Ê có khi nào...? / Hey, what if...?

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Ê có khi nào…? (lit. translated to Hey, what if…?) is a fun little book that consists of 182 rhetorical questions about paradoxes in daily life. Through the language of visual design and the beauty of puns, we translate these into fun, creative content that makes readers laugh out loud at first, and sometimes, cry a bit after.

Art Director: Quynh Than

Author: Sói Ăn Chay

Illustrator: Vũ Tuấn Anh

Typography: Lan Anh Ng

Editor: Phúc Du

Published by: Du Bút

Graphic Designer/ Motion Designer/ Web builder: Quynh Than
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HOW IT ALL STARTED

Sói Ăn Chay, a renowned copywriter and self-disclaimed ‘paradox-lover’, spend the last 3 years observing and collecting the ironic truths he found from work and life. Some of them came directly from his personal experiences, some came spontaneous moments of from friends and family.

In early 2020, Sói Ăn Chay shared with us his initial draft of Ê có khi nào…?. The first draft consisted of 300 questions, all starts by “ê có khi nào…” (“hey, what if…”). Reading the first draft, I knew immediately that this was a gem that I could not turn down. The copy, though lengthy, was great and some of them would be viral among the young. However, the draft would need more polishing and we had to come up with a visual concept to accompany the text; to bring more values to the book as well as enhancing the copy that was strongly emphasised on daily paradox/irony.

Many versions of the script, including self-edited version by the author and the edited ones by the editor.

THE AUDIENCE

We spent 3 weeks researching the demography and narrow down our target audience. Since this book is among the first kind of its own in Vietnamese reading community, we build the persona based on our own experience as the mid-20s - 30s Millenials. It is notable that we also aim at the non-frequent readers because of any reasons, be it short on time or an uninterested in text-heavy books.

The potential reader of E co khi nao...? is:

THE UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION
The script itself is a great unique selling proposition, but that alone would not work. We need to invest more in the visual to make the book grabs the potential audience first, and then they can make the purchase decision on the spot.
Why people would buy Ê có khi nào...?:

THE THEME

The book should bear a story. In this case, we the designer and editor at Du But re-organise the draft to make a theme. It is not an easy job, for sure. What is the common between 300+ questions, each pokes different aspects, different targets and sometimes has many underlying meanings? Inspired by one sentence from the book: hey, what if children only ask why, but adults can only ask ‘hey, what if…'? , we chose the theme to be: unanswered questions from adulthood.

THE FLOW
Once we locked down the story, it was time to convey that story to the reader. It is impossible to categorise those 300 sentences by labels such as life, love, friendship, etc. We need to come up with a new flow. We asked ourselves questions like “how I would react as a reader?”, “what kind of feelings I want readers to feel at this point?” and noted down all moods and tones available. The next step is putting those feels in a logical order. Kudos to Phuc Du the editor for creating such a creative and relevant sorting method.

We sorted the content based on the idea of the circle of trust: what kind of questions you have no problem bringing up in small talks with strangers, friends, or those intimate thoughts that you keep to yourself at the end of the day.

We chose the flow of TIME, and in particular: A DAY IN A LIFE; to be a metaphor for organising method.

CONTRAST and PROGRESSIVE are other 2 keywords that we keep in mind while re-organising the content. We want the book to starts with light-hearted, easy to get questions so that within 5-10 pages of skimming, readers can get the idea of “Ê có khi nào…?” and make the purchase decision. It would end with more thoughtful, personal sentences that will linger in your minds days after.

THE CONCEPT & MOODBOARD

The idea is to make "Ê có khi nào...?" a one-of-a-kind designed pocketbook that one can easily carry anywhere or give it as a gift. It should reflect the contemporary of the content while remaining Vietnamese enough.

It is bold, brave, electric and energetic. It captures your attention the moment you lays your eyes on the cover or skimming through the first few pages. It is colourful, strong in contrast but not kitsch or cheesy. It evolves, progressing towards the end both in terms of content and visual. The graphic and the text are not two, but one unity that enhances and complements each other to give the best experience. It brings a new breath to book design and publishing industry in Viet Nam.

In some initial sketches and mockup, I played with collages and type. This was later changed as it is too stiff and formal for a fun, witty book as "Ê có khi nào...?"

However, some of them made it to the final version.

THE IDENTITY
I created a compact branding system that will be utilised not only with the book layout but also in all collateral materials.
CONTRAST and PROGRESSIVE are brought into consideration. I came up with a palette of 3 basic colours, slightly altered to get the greatest result in print production. A system of graphic elements, patterns and grid are implemented to maintain a strong consistency throughout the book.

TYPOGRAPHY
Việt typography community is growing rapidly in the last 3 years, and among the rising stars, I got my heart for Lan Anh Ng. Therefore, without a doubt, I contacted her to collaborate on "Ê có khi nào...?"

During 5 weeks, we work in 3 sprints to produce 15 typographic artworks. We learned from each other lot and I can confidently endorse Lan Anh to any design work in the future.

Sketches by Lan Anh Ng

ILLUSTRATION
I contacted Vũ Tuấn Anh to create illustrations for the book. We made a team of 3: I as the art director on style and colour choices, Phuc Du gave input from an editor perspective and Tuấn Anh gave his confirmation on the feasibility of the work.

The style chosen reflects both Tuấn Anh's sleek, modern style of illustration, yet at the same time brings elements of Vietnamese mundane details. Some illustrations were planned to give a second meaning to the copy.

THE AUGMENTED REALITY (AR)

Thought the making of the book went smoothly, its arrival to the public is not that smooth. We were delayed twice by COVIDE outbreak in Ho Chi Minh city. The first social-distance resulted in our printing production fall behind schedule. While staying at home for 14 days, I got this idea of making "Ê có khi nào...?" to be more than just a book.

I have always wanted to work on an AR project. Years come and go, and incidentally, amid this pandemic, I got back to my love with augmented reality. I experimented with one typographic page first, shared it with the team and got great reactions from people. Re-calculating our current resources and timing at that time, I contacted JoiKid – an AR/VR company based in HCMC – to ask for support with AR optimisation. We chose to take advantages of Facebook AR feature, with an assumption that most of our target readers will have the Facebook app installed on their phone.

The AR animation was design as a ‘nice-to-have’ feature and has a small impact on the book’s content. That is, if your phone is incapable of playing AR, you would not miss out on much of the book.

We are working on an alternative method so that all readers can enjoy the AR experiences, regardless of their phones’ model and OS.

THE RECEPTION

The book got over 400+ pre-orders before the release and sparks an “#ecokhinaochallenge”, in which readers came up with their questions/realisation of daily irony. Some made us hats off.
Almost 1000 copies are sold and the book stays in top #10 on Tiki Bookstore for 4 consecutive months since its launch.

THE BOOK

Read an excerpt of the book below or support us and the author by purchasing a copy (in Vietnamese only).
If you have bought a copy, please leave us a review below so that we can improve in the second edition of "Ê có khi nào...?".
Thank you very much for reaching this far, I hope you enjoy the process.

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