saigon viet nam deli

May Dinh is a Seattle-based visual Designer & Researcher with roots in Saigon, Vietnam.

ExperienceSeattle Design Festival, 2025-present
Planning Committee Member

pari passu, 2024-2025
Creator & Designer

Smeoow, 2021-2023
Artist Assistant

Depop, 2019-2020
Lead Campus Manager

Education Bachelor of Fine Arts in Design, 2024
Cornish College of the Arts
Seattle, WA

Saigon Viet Nam Deli

Academic
4 weeks

Visual Identity
Surface Design

This branding project refreshes an immigrant-owned business in Little Saigon, aligning it with the core values of modern consumers while staying visually distinguished from its competitors. The result is a post-modern celebration of the brand’s cross-cultural history.

Orient brand identity within context of Vietnamese design
Translate authentic charm for modernized style and assets
Facilitate a more intuitive customer ordering experience

Original

The deli's main feature is an outdated menuboard that lists their many offerings in two languages. this numbered list is straightforward yet feels overcrowded, uninviting, and lacks hierarchy.

My goal is to make the menu browsing experience easier by expanding on the pre-existing number system, yet preserving its anti-design attitude.

prior to sketching, I use an alignment chart of Vietnamese graphic design in order to identify the suitable styles.

alignment-based concept sketches

Rebrand

Reminiscing about the long hot days in Vietnam, I went on a typographic exploration. I focused on cursive handwriting and lotus symbols as inspiration for this project.

ITERATIONS OF “e” GLYPH

Exploration of lotus icon as a graphic element

Cursive monogram logo variations

handpainted sign and exterior billboards

restructured menu

laminated menu