Susan Le

About Susan

I’m Susan aka Susu or Su, Australian born with Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese background. I’m a graphic designer and illustrator with a passion for book design. I was previously designing and art directing at Evi-O.Studio and now currently taking a bit of a sabbatical before beginning a new chapter.

I completed the Bachelor in Design in Visual Communication (Honours) and BA in International Studies (Major: Switzerland) in 2015 as a domestic student. I had my heart set on a design course and UTS had the right balance of specialisation without being too broad or too limiting. I also liked the accessible, friendly and less traditional atmosphere of UTS and as a hands-on person I was drawn to the industry-led and practice-based approach that UTS had to offer. I was also really attracted to international studies as an opportunity to live abroad.

Why Viscom?

I always knew I had a creative calling but becoming an artist seemed impractical or at least I didn’t have the privilege to go down that route and so I was determined to get into one of the UTS design courses. After visiting the UTS DAB grad show in 2009, it was the Viscom show that got me excited the most. Looking back on it now, it was a no-brainer as it encompassed all the things I was dabbling in throughout my childhood (illustration, making posters, web design, animation, designing books and making stationery etc.).

The highlights for me while studying were all the wonderful opportunities that came up as electives during my time here, for example we got to meet and present a poster to world renown designer Stefan Sagmeister, worked on a brief for Google Creative Lab’s creative director Tea Uglow (formely Tom Uglow) and did a few global studies including the Interdisciplinary Design Lab on the island of Kefalonia where we exhibited an installation at the Ionion Center responding to the plastic waste we found on the beaches, as well as a Japan design tour.

The sense of community that UTS DAB brought remains strong post-graduation. At Evi-O.Studio, we constantly had a stream of viscom graduates as part of the team and participating in internships. I would bump into Zoë Sadokierski, who was my tutor at uni at ABDA events as well as Nicky Hardcastle who brought along her students to do studio visits. I was very lucky to have supportive and inspiring professors and tutors and got to make friends with a bunch of very talented people across the various cohorts who I still cross paths with.

Global Study

I received a few diversity access scholarships and travel grants which definitely helped support all the global tours and study abroad I undertook while at UTS. I participated in two global studios: one in Greece and one in Japan. In Japan, we had a wonderful mix of design and immersive cultural experiences including visiting galleries like The Type Director’s Club and 21_21 Design sight, studio visits to ‘The Simple Society’ and ‘IDEO’, experienced a traditional tea ceremony and omakase in Kyoto, a handmade paper workshop, and we also stayed on the art island Naoshima (Where Yayoi Kusama’s iconic pumpkin stands) visiting world-class art galleries.

In terms of the design study tours, both definitely gave me new insights to my own design practice. It doesn’t matter what field of study you’re in, immersing yourself in different cultures is invaluable. Experiencing the ways of life in other countries enriches your understanding of the world and allows you to better connect with people from various backgrounds. It's an opportunity not just to learn academically but also to grow personally by challenging and expanding your perceptions. It’s something that definitely fuels my creativity.

ABDA

I’ve just had my big win for the ABDA Deb Brash Emerging designer of the year 2024. Receiving this award was a real honour and was kind of the cherry on top in reaching this milestone in my career. The best part was feeling like I was part of a bigger community of publishing, it was truly heartwarming for my work to be acknowledged by industry heroes and having such a lovely response from fellow peers on my speech.

The Emerging Designer of the Year award, previously titled Young Designer of the Year, is presented annually at the Australian Book Design Awards. To be considered for Emerging Designer of the Year the applicant must have no greater than 5 years experience working as a book designer.

What’s Next

I spent the last years working as a designer and then art director at Evi-O.Studio where a typical day could be anything from coming up with design concepts or art directing a photoshoot for the next cookbook, illustrating cocktails, training junior designers how to typeset, giving feedback to designers, or picking a Pantone swatch for a book cover going to print.

I’m currently transitioning to the next thing. It will probably be a mixture of things: setting up my own freelance, working on personal projects and open to whatever comes my way. Currently, as a late diagnosed ADHD going through my own mental health journey, I’m hoping to find opportunities to use design for mental health advocacy, community-based design, and education.

I found my passion in education and creating resources while training young designers as an art director at Evi-O.Studio and so one of my dreams is to set up an online educational resource for designers to learn some tricks and the tools of the trade for book design, typesetting and illustration. It would be tailored to neurodivergent brains but in our chaotic information overload world I think everyone would benefit from it.

To prospective students I would say take the opportunity to visit any events, exhibitions and open days that universities offer. Particularly for design students, I think the student exhibition showcase is a good way to see if you can imagine doing those things and be able to suss out what your environment is going to look like in the many years you’ll be there.