Bored Panda reached out to Pham Minh Hoàng to find out more about the creative series of illustrations “Catphabet”. First, we wanted to know more about his artistic background. We asked how art came into his life and found out that: “My studying field in university was actually marketing. However, after 4 months of internship, I recognized that I did not get along well with numbers and strategy kind of things. I was more drawn to visuals, shapes, colors… so I started over by signing up for a course in graphic design, and that led me to the connections with art.” The artist has also mentioned that “I’m a self-taught artist. I mostly study from my co-workers and the internet.”
Next, we wanted to know how Pham Minh Hoàng came up with this typography series featuring cats. He told us: “The idea actually came from the daily life with my 2 cats. They will mess up my whole workplace every time I try to focus on my job. It’s annoying, to be honest, but then I realize the flexibility in their body when they play with my stuff can create unexpected shapes. ‘Haha you silly cat, you look like the letter A lying like that... Wait… So maybe you can resemble other letters too, let me try that?’”
The artist continued: “I am a huge cat lover. I watched and played with my 2 cats every day to explore their gestures, behaviors, emotions, and pretty much anything that can spark a visual connection to a letter.”
We were wondering if Pham Minh Hoàng expected “Catphabet” to turn out this successful and for so many people to love it. The artist shared with us: “I did know that it would please some of my social media friends who also have a big love for pets, but I did not expect it to reach such a large community like Bored Panda.”
Asked if there is any upcoming project he would like to share more details about with us, Pham Minh Hoàng said: “I am not in the process of any new project right now because I am focusing on my art class until the end of this year.”
Lastly, we were curious if there is anything else Pham Minh Hoàng would like to share with the Bored Panda community, and the artist told us: “I think of art as a language to communicate, and to be shared, sometimes it’s thought-triggering, sometimes it’s just pure fun, but either way, it’s the simple and daily things that work best for me.”
