King of the Blogosphere
Montrealer François Hoang becomes digital art royalty
Updated on Oct. 23
Every morning at 7:00 a.m., François Hoang wakes up, checks his email, gets dressed and—without coffee—sits down at his home office. Then he makes sure that the blog he edits is still running smoothly. With between 100,000 and 200,000 views a day, it’s a pretty important thing to do.
About three months ago, Hoang got a call from digital art legend Fabio Sasso asking him to take over Sasso’s site, Abduzeedo.com. Hoang had been a regular contributor for the design and art blog, and was a friend of the editor’s. But Sasso was moving on to Google, and wanted to make sure it passed into capable hands.
“When this opportunity came up, I couldn’t say no,” Hoang said. “In my mind, if Fabio [Sasso] calls you up and asks you to be the editor of Abduzeedo, you can’t say no. Would you say no?”
The blog has writers from Brazil to Germany and features tutorials, inspirations, and free fonts. Conceived in 2006, Abduzeedo is widely considered to be the first of its kind, although Hoang says the site only really took off in 2008. Now, they’re getting up to 10 million hits a month, and hundreds of emails per day.
The site inevitably crashes 5-6 times a month, Hoang said. But considering how heavy the traffic is, that’s actually impressively rare.
Still, most people outside the digital art community have never heard of the blog. Hoang’s dad, a painter, is among them. “He’s like, ‘What’s a blog?’” Hoang said. “I just tell him to compare Abduzeedo’s [importance] to Tiësto in the trance world.”
Hoang isn’t the only Canadian digital artist getting noticed these days. James White, another regular Abduzeedo contributor, is a Halifax local whose studio Signal Noise is also generating a lot of buzz.
In 2006, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization named Montreal an International City of Design along with only two other cities, Berlin and Buenos Aires.
“[Canadians] have this huge art community,” Hoang said. “If you look at our magazines and newspapers, you know that our designers are super talented,” he said.
But this rush into the online spotlight is something pretty new—and kind of overwhelming—for Hoang. Growing up, he never really considered pursuing art. “I wanted to be a SWAT guy,” he said.
“Then my uncle asked for a business card, and I downloaded the 30 day trial of Adobe, taught myself Photoshop and Illustrator and thought, ‘Wow.’”
After that, he realized that he wanted to be a graphic designer. He went to Concordia’s continuing education program and worked towards a degree in design, just to see if he had what it took. Turns out he did.
“I had this teacher there, and after class I showed him my portfolio,” Hoang said.
“He said to me ‘What the fuck are you doing here? I don’t see the point of you being here.’” The professor told him that school was a waste of his time, and someone as talented as he was could go straight into the industry. He finished the session with a 92 average.
After a few years in the industry, he eventually started his own freelance firm, Aoiro Studios. Through the firm, he offers everything from illustrations to web design to photography.
“Whenever I find a client, I say yes to everything,” he said. “Even if I can’t do it, I find a way to do it.”
Starting the studio was a big struggle, he said, but through word of mouth he managed to build it up into something that could support him. When he finds time, he said he’d add a section on tips for new designers and freelancers.
He runs the studio on top of Abduzeedo, a schedule that doesn’t leave him with a lot of free time. He still loves it and says he could never be sick of design, but it’s not something he’ll be doing forever. Hoang hopes to pass on the reins of the blog, which he refers to as his “second girlfriend,” within five years.
With or without him, though, he’s not worried about the future of Abduzeedo. He thinks interest in the blog, and other blogs like it, is only going to grow. “I see Abduzeedo taking on a whole new level within the next five years,” he said. “Abduzeedo is a new lifestyle.”
This article originally appeared in Volume 32, Issue 08., published October 18, 2011.
