experience of the creative journey behind each design.

Five 12.5-foot scrolls, lined with fabric on the back and illuminated to cast a soft, ambient hue on the wall. Each scroll highlights one of my family’s most cherished memories with me, alongside three words they’ve chosen to describe themselves.

Accompanying these scrolls are RISO-printed, spiral-bound booklets that delve deeper into my process of analyzing my family members' handwriting, personalities, and our relationships, and how these elements were translated into typefaces.

I wanted to present my typefaces through the idea of a family dinner. Family meals have become pretty rare for us. With my mom and brother in Australia, my dad and grandparents in Vietnam, and me in the U.S., having everyone sit down together for a meal feels almost impossible. By using a family dinner to showcase my typefaces, I wanted to capture those intimate moments that happen when we’re all gathered around the table.

The typographic meal brings those moments to life, with different dishes (laser-cut masonite and acrylic), bowls (vinyl-cut lettering), plates (vinyl-cut lettering), chopsticks, hand-stitched napkins, and a soup bowl in the middle (bát canh) featuring spray-painted letters. It also includes recipes for some of my family’s favorite meals, blending design with the intimate bonding delicacy of a shared family dinner.

1. One intimate moment I’ve noticed at family-style dinners is when you try to grab a piece of meat, but it’s too big, and someone has to help by holding it down while you pull. I wanted to capture this interaction by designing the process booklets to be initially spiral-bound together. I added small notches on the spirals so that when one person holds the book, another can help separate it into individual booklets, mimicking that shared moment of assistance.

2. Boxes on the table when you open has hidden as gifts inside of them, to also mimic when sometimes we need to use our hands to interact with food at the table