The Cobol Braindarin

Victo Ngai

This cover illustration is for the latest ComputerWorld magazine.The story: when the last Cobol programers retire, 50 years of business processes within the softwares they created may be lost. I was playing with the term “braindrain, and came up with the idea of a giant creature mourning over the lost of his precious programer blood from his third eye (the gateway to higher consciousness and knowledge). 
Initially, the editors were a bit concerned the image may be too bloody. Big thanks to AD April Montgomery who fought for the idea as she was insightful to know that my style would balance out the gore factors. We also decided a more robotic form would address the concern. Nothing beats working with someone who speaks the same visual language.
I love April’s layout and type treatment and am very happy with how the piece turned out.  
This is one of the projects that made me go -” I get paid to have this much fun? Life is pretty sweet!”
Happy Memorial long weekend guysss! 
Posted 5 days ago
159 notes

A Few Small Illos

Victo Ngai

Here are some small illos I did in between bigger projects, I had lots of fun with them and it’s quite refreshing to work with organic forms! 

“Tai-Chi, the moving meditation”, a half page for the St. Louis Magazine. Thanks AD Rachel Harris!

“Funny money”, a spot for a very interesting story about all the confusions and problems before U.S. currencies were united forBank Simple Blog. Thanks AD Mae Saslaw!

“Code for America”, a spot for Honolulu Magazine. “Code for America” is a new kind of public service which helps the governments of it’s partner cities work better with the power of web. Thanks AD Cody Kawamoto!

Posted 1 week ago
408 notes
Tagged: Victo Ngai, honolulu magazine, St Louis magaziine, Bank Simple, Illustration, .
Meltdown in Motherland for the NYT Victo Ngai I did this quickie (one day turn around) for the New York Times Op-Ed anxiety section the past Friday. The story is about postpartum anxiety/depression, you can read the story here. It was not the happiest story/image for the Mother’s day weekend, but I really wanted to give my mom a hug after I finished this piece. A big shout out to all the moms: thanks for everything, you are the best!  Many thanks to AD Alexandra Zsigmond!

Meltdown in Motherland for the NYT

Victo Ngai

I did this quickie (one day turn around) for the New York Times Op-Ed anxiety section the past Friday. The story is about postpartum anxiety/depression, you can read the story here. It was not the happiest story/image for the Mother’s day weekend, but I really wanted to give my mom a hug after I finished this piece. A big shout out to all the moms: thanks for everything, you are the best! 

Many thanks to AD Alexandra Zsigmond!

Posted 2 weeks ago
44 notes
Tagged: Victo Ngai, new york times, love mom, postpartum anxiety, illustration, .

My first sensual experience with the New Yorker

Victo Ngai


How often do one get to draw a full page sensual piece for the New Yorker magazine?I feel super luck-out being ask to illustrate this piece for the fiction “Sweet Dreams” by Peter Stamm. The story is about a young couple living together in Switzerland. This is the scene I was given to work on:

She went to the bathroom, filled the tub, and got undressed. The mirror misted over with condensation, and the smell of pine needles filled the air. She turned off the water, and the apartment suddenly seemed very quiet. Then she heard footsteps, and Simon’s voice through the half-open door. He said, I’ll just go downstairs for the bottle of wine. I thought you’d gone already, said Lara, and she poked her head through the crack, and he kissed her on the lips and tried to barge the door open, but she held it shut. They kissed again. See you soon, said Lara. It was odd, she still felt a little ashamed in front of him.

I had so much fun and I think this is one of my recent favorite works. Big big thanks to AD Jordan Awan and Chris Curry!!
Posted 3 weeks ago
4,883 notes
Tagged: New Yorker, Victo Ngai, Illustration, badonkadonk, naked lady, .

Selected into SPECTRUM 19!

Victo Ngai

Hey guys, I am so happy to find out these pieces are selected into the Latest Spectrum annual!! (Sorry i scratched my iphone camera so all the photos come out with halos now…) 

Posted 1 month ago
218 notes

T cell for The New Yorker

Victo Ngai

My first piece for the New Yorker magazine!! This image is for an article by Jerome Groopman about how T-cell from our immune system could be the game changer in fighting cancer.
The New Yorker has always been one of my dream client, I can’t possibly tell you how thrilled I was when AD Chris Curry gave me this assignment!! Thank you Chris!  
Posted 1 month ago
117 notes
Tagged: Victo Ngai, the New Yorker, Illustration, t-cell, .
Source: victongai

Tiger Hunter for Plansponsor
Victo Ngai

This piece is in the latest PLANSPONSOR April issue. It was originally a personal piece but I submitted it to AD SooJin after I finished. She liked it and found an article that fits with it. This is how AWESOME SooJin is!!  (I really like how the layout design carry the eyes from the image via arrows to the text!)

