Today we’d like to introduce you to Victor Fong.
Hi Victor, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
To take it all the way back… I grew up in Hong Kong until my family moved to the US when I was ten. I used to draw a lot when I was a kid. A lot of them were inspired by popular cartoons and animes at the time, like I would design my own vehicles based on the animated series M.A.S.K., Mobile Armored Strike Kommand (not the guy with the green head), or draw Goku from Dragon Ball. Actually, a lot of Goku. Even though I grew up in a pretty traditional Chinese family in which school and grades were important, my parents never pressured me into any profession or career paths, like engineer or doctor. I continued my interest in art all through middle school and high school through my subject would change from cartoons to basketball, Michael Jordan and the Bulls and Michigan’s Fab Five. But all that would stop once I got to college.
While in high school, I also started taking accounting classes and excelling in it. And I was convinced by my aptitude and class success that accounting was going to be my career. With that safe and secure path in mind, I attended the University of Michigan (following the aforementioned Fab Five, a dream come true for me at the time) and graduated with a bachelor’s in business and a master’s in accounting. I was so focused on that path that I completely abandoned my childhood love of the arts and design.
After graduating, I started my accounting career as a junior accountant at an aluminum company. (Sounds exciting, doesn’t it?) While there, I would pass the CPA exam and become a certified public accountant. And though that was a good accomplishment, I felt quite bored and unfulfilled, looking at spreadsheets all day and moving and checking numbers from one table to another. The career that I thought I wanted wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be. And it didn’t help that I witnessed layoffs at my very first job either. I was lucky to not have been laid off (I guess that’s the safe and secure draw of accounting), but that really changes your perspective on being an employee. I would move from one accounting job to another numerous times over the next 4-5 years, hoping it would get better. But it didn’t and life just felt meaningless. I was looking into the future and couldn’t imagine doing that for 30 more years until I retired. What would have been the point?
So… I quit accounting and went back to school for design. I started taking design courses at a community college. And immediately fell (back) in love with art and design. I remember spending an entire weekend on the first assignment of designing a poster, completely lost myself in designing and felt happy and excited to do the assignment. After a few more courses and building up my portfolio, I enrolled in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago full-time to study graphic design.
After two years of art school, I started interning at a financial company as a graphic designer and worked my way to a full-time position. During that time, I was highly involved in the design community in Chicago, attending and helping at many design events and programs. That involvement sparked my passion project called Creative Pulse Chicago, which was a website I designed and coded that curated a calendar of design events around Chicago. And that directly led me to a job at a boutique design agency where I was hired to be a Designer/Developer. It was such a great experience working there. I got to work with other creative people who are passionate about designs and I was able to take part in all different types of projects from packaging design to print design to website and app design. After about two years there, I left and joined NBC as a Senior UX/UI Designer. That’s when I made the move to LA. I loved Chicago, but after 11 years there, I was ready for a change.
LA was such a refreshing change. Besides the obvious weather difference, LA just has a different energy, creative and optimistic energy that one can feel. Working at NBC with the UX team there was great too. I was getting deeper into the specialty of UX and working on bigger projects. Compared to how I felt bored and unfulfilled in accounting, now I was working on apps and websites that would be used and seen by millions. I became a part of both tech and entertainment industries in the process.
After working at NBC, I moved back home in the DC area, where I would meet my wife, and onto my current position of Senior UX/UI Designer with what then was a start-up, and became a publicly-traded company last year, CuriosityStream. I have the same title as my previous position at NBC, but it definitely has a different set of challenges from being a part of a young company in trying to establish and grow our brand.
But I missed LA too much and moved back to LA with my wife last July as my position allows me to work remotely. Looking forward to enjoying LA again.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I would say overall, it has been smooth. There were certainly a few bumps or even detours to get to where I am today, notably, switching careers. I was excited for the switch, but it wasn’t an easy decision or process. Very few people supported my decision, including my family who understandably were looking out for my security. Financially, I gave up a decent paying job/career and had to take out more student loans for school. I had to live like a college student again, moving in with new roommates. But those were all temporary bumps. It was all worth it in the long run.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My official job is UX/UI designer, specializing in mobile and tv experiences as I have been in the tv/streaming industry for about six years now. But my passion for designs have led me to dabble in other areas, such as packaging designs, industrial designs, illustrations, and web developments.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
Podcasts: Planet Money
The Big Picture
Marvel’s Declassified
Books:
Shoe Dog
Invested
The TB12 Method
Start with Why
Outliers
Fab Five
Blogs:
medium.theuxblog.com
spotify.desgn
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: victorfong.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vfo5/
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/v.eye.see/
Image Credits:
Eve Rox Photography
