Interview by Alan Ng
Words by Alan Ng
Photography by Jenkin Au
In this episode of “IN HYPE WE TRUST”, we feature crew member Jessey Kwong, our graphic designer. The justalilhype! Crew first met Jessey during an interview with the dance crew he is a member of, The Groovy G’s. After a little time passed, Jessey approached us about some great ideas and that led to the new logo, the Crew blog graphics, and many more. Responsible for all the graphics with justalilhype!, Jessey definitely has an eye for design. This Commerce and Emily Carr graduate now splits his time between justalilhype!, his day job as a graphic designer, and as a member of The Groovy G’s.
For those for don’t know you, please tell us a bit more about yourself to our readers.
Man the first question is already so hard. I can tell you what I do. I’m a business graduate majoring in marketing that attended art school and dances and teaches the violin on his spare time and works at a graphic design studio. I also enjoy event organizing specifically in the street dance scene out here in Vancouver.
How have you incorporated your passions in life into your design career?
I think my art, music, and dance backgrounds definitely play an underlying influence in my design work. I wouldn’t say its a direct incorporation but more of an influence of how I approach work. Again, I’m sure there’s something that plays in the background without me even knowing
Please tell us on how you got into graphic design.
All my life I’ve been drawing and doing crafts and arts. I loved being hands on. Then of course like all children my age, I played around with paint and eventually got my mom to purchase me more artsy programs like crayola art for the computer. So you see I’ve always been interested. I went to drawing school, though I really shouldn’t be drawing, I loved crafts, and even got into repainting transformer action figures and made some dough that way while I was in school. I attended UBC got out of marketing and decided I wanted to get more into the creative side. I did some designing for fun during my years at UBC, but felt that I really wanted to pursue this direction.
What is your approach to doing design?
Planning. Brainstorming. Coming up with key words that you want to communicate visually. Putting words and feelings through visuals sometimes is quite difficult
Where do you get your inspirations?
I love seeing what’s out there. What’s being done and what’s ‘done’. Finding bad work also gives me inspiration. What not to do and what to do and it almost gives me a drive because I know how and what I can do to improve on a design and incorporate it into mine.
What sets you apart from other graphic designers?
This may sound funny, but the ability to meet deadlines and to keep prompt communication with my clients. You’d be surprise with the work ethics of a lot of designers
Why should people read justalilhype!?
I like the fact that justalilhype! showcases some of the best that Vancouver offers. Not only that, it’s such a wide range of talent that I’m sure a lot of readers can relate to and find it interesting
Where do you see yourself and justalilhype! in the future?
I’d honestly like to be getting into the print and web layout of justalilhype! I’d love to get involved with the print layout of a magazine, as print is where I want to be.
What is HYPE and why “justalilhype!”?
HYPE when something or someone has literally zoned out doing their thing and people can feel this sort of energy. It’s someone or something that is able to catch the attention and has the ability affect the audience in one way or another. “justalilhype!” because it’s just a little.
