A few days ago, we took you on a tour through the secret designer community of idzr and even though the site remains out of bounds for many of you, the screenshots managed to colour you impressed. Not wanting to stop at that, we bring you the Artist Profile of Na Wong, the brilliance behind idzr.
Na is a 28-year-old from Hong Kong, who, surprisingly enough, hasn’t had any formal training in design. His journey begins back in 2000, when he applied for a job as a clerk. Having seen some of his websites, the company hired him as a graphic designer instead, wherein began the journey of one of the most well known designers in the industry today.
Having conversed with him, I’m told that he never thought he had what it takes to be a designer. He chuckles when he thinks of how he dreamed of working as a designer, but didn’t realize he could be one. After having worked at different companies as a graphic designer, Na finally decided to pursue a higher diploma course at the university.
Na had his first brush with icon design around 2007, when, after purchasing his first Mac, he discovered Macthemes. Being a part of community, he was able to come across some brilliant icon artists, which, he says, “made him learn the taste of Mac icons.”
After Na created his first icon, the Cyberduck replacement icon pictured above, offers started flowing in and he went on to make some of the most amazing icons for Mac apps, including the original EventBox icon and Dropzone.
Na’s excellence is not just limited to icon design, though as we’ve all seen the goodness with idzr already. Na also has a little bookmarklet for Flickr that fetches the Flickr short URL of any photo page.
Na currently works full-time on Interface designs and Icons at Sourcebits, pushing pixels on his 24” iMac, a Magic mouse, a Muji ball pen and sketch book. Na’s portfolio is available on his website and some of his work can also be seen on his Flickr stream. Na also blogs on Tumblr and seems to be deep into that twitter thing.