PARTNER/EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR
SUNDAY AFTERNOON, NEW YORK NY
Rich Tu is a first generation Filipino-American and award-winning designer and artist residing in Brooklyn, NY. He is a Partner and Executive Creative Director at Sunday Afternoon. Previously, Rich has held creative leadership roles at Jones Knowles Ritchie, MTV Entertainment Group, and Nike Inc.
In addition, he hosts the Webby-honoree podcast “First Generation Burden”, which focuses on intersectionality and diversity within the creative industry, and is co-founder with The One Club for Creativity of the COLORFUL grant program, dedicated to creating opportunities for early career BIPOC creatives.
Rich is a graduate of SVA’s Illustration as Visual Essay MFA program. He has previously won the ADC Young Guns award and recently received the prestigious Paul Manship Medallion for significant contributions to the Art Directors Club and creative industry. Creatively, his focus is on emerging audiences and energetic brands that benefit from an eclectic and unique point of view.
Awards and honors include: ADC Annual Awards, D&AD, Webby Awards, Telly Awards, CLIOs, Cynopsis D Awards, PromaxBDA, The Shorty Awards, Power of Purpose Award, New York Festivals, ADC Young Guns, PRINT Magazine, American Photography, American Illustration, and The Society of Illustrators among others.
Clients and collaborators include: The New York Times, The New Yorker, MINI, NIKE, A24, Budweiser, Paramount, Adidas, Converse, G-Shock, American Express, NPR, NorthFace Purple Label, Coca-Cola, Verizon, Skype, Fuse TV, Alfa Romeo, Bombay Sapphire, and Hamilton The Musical, among others. Also, he has exhibited at galleries and festivals in New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, and Miami.of design, the strength of strategy and a desire to be exceptional.
As we pivot into a post-pandemic era marked by societal challenge and change, are you optimistic about the future of Graphic Design in supporting and shaping commerce, culture and causes? Are you optimistic about the future of your own design career or business?
I’m definitely optimistic about Graphic Design’s ability to create change. When we look back on history, visual culture has been shaped by images that communicate with intent. The challenge is when the creative community places the practice of design above the communication itself, and the output loses purpose, and therefore becomes ephemeral (which I’m cool with).
I’m always shifting and pulling myself in unexplored directions in my own career. Design has given me a platform to present my ideas, whether the output is design-based or not. At the end of the day, my goal is tocommunicate, and to do so with impact. As long as there are creative problems to solve in the world, I know there will be a place for me.
