Fresh off the success of Washington, DC-based Rebel Heroes, a widely acclaimed mobile food-service venture, co-owner/operator Tan Nguyen brings her entrepreneurial experience, creative expertise and marketing prowess to Tan Dan Design, a boutique agency geared for small businesses.
Under Nguyen’s leadership, Rebel Heroes quickly rose to prominence in the hot culinary niche of gourmet food trucks — no easy feat in the high-profile food scene of Washington, DC. But strategic branding, high-impact creative, and social media savvy transformed this small business into a media darling. With coverage by NPR, The Washington Post, Washingtonian Magazine, and City Paper, among others, Rebel Heroes’ innovative approach to mobile cuisine was on everyone’s lips (literally) and garnered legions of followers in the area and beyond.
The entrepreneur and creative pro has an innate passion for technology and strategic creative that goes back to her early days as a young 17-year-old designer for a local newsletter. At that time, she used an Apple IIc for layouts and surfing the pre-WWW internet (using a BBS — remember those?). Years later, these skills would prove quite handy: Nguyen designed her own promotional materials for her series of underground nightlife events in Japan, where she was studying abroad. The venture was a huge success, and revived the club’s formerly failing business.
After returning home to complete her BA at The George Washington University, she reflected on her time abroad: “The experience was unbelievable. When I first arrived at Narita Airport, I’d only had a year of college Japanese. I could ask where the bathroom was, and that was it.” A year later, she left Japan an up-and-coming designer and seasoned promoter with a rolodex of local contacts and a track record of success.
Nguyen’s knack for distinguishing herself and her projects was quickly noticed by J. Walter Thompson Advertising Worldwide (now JWT). Her design skills and talents catapulted her from creative assistant to art director within a few short months. In addition to working on high-profile accounts, such as The US Marines, Freddie Mac, White Castle and others, she honed her craft at Parsons School of Design, graduating in 2002.
Like so many others who lived in New York City in 2001, her life and career path changed after September 11th. She wanted to return to her entrepreneurial roots and engage in meaningful, hands-on creative work. She knew that her personal experience as a business owner and professional background servicing large clients could greatly help other entrepreneurs, so she began working with independent clients looking to compete against “the big boys.” Nguyen’s results-oriented approaches spanned high-impact creative and striking brand identities, to all-in-one solutions for operations, marketing and web design.
In 2003 she took a brief sabbatical to Stockholm, Sweden, where she finished up a documentary project about female DJ’s and studied Swedish design. Mission accomplished, she returned to the States and optimized an established family-run print production facility, working with its digital print production department, in downtown New York. Within six months, she tripled sales for the department by implementing an online ordering system, and transforming the website into a dynamic and productive entity that handled the department’s workflow.
Not one to rest on her laurels, the creative entrepreneur also explored other social and promotional projects. In addition to her “day job”, she masterminded a one-act playwriting competition (or “slam”) called PlayOffs — a theatrical production that drew sold out crowds in its first season at Bowery Poetry Club. She also founded Hot Pot Brooklyn, a social-networking and collaborative community for musicians, artists, consultants, IT, writers, actors, and others, who utilized their common resources to build a stronger creative community.
Though Nguyen’s journey has been global and spans diverse networks and fields — from food, music, and the performing arts to corporate branding and small business operations — the common threads have always been the same: passion, creativity and a commitment to action that produces highly effective results.
