Tuan is my family name, I go by Nini. I grew up in Subang Jaya, Malaysia and I work as a freelance illustrator after completing my fine arts degree in painting at the National University of Fine Arts Bucharest in Romania in 2011. I make illustrations, comics and animation. 

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Working with advertising agencies, production companies and publishing houses, I create works that appear in books and magazines, restaurant menus and bar murals, billboards and tv spots. Some of my clients include Conde Nast, Time Inc, T-Mobile, Heineken, UNDP Asia, Singapore Airlines, National University of Singapore, BRD Groupe Societe Generale, New Naratif, and Bon Appétit. I illustrated "Dear Brother", a middle-grade graphic novelish written by Alison McGhee, published by Simon & Schuster U.S. in August 2023, which won gold-selection award by Junior Library Guild, and is featured in the Society of Illustator's OA exhibition in New York, featuring the best children's books in 2022-2023.

 

I especially love to inject a human, down-to-earth and humorous quality into my work. I am especially interested in visual storytelling in narrative projects, and I love finding opportunities for subtext or that "aha!" when text and image complete each other.

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I speak English, Malay, Romanian, and am at N2 level with  Japanese language. In my free time, I love learning more about animation, reading about nature, writing and other creative pursuits, painting plein-air on travels, playing the piano and joining contemporary dance/contact improvisation dance jams. My favourite films are My Neighbors The Yamadas, Tokyo Godfathers, and Ernest et Celestine, that I cannot replay enough. I reside in Bucharest, Romania and is a very happy cat mum.