Book Design + Visual Identity + Website + Film Titles
STUDIO LHOOQ led the design of this landmark publication exploring Vietnamese New Wave youth culture through rare archival images from New Wave artists, community members, fans, and record labels. The book is a much-needed record of photographs and ephemera that were nearly lost to time.
The result is a gorgeous book that is also a visual treasury, community archive, and an act of historic preservation. Our goal was to develop a visual langage that reflects the energy, complexity, and cultural depth of a generation shaped by displacement and reinvention. The result is a bold, emotionally resonant book that bridges design, memory, and identity.
About the Film
2024 World Premiere at Tribeca Film Festival (Documentary competition)
Special Jury Mention for Best New Documentary Director, Elizabeth Ai.
Mile-high hair. Synthesized sounds. Teenage rebellion. As Vietnamese refugees began new lives in the West in the wake of the US/Vietnam war, a generation of youth struggled to adjust on foreign soil. Many of these young people found a community and a new identity in New Wave music, a type of synth-pop called Euro Disco, that became enormously popular throughout the community.
About the Book
New Wave: Rebellion and Reinvention in the Vietnamese Diaspora by Elizabeth Ai celebrates the rebellion, reinvention, and rebirth of joy in this young generation in cultural limbo. Featuring essays from prominent Vietnamese scholars, critics, and stars, New Wave is a love letter to the first generation of Vietnamese punks and rebels who came of age in the 1980s. As the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon approaches in April 2025, it is more important than ever to highlight the voices of Vietnamese people.
