Meet Haze Nguyen | Artist & Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Haze Nguyen and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Haze, where are your from? We’d love to hear about how your background has played a role in who you are today?
My family immigrated from Vietnam to the United States and I grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina with my mom, dad, and older sibling. I have a large extended family. We are all quite close and I always had cousins to play with and aunts and uncles to talk to. Growing up there was always some sort if crafts going on. My grandma knits, an aunt taught us sewing, an aunt showed us how to paint, and all the cousins would draw when we had the chance. When gathering on holidays we would be sewing clothes for our stuffed animals, having fashion shows, making t-shirts, crafting picture frames with sand and shells from the beach and sewing felt crafts as Christmas tree ornaments. I’ve become a heavily-detailed and hands-on type of person because of those influences, but never thought of it much as more than a hobby. As many asian households are, we reuse grocery bags, repurpose bottles, grow gardens with scraps, and DIY the hell out of anything to save money. I’ve always been surrounded by hustlers, hard workers, and crafty people whose habits now reflect onto me.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
When people asked me what I want to be when I grow up I never thought “oh I want to do motion design, I want to animate.” I found my way to this career path by doing all the things I love. I love materials. As a kid I would make things out of cardboard. I made a violin music stand, a knight costume for halloween, a decorative horse drawn carriage. I loved to sew and work with fabric, I would create outfits, bags and altering clothes. When it was trending I picked up duck tape and manipulated it into weavings and made bracelets. Lots of which I sold in school. My summer camp pottery sculptures always had na additional piggy bank function, and my little sculptures could hold pencils or incense. I just loved to create things with a purpose. While I did enjoy art as expression like drawing and painting I knew that I loved functionality. Now I’m creating lot’s of mixed media animation or prints that carry humor and color. I create stories, concepts and focus on the ideas behind the work.

How I ended up pursuing a creative career is out of luck. Being the youngest child has its privileges of less pressure from parents academically and more opportunity to nudge different career potential. Let’s be real, asian parents are typically expecting a more scientific or medical route. Community and family expectations of me were the first challenge I had to overcome to get to where I am now. I really had to embrace my interest and realize I had talents outside of Math and English, and be confident enough to suggest alternatives to my family.

Another struggle that is common among artist is finding personal style. I think for me I’ve always had great inspirations and things that I feel the need to save. Packaging from toys, stationary I love, audio clips or quotes from shows that are touching and funny. Everyone is influenced by the environment so I always try to surround myself with things that interest me and people that I can learn from or whose energy I love. When I find myself uninspired it’s when my life feels stagnated. I always try to push through by trying new things, or making an effort to improve even in the smallest details.

My little artist brand that I am building up is called Jelly Hai. The word jelly can be associated with the colorful gelatin snacks that kids often eat. I chose that word for its anergy and association along with the word Hai which comes from my Vietnamese name Hai Duong. I wanted to include part of my name but the sound phonetically doubles as the word “high”. The meaning of the brand is the high of energy and color that Jelly Hai gives you. I create cute prints with my original characters, and plan on making more products for it too. I’ve always had a million different interest and with it I can use different skills for production, business and art that are different than a typical design career would need.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I just moved back to North Carolina and it’s a great place to be. You’re within driving distance to lakes, mountain, and ocean. There’s a lot of outdoor spaces for hiking or relaxing. There’s great Vietnamese food in Greensboro, and boba places popping up everywhere. In my hometown is a local boba place called Tea Hill that has great taiwanese snacks, my favorite is the green onion pancake with dried pork. I also love an all you can eat place like Kpot in Raleigh, it’s a sensory and stomach overload in the best way possible.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
First of all, my family. My parents have done the most to support me financially and I’m so thankful to them for challenging me, and expecting the most out of me. It really taught me the importance of being open-minded to growth no matter the circumstances. There’s always a way to improve and not to settle or be complacent. To all my aunts and cousins, they really helped foster the curiosity and goofiness in me that’s lead to a creative career path.

Website: https://www.hazenguyen.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jelly.hai/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haze-nguyen/