Incredible lineup of illustrators in this issue, including Sam Bosma, Dadu Shin, Nick Iluzada, Josh Cochran, Joohee Yoon, David Jien, Chris Silas Neal, Marc Rosenthal, Red Nose Studios…!

Thanks again to SooJin for being amazing!

Posted 1 month ago
262 notes
Tagged: Illustration, plansponsor, tiger, hunter, animals, floral, .
Source: victongai

Cover Art for the NYT Mutual Fund Quarterly

Victo Ngai

I was greatly honored to be asked to do the cover art for the latest New York Times mutual fund quarterly!! The stock market has been rising and rising, the art direction was to capture the shock and awe of an average investor. You are read the articles here (WARNING: BORING!).  Once again, it was a great pleasure working with AD Minh, who gives me insightful feedbacks and incredible creative freedom! 
Posted 1 month ago
253 notes
Tagged: Victo Ngai, new york times, redhead, .
Source: victongai
Crazy Eyes, New York Times. Victo Ngai I drew some crazy eyes for New York Times’s Sunday Technology page. The article is online now and will be in this Sunday’s paper. (March 18th). Many bifocal glasses wearers have to bob their heads up and down for the right focuses when looking at computer screens, a new type of lens is introduced to ease this strain. Due to time constrain, AD Minh and I started working on this piece before the article was written. So we only had a rough concept to work with. Minh liked what I did with the “The ghost of tax return” for the NYT a month back and suggested we could use a similar approach to show someone staring at the screen with their head bobbing up and down. I usually like to come up with my own ideas, but this time I found the idea suggested very fun and was happy to play along. It turned out to be a great collaboration, thanks Minh for all the insightful inputs! 

Crazy Eyes, New York Times.

Victo Ngai

I drew some crazy eyes for New York Times’s Sunday Technology page. The article is online now and will be in this Sunday’s paper. (March 18th). Many bifocal glasses wearers have to bob their heads up and down for the right focuses when looking at computer screens, a new type of lens is introduced to ease this strain.

Due to time constrain, AD Minh and I started working on this piece before the article was written. So we only had a rough concept to work with. Minh liked what I did with the “The ghost of tax return” for the NYT a month back and suggested we could use a similar approach to show someone staring at the screen with their head bobbing up and down. I usually like to come up with my own ideas, but this time I found the idea suggested very fun and was happy to play along. It turned out to be a great collaboration, thanks Minh for all the insightful inputs! 

Posted 2 months ago
1,839 notes
Tagged: Victo Ngai, new york times, Illustration, crazy eyes, .
Source: victongai
I did this portrait of Cees Dert for the latest aiCIO. Art direction from SooJin was “Amsterdam theme” and “having options”. Mr Dert once used different canals as an analogy for different investment choices, so I thought Amsterdam canals would be a good fit for this piece in many ways.  (Also I just really like to draw buildings…)  This issue of aiCIO is filled with ABSOLUTELY amazing illustrations from a all-stars line up- cover by Brad Holland , interiors by Julianna Brion, Chris Buzelli, Sam Wolfe Connelly, Bill Mayer, Chriz Nielsen, Dadu Shin and Jing Wei. ( I KNOW, RIGHT?) You can’t not check it out. Thank you SooJin again for the great work!

I did this portrait of Cees Dert for the latest aiCIO. Art direction from SooJin was “Amsterdam theme” and “having options”. Mr Dert once used different canals as an analogy for different investment choices, so I thought Amsterdam canals would be a good fit for this piece in many ways.  (Also I just really like to draw buildings…) 

This issue of aiCIO is filled with ABSOLUTELY amazing illustrations from a all-stars line up- cover by Brad Holland , interiors by Julianna Brion, Chris Buzelli, Sam Wolfe Connelly, Bill Mayer, Chriz Nielsen, Dadu Shin and Jing Wei. ( I KNOW, RIGHT?) You can’t not check it out. Thank you SooJin again for the great work!

Posted 3 months ago
1,655 notes
Source: victongai