“Inspiring the youth and talking to these young, new influencers, they are the future. It means everything. The spirit of what we are talking about today — visionary leadership — is about thinking ahead and activating the youth to do something meaningful to them.”
That was Rich Tu’s immediate response when we asked about the importance of mentoring and sharing one’s knowledge with the rest of the community, particularly the next generation who may be looking for role models.
That is Rich in a nutshell, specially if we consider the industry he belongs to.
Currently the VP of Design at MTV, Rich worked extra hard to be where he is today. It was not an easy path, and he knew that getting in, which makes him appreciate more the achievements he has amassed so far.
“It took a lot of hard work, time, conscious effort to get to where I am right now, specially with my history with a lot of different big brands like Nike and MTV,” he shared. “It was (about) consistency and knowing how to manage my time and knowing what I wanted, and a lot of times, knowing when to push and when to lean back and let something happen and when to actively seek a thing.”
It was about finding a border and pushing past that border.
Memories that define his career trajectory are forever seared in his mind. Like getting published for the first time in the New York Times, for example.
For his aesthetic style, he considers Steven Heller as one of his biggest influences. Heller was also the one who gave Tu his first professional illustration work at New York Times in 2006.
“The first time it happened, it was a life-changing moment, you feel you’ve made it and everyone’s going to see it. My parents are proud of me, I am doing good…and then you realize, cool, it is over. On to the next thing,” he said.
In 2010, Rich received the elusive “Young Guns” award from the Art Directors Club, one of the most coveted awards for young creatives (30 years and below) around the globe. The field includes young talent in the fields of graphic design, illustration, advertising and art direction, environmental design, film, animation & video, interactive design, product design and typography.
At MTV, Rich was part of the team that rebooted and rebranded TRL or Total Request Live, a fixture on MTV that lorded over the airwaves in the late 90s and early 2000s. From logos to animation to mobile and social media, a design system was built from the ground up to make sure that the return of TRL would be fun and meaningful.
In this career, Rich said that he sees himself constantly walking up that mountain, and once he falls off that cliff, he stands up and climbs that mountain again.
That is how he remains at the top of his game.
Rich, who describes himself as a “pop culture nerd” was born and raised in South Orange, New Jersey. He went to undergraduate school at Rutgers where he started in communications and psychology. When he left, he wanted to do something more specific within the creative field.
He then went to night school at the School of Visual Arts for about two to three years and graduated from the school’s prestigious Illustration as Visual Essay program.
“School never stopped and I was living in New Jersey and I would be a substitute teacher or work in the mall during the day in an effort to achieve the goal,” he shared.
He took illustration, design and advertising classes with the purpose of knowing what he wanted to do at the end of the day. He then built a portfolio and in 2006, the hard work paid off and he got published in the New York Times.
Prior to his current work at MTV, Rich worked at Nike.
Before Nike, he was doing freelance work for a couple of years. Then the call from Nike came and he found himself moving from New York to Portland.
Working at Nike was yet another dream come true for this self-confessed sneakerhead who still remembers his first pair of Nikes (Air Force 1 lows, canvas black/white) bought in Livingston Mall when he was in Grade 7.
It took a lot of time and effort for him to be where he is now at this point in his career and he is thankful to his parents and family for the full support.
“My parents were very supportive, and no one prevented me from stopping the mindset (I had) and as I hit certain milestones, it just empowered me and my support circle to keep pushing me. I was very fortunate that way. Everyone was always in my corner,” Rich said.
Talking about “The Art of the Pivot” at the inaugural TFCU Talks in NYC, Rich also mentioned about how he is hoping to empower the younger generation this early in the game.
“Being Filipino is about being the other and also right now, I care very much about brown pride and being someone who can help empower those who feel different and I think right now, with the first generation immigrant mindset,” he said.
“We are living in a world where this country doesn’t necessarily want us so I care about toughening up the youth and young Filipinos to get them ready for what the world is going to show them, and to show them that they can achieve something really meaningful and to not let the world get them down.”
The bottomline is that conversations must happen in order to learn, not just from the mentors who have been there but also from each other because both camps are coming from different perspectives.
“No matter what is happening right now, with the greater conversation in politics, we have more power now than we’ve ever had. We are part of the future,” he said.
Rich’s parents – his dad is from Pampanga, mom from Manila – came from the
Philippines in the 1960s when they were in their 20s. Both of them are now retired taking care of their grandchildren.
Through his career, Rich has exhibited at galleries and festivals in New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, as well as the SCOPE Miami festival, during Miami’s Art Basel week. Commercially, his clients include The New York Times, The New Yorker, Business Week, Alfa Romeo, Bombay Sapphire, G-Shock, Nike, Converse, American Express, NPR, NorthFace Purple Label, Coca-Cola, Verizon, Skype, Fuse TV, and Hamilton The Musical, among others.
