Xà Cừ Rắn Giỏi
Personal/Collaborated Project
Year: 2025
Category: Art Direction, Product Design, Illustration, Type Design, Motion Graphics
Art Direction, Illustration and Motion: Quang Nguyễn
Packaging Design and Production: Nam Nguyễn (Noted Studio)
Product and Showcase Photography: Sang Nguyễn (Chộp Production)
Model: Quỳnh Hương
Xà Cừ Rắn Giỏi (loosely translated as "the resilience of the mahogany tree and the snake") is a self-initiated gift project for Tết (Vietnamese Lunar New Year) 2025, made in collaboration with my friend Nam Nguyễn — serving as the debut self-produced project of his newly launched production studio, Noted Studio.
2025 is the Year of the Wood Snake in the Chinese zodiac. With this in mind, we explored several creative directions before settling on the pairing of the African mahogany tree (cây xà cừ) and the snake — two well-known symbols of growth and longevity in Vietnam, yet with contrasting qualities: one tough and immovable, the other flexible and agile. The project title plays on Vietnamese wordplay between xà cừ rắn rỏi (the resilient mahogany) and xà cừ, rắn giỏi (the clever viper and the brilliant snake), and carries with it a heartfelt wish to the recipients: may their flexibility and resilience carry them through whatever difficulties the new year brings.
The project is divided into several parts:
Product Illustration and Design
Inspirations and references
Main illustration for the bandana
From left to right, top to bottom: design for embossed packaging (with QG Venimeux Display in use) and miscellaneous illustrations — collectible stamps, thank-you letter and gift card
Product and Packaging
Bandana (in two colours) and its full package
Left: Animated teaser for social promotion (unmute for audio). Right: Embossed and cut-out packaging
Application Showcase
Bandanas in different usage
Behind The Scenes
Quang Nguyễn
Communication Designer
is a Vietnamese design practitioner/illustrator currently based in Naarm (Melbourne), and an ongoing Master’s student of Communication Design at RMIT University.
Previously held a Bachelor of Communication (Advertising) degree and throughout years of accumulated independent design learning and practice, Quang is currently focused on brand illustration, brand identity, and communication design, with some of past high-profile clients including Sovico Group, RMIT, and UNESCO. He also frequently collaborates with Hands Collective, an award-winning brand consultancy based in Hanoi, and produces works recognised and featured by Behance, Dieline, and Pentawards.
[GMT+7]
Hanoi, Vietnam
[GMT+4]
Naarm, Australia
As a Vietnamese currently residing and working on the stolen lands in the Kulin Nation, I acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong peoples as the Traditional Owners, and recognise their deep and ongoing connection to these lands and waters. I pay my respects to their Elders past, present, and emerging. Sovereignty has never been ceded. It always was and always will be, Aboriginal land.