Profile: Minh-Tâm Nguyễn Đức – Real Leather Design Competitions

Minh-Tâm Nguyễn Đức

Vietnam

Dear judges and competition organizers, My name is Tâm, but you can call me Tammietan. I am currently a last year student specialized in Industrial Design at Tôn Đức Thắng University, Ho Chi Minh City. I am orginaly from Saigon, Vietnam; a vietnamese southern kid. In my major, I have had the chances to work with various materials such as leather, clay (pottery/sculpture), plastic, plaster, wood, resin, bio-derived material, and so many more. I have to say that I always love the feeling when I finish my personal project and be a part of the manufacturing stage, meaning I love to make/craft the product myself as much as possible. Speaking of the specialized skills in design like sketching, researching, ideation, 3d modeling, making prototype, I am confident that I can manage them all well. However, because most of the types of products I have made in my uni life were my first time/first experience making them so if I do it again I will need a bit more time to self-taught and do some research to get use to it again, but it won’t be a big problem. My strength is anything that involves task solving, I must say I am a task-making-holic. Moreover, my working experiences from 2021 to 2025 includes, marketing executive at The Freckles Studios (a local fashion brand), fabric doll crafter at Endless Vacation (a gift shop), gift & product wrapper at Maison Marou (a chocolate shop), copywriter - design intern - design executive at NEO Studio (an industrial design studio).

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Baby Theo Leather Bag

Category: Accessories

Competitions: Vietnam

My entry for this competition is Baby Theo leather hand bag. This is my first ever leather project. I followed mimicry design style and I chose the Cougar - a mountain lion to be my inspiration because of its adorable, yet, wild & fierce looking animal. It represent my inner self, my character and also the general features of today kids aka the gen Z, which are bold, fresh, and friendly. Moreover, the cougar also brings out the warm and strong feeling due to its features like its feather and strength which has a good link with the leather feature as well. Baby Theo leather hand bag is 31.5cm long - 17cm wide - 43cm (max) high. I chose waxed and suede leather in neutral color in order to enhance the wild and natural vibe. It can be a cute occasional accessory item to mix & match with cutie bossy or street style outfits and I believe that it is an unisex item that would go well with both boys and girls. You can bring it to a coffee date, a picnic or head around the city with it. However, after finishing crafting it, I noticed that the type of bag handle I made is not comfortable for a long time usage, especially when caring it with lots off items inside. I am still thinking of the solution for that handle part. I hope that I will have the chance to hear your comments to upgrade it to a better and more practical design. Thank you!