Tan Le / WONGDOODY / Seattle, WA
CONTRIBUTES TO SPEAK UP

Tan Le is a designer who loves bacon. His “love” list starts with his family, then his sports car, his Vespa, his plasma HDTV, bacon, then, last but not least—his love for design. But sixth place is still pretty high it seems. He’s currently a creative director at an agency called WONGDOODY, an award-winning agency with a semi-inappropriate name. The agency was a notable ad agency for 12 years — then Tan came and built an entirely new design division from a couple of interns, a few unwanted desks, some foam-core, and five cans of Super77. Fast forward a few years, Tan’s design team now does work for clients such as T-Mobile, Alaska Airlines, and many other companies with lots of money. Previous to WONGDOODY, Tan was CD at Young and Rubicam brands, a CD at Landor Associates, and was co-founder of a small, but beloved little studio called Grip. On the side, he was president of the Seattle chapter of AIGA for a few years, and teaches at a few local design programs, including the overpriced, local Art Institute — where he relishes the challenge of teaching students who think the 90s is “retro.” This is Tan’s second tour of duty at SpeakUp. Tan was an avid Speak Up author from about 2001 to 2005, then for some reason, disappeared without even a note to say goodbye. The bastard. But he’s now back, with renewed energy, new stories, and a few more pounds around the middle that he’s “working” on.

Wait…Hawaii should be somewhere on the “love” list ahead of design. Maybe fourth. So design drops one down to seventh place.



